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October was to be a busy month; ‘A’ flight of 1701 Squadron
disembarked from HMS Vengeance on October 3rd , a detachment of 1846
squadron disembarked from HMS Colossus on October 12th. These were
joined by a further 24 Corsair IVs of 1850 squadron which
disembarked from HMS Vengeance on the 14th. A detachment of 6
aircraft from 827 squadron arrived from HMS Colossus on the 15th,
they departed for RNAS Katakurunda on the 18th. October 18th
also saw 1846 re-embark in HMS Colossus and the detachment in from
1851 returned to HMS Venerable.
1701 squadron Headquarters flight arrived to become a resident unit
at Jai Tak on November 1st, absorbing ‘A’ flight. They were joined
by ‘B’ flight disembarking form HMS Stalker on the 16th.
December 20th 1850 squadron re-embarked in HMS Vengeance.
December 21st saw 1850 squadron re-embarked in HMS Vengeance after
reducing its strength to 12 a/c.
721 FRU disembarked from HMS Speaker on January 11th to become the
stations resident Fleet Requirements Unit.
A particularly severe typhoon caused widespread havoc in July 1946,
damaging five R.A.F Dakotas, one of which was blown twenty yards
away, and two visiting Sunderlands.
MONAB VIII ceased to be an independent command on August 27th 1946,
the MONAB remaining in place but with accounts held in HMS Tamar,
the local naval base; the unit becoming HMS Nabcatcher R.N. air
section Kai Tak.
October 1st saw the arrival of 837 Sqdn, disembarking 24 Firefly
from HMS Glory, they were to remain at Kai Tak until November 4th
when they rejoined Glory.
Command of H.M.S. Nabcatcher appears to have passed to CDR (A) W.H.N.
Martin on November 9th 1946.
19837 Sqdn, again disembarked from HMS Glory with 24 Firefly on
December 19th , they were to stay until February 14th 1947 before
re-embarking in Glory..
HMS Nabcatcher paid off on April 1st 1947,the Royal Naval Air
Section at Kai Tak re-commissioning the same day as HMS Flycatcher,
the name formerly belonging to the MONAB formation station in the
UK. Control remained with HMS Tamar. HMS Flycatcher paid off on
December 31st 1947; the RN Air Section facilities at Kai Tak Airport
were reduced to a ‘care & Maintenance’ basis at 18 months notice to
reopen. This option was never taken up.
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A rating guards a POW working party repairing the perimeter fence
while local Chinese pass by on the boundary road.
Remembering
Kai Tak;
"There
were still large numbers of Japanese prisoners of war in Hong Kong, and we
were allocated working parties as needed for road making (it was the rainy
season, and we became bogged down in mud), and erecting stone buildings such
as an armoury, guardroom, transport sections etc. Local buildings were
requisitioned as NAAFI canteen. The amount of stores on the airfield was
most attractive to Chinese who were trying to support families in destitute
conditions.
We wired in our part of the airfield with barbed wire, but the ends were
open and the RAF did not wire their part at all. So gangs of armed Chinese
broke in at night and battles took place with our night guard of a double
platoon. The Chinese retaliated by sniping at our sentries by day, and we
had to use strong methods to make the airfield safe, including searching
surrounding villages with armed parties."
Commander
A.W.F. Sutton
Executive officer
MONAB
VIII
All
images available in the photo
galleries
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