RESEARCHING YOUR FAMILY HISTORY: |
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| Tips
for Researching 3 Squadron Personnel and Operational
Records Click the link above to see our recommended sources for online research into 3 Squadron personnel details, photos and stories. Includes instructions for searching the collections of the National Archives of Australia and the Australian War Memorial. |
| ADF
Serials This useful website lists almost every aircraft that has ever served with the Australian Defence Forces. To see a list of their many pages referring to 3 Squadron's aircraft, Click Here to search for the string "3 Sqn". |
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| Current
Photo Database: Air
Force Images (Search for example: "F-35".)
Current Air Force News Past editions of Air
Force News are currently being digitised and
progressively added to the National Library TROVE
newspaper database, making available a wealth of RAAF
historical detail for researchers. An excellent range of free contemporary
RAAF publications is available from the
Airpower
Development Centre. |
| The
Official RAAF Website News, Current Organisation; Bases; Aircraft; History and many other features. |
| Air
Force Association NSW - Website featuring News and
Welfare Advice for RAAF Veterans and Families. |
| RAAF
Fighter Squadron Associations Links to all RAAF Fighter Squadron homepages. |
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| Australian
Film and Sound Archive - An
interesting web-page with
film-clips of 3 Squadron AFC.
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The
Red Baron's funeral can be viewed online in an
annotated silent film. (Groundcrew from 3rd
Squadron AFC supplied the firing party, as can be seen
from the triangular colour-patches on their shoulders.) |
| The
First World War 1914 - 1918 A clear and interesting overview of World War I by Rene Brouwer. |
| Australian
Flying Corps Cam Riley's magnificent site covering all aspects of the AFC in World War I. His 3AFC page features stories and illustrations of the Squadron's time on the Western Front. Cam's artwork is outstanding. (One 3AFC RE8, "A4349", logged more combat hours than any other Allied aircraft on the Front!) There are also rare original WW1 colour photos to add to a very interesting package. |
| "The RE8 Controversy
Revisited" - One of the
excellent research articles available online from the Society of WW1 Aero Historians. (Membership of this Sydney-based - but globally interconnected - group is strongly recommended to anyone with a WW1 research interest. Their $30 annual membership fee provides unlimited online access to decades of research embodied in their journal articles. ) Members of the public are also able to
freely access their |
| Constructing
an RE-8 Colour photos of the various skilled processes required to craft this surprisingly intricate machine. - Built for the impressive (in fact world-class!) Omaka WWI Air Museum at Blenheim in New Zealand. |
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A WWI Flight
Simulator for home computers called 'Rise of Flight'
features a detailed map of the Western
Front. There is the option to play as the AFC and
the RE8 is available, so there may be scope to re-create
some 3SQN operations! The basic game is free
to play, but only includes one Allied and one German
aircraft. Further aircraft and features are
available to purchase and download as desired. |
| The
OFFICIAL HISTORY of the Australian Flying Corps in WW1,
by Cutlack (published 1923), is available to browse, or as a free download on this page, from the University of Toronto, Canada. (Searchable 29Mb PDF, or various e-reader formats.) |
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BETWEEN THE WARS: |
| "The
Third Brother: The Royal Australian Air Force
1921-39". Available as a free book download from the National Library of Australia. The fascinating warts-and-all history of the RAAF's chequered development, up to the time of 3SQN's dispatch to Egypt early in WW2 (which seriously drained the resources of the then-tiny Air Force). |
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WW2
Biplane Aces Also exhaustive lists of the missions
that the Squadron flew;
and aircraft
pages on the Gladiator and Gauntlet. |
| Zeno's
Warbird Videos Fascinating contemporary flight-training films are available online for some of the planes flown by 3 Squadron during WW2. These films are in small-screen format, but the size can be magnified by right-clicking once the video is running, and selecting "double" or "full-screen" size. The Kittyhawk II film is in colour, and illustrates an aircraft in typical Desert colours with a Rolls Royce engine, as flown by 3 Squadron from Alamein onwards in late 1942. The Mustang III training film is in B&W, but nicely produced. (They even squeeze in a few corny jokes, such as the scene showing: "Pilots who don't like the P-51" - they're all Luftwaffe pilots!) The Mustang was flown by 3 Squadron from late 1944. |
| Australian
Military Aviation Art Online gallery of dramatic Aussie aviation artwork, including "Desert Hawks" by Robert Taylor, featuring 3 Squadron's Kittyhawks. |
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“Australians
at War Film Archive” |
| Superb
Animation - "The Desert Dogfighter" (On Youtube: Part 1, Part 2.) The action-packed story of Nicky Barr, 3 Squadron's top ace. Certainly you will want to watch this free 19-minute movie more than once. Click the Play " >" button to start. |
| The digitised Official History of the Air
War against Italy and Germany, by John Herrington, including many stirring 3 Squadron episodes: 1939-43 and 1944-45 |
| The
Great Escape Rob Davis's interesting site illustrates conditions in the Sagan Prisoner of War (POW) camp in Germany. - Well-remembered by several 3 Squadron POWs who were confined there. |
| American
Aircraft Production The P-40 and P-51 aircraft that 3 Squadron flew for most of World War II were built in the USA. Joe Baugher's site provides copious information about the differences between the various Marks and Production Batches of Tomahawks, Kittyhawks (P-40s) and Mustangs (P-51s). |
| A fantastic full-colour 1944 documentary
film, showing dive-bombing and ground attack in Italy (and
life for the men at the landing-ground) in unprecedented
detail... "Thunderbolt" Although an American production, it captures the same situations that 3 Squadron experienced in this theatre of operations. |
| "The
Office" A fantastic 360-degree cockpit view of a modern-day Mustang in the livery of "Dakota Kid II" (a P-51D that flew in the European theatre). |
239 WING in WORLD WAR II: |
| Air
Marshal Sir Arthur Coningham - Biography (23Mb E-book,
cost $10. Free searchable samples.) He was born in Australia, a successful WW1 Ace and an esteemed leader of the WW2 Desert Air Force. "Mary" Coningham forged the doctrine of Allied Tactical Airpower while directing the victorious operations of the D.A.F., which included 239 (Fighter-Bomber) Wing, containing 3 Squadron. This book provides a fascinating description of the "big picture" of Air Warfare in the African and Early Italian Campaigns. - Refreshingly frank about Allied mistakes as well as triumphs. |
| Shark
Squadron The excellent website of 112 Squadron RAF, who flew their spectacular "shark-mouthed" fighters alongside No.3 Squadron in 239 Wing for three eventful years, in Africa, Sicily and Italy. 112 Squadron was led at one stage by the top Australian ace, Clive Caldwell. The "Photos" section is fascinating,
including Brian Eaton's specially-painted
Mustang IV when he led 239 Wing. |
| "The
Desert Harassers" 450 Squadron was the "other" Australian squadron sharing the travails of 239 Fighter-Bomber Wing. There is much of interest in the brilliant official website of 450 Squadron Association. |
| 250
Squadron 250 Squadron was another of 3 Squadron's "Wing-mates". Among many achievements, 250 Sqn. had a spectacular success against an entire squadron of German FW190s in Italy. |
| 260
Squadron RAF (239 Wing) A brief history with illustrations of aircraft. Also, James ("Eddie") Edwards was a 260 Squadron pilot whose reminiscences are preserved in detail by Canadian Veterans Affairs. |
| A
Brief 5 Squadron SAAF History Another "239 Wing"-mate. |
"Onward Postings"Many 3SQN Personnel went back to the Pacific Theatre for further tours of duty.For example, Gordon WHITE, a Tomahawk and Kittyhawk pilot with 3 Squadron in 1941/42, later died in action as a 78 SQN Flight Commander in New Guinea in 1944. 78 Squadron Association. |
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| Fighter
World (Williamtown NSW.) A great place for getting "up close" to the aircraft flown during 3 Squadron's time in Malaysia - the Sabre and Mirage, amongst their many other fascinating exhibits. |
| “The
RAAF Mirage Story” Excellent free book available for download, by ex-3SQN pilot Marty Susans. |
| The
RAAF School in Penang Cynthia Matuschka's website will bring back many memories for families from the Butterworth days. |
| Mick
Quinn has several interesting photos of 3 Squadron
Mirages and personnel circa 1980. |
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| "3
Squadron - Tip of the Spear" (1.4Mb PDF) 3 Squadron Hornets and several personnel feature in this high-tempo magazine article from AUSTRALIAN AVIATION Magazine (April 2010). |
| Another
interesting 2013 blog by Phil Buckley, focusing on the roles
of some
younger pilots. |
| "Air
Power into the Next Decade" an interesting talk to the Royal United
Services Institute by Air Commodore Mel Hupfeld, CO of 81 Wing, RAAF [which includes 3SQN], in May 2010. |
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