450 O.T.U. and R.S.U.

OPERATIONAL TRAINING UNIT [O.T.U.]

'The bits and pieces headed for Rayak, Syria. From El Bassa and Beirut and Amman they arrived. You can imagine HQ wondering what on earth to do with this headless body. 

For three weeks they were given the job of sorting and cataloguing captured French equipment, finally handing it to the Free French Stores at Rayak. Then 12 Hurricane MK 1s arrived with two Magisters and 20 pilots, for OTU training. Of the twenty, most were Australian with Canadian and English making the balance. 

To train them, 450 had acquired two Flight Commanders, FL Rose and FL Marford, both from Australia. With them came FO R.L.V. Ross as Defence Officer; FO Walker, assistant Adjutant and FO Nicholls of the R.A.F. as Engineer Officer. 

The date is the first of October 1941. Timber was acquired about this time.

Two weeks was an OTU—and the OTU was disbanded. The pilots went to Aqir, 450 Squadron went to Berg el Arab—by special train thru Damascus, Haifa etc., arriving at the dusty Berg five days later, still a squadron skeleton. 

REPAIR AND SALVAGE UNIT [R.S.U.]

FO Matthews, Equipment, was then sent off with permission to draw required material from all the Delta M.U.s. When he came back, 450 was equipped as an Advanced Repair Depot for all British and American Aircraft, and General Ritchie’s November (41) push was under way. 

Through sand-storms such as only Berg-el-Arab produces, 450 boys slaved over clapped out engines, the only cover being a Belman hangar or the beautiful sunlit sky. 450 received official compliments on its steadfast work in this capacity, despite trying conditions. Squadron Leader Steege, the C.O., was sent to 107 M.U., Kasfarett, with one crew to make the initial tests on Kittyhawks in the Middle East. Had this typewriter been fitted with italics, they should have been used on that first sentence. 

On the 8th of December 40 SAAF squadron took over the Repair unit and 450 moved to Y Landing ground Qassassin, near Abu Sueir, all technical ground-staff being sent to Number One School for Tech. Training on American Aircraft.'