Francis Mackay
Our speaker started by posing the
question “Why have reserve forces ?” and went on to explain the necessity of
having a reserve which could be called upon in an emergency when the complement
of regular forces could not take the sudden extra strain.
On the 1st April 1918 when the Royal
Air Force was formed Lord Trenchard was its first Chief of the Air Staff (CAS).
Over the next ten years he presided over the fortunes of the Royal Air Force .
His initiative led to the formation of the Auxiliary Air Force in 1925;
later to become the Royal Auxilairy Air Force and he introduced the
concept of University Air Squadrons.
. Initially the R,Aux.A.F. was
limited to a cadre of pilots and essential ground staff for a handful of
squadrons.
The subsequential build up of the
Royal Air Force in the mid-thirties saw a massive building of facilities
and an increase in staff so that the associated rise in the Auxiliaries saw them
with 20 Squadrons and 47 Balloon units. These flying Squadrons were available
for the Battle of Britain whilst the Balloon Units formed the backbone of
the balloon defence of essential industrial targets as well as being
involved in the provision of facilities for the training of the first
paratroopers.
The talk moved onto the Royal Air
Force Volunteer Reserves established on 30th July 1936, which had 60,000
volunteers by 1939. It is many years since I heard the difference explained so
neatly. The Auxiliaries went to war by cohesive units whilst the Volunteers go
to war as individuals.
The background having been laid in a
scholarly fashion we then changed tack to a more personal tale of how Francis
had started working as an Air Cadet on an airfield for which he was paid. Then
he joined the Army working his way through the SAS to Intelligence or through
Intelligence to the SAS.
All of this was no more than a long
way around joining the R.A.F. Once again. By this time he had become a kent
character with his own specialisation which was called upon through Bosnia and
the Gulf War.
This was a particularly interesting
talk with hilarious asides but also a fascinating insight behind the scenes of
more recent times.
I believe we may well have another
new recruit for our ranks !
