Issue Number
EDITORIAL
There is a tight deadline to meet for this issue
because the special facilities available for the print run will terminate in
October. We are looking for an alternative source for copying the Newsletters.
If anyone has any ideas please let me know.
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of the
establishment of AFFCE in
Our recruiting drive took
off again after Dave Bennett inserted an advert in Yours Magazine.
The trip to
FONT AINEBLEAU REVISITED
On Thursday 13 Sept a party of 41 set off on a coach
to spend 6 days in
From all accounts the highlight of the trip was
undoubtedly the Saturday Parade at the Arc de Triomphe. Our party joined the
British Legion and other servicemen to march up the
The day trip to
The organised programme for the day in
On Tuesday it was time to pack the bags and set off on
the long trek home. By the time they returned to their homes most were weary
from all the activity in
Ted Caton's unedited account
of the trip together with a selection of photographs from various cameras is
given in a special Supplement to this Newsletter.
ADDITIONS TO MEMBERSHIP
We welcome the following into our membership
Pictured
left is SAC Roy Jones who was posted
to AAFCE in Dec 1956 and worked as an Airframe Mechanic at the Comm. Flight, Melun until Aug 1959. After demob in 1966 Roy served 33
years with Dunlop Engineering in their Aviation Division. A keen amateur boxer
Roy qualified as a referee and judge with the ABA of England and still
officiates as a judge at major championships, having retired from refereeing
last year. Roy is chairman of Warwickshire Amateur Boxing Association, and
helps to run Bedworth Ex-Servicemen's Amateur Boxing Club. Among his other
interests are following the Welsh Rugby team and supporting Coventry City where
he is a season ticket holder. Roy lives with his wife Mary in Bedworth,
Warwickshire.
Roy
Jones introduced Cpl Mike Hymers, an Instrument Fitter at Melun
Airfield from August 1954 until March 1957. When Mike left the RAF in 1965 he
joined ICT later to become ICL where he completed 27 years service working in
London and the South East finishing as a Computer Disk System Specialist before
taking early retirement in 1993. Settled in Cranbrook,
Kent Mike is now a full time carer nursing his wife
Pam who has Motor Neurone Disease contracted 3 years
ago.
,
Sgt Jim Muir
served at the Receiver Site of the Comms. Building at Fontainebleau. He was one of that rare breed
fortunate enough to enjoy 2 tours at AAFCE "' the first from 1953 to 1957
and the second from 1957 to 1960 so I expect quite a few of you will remember
him. Jim saw war service as the photo of him as a corporal in 1941 is witness.
Following his discharge from the RAF Jim worked at RAF Sealand
repairing radar and radio equipment until his retirement in 1982. Regrettably
Jim's wife Olive was seriously injured in a fall 3 years ago and is now in a
nursing home 4 miles from Jim's home in Cliftonville,
Kent. Jim enjoys his golf and plays off a handicap of 18.
We
are pleased to welcome another member from the Army introduced by Malcolm Degville, an old school pal. After basic training at Catterick Camp Cpl
Jeff Lester, Royal Signals served at ALFCE for 18 months from September
1958 handling classified documents at the Palace in Fontainebleau. After demob
he resumed working for his previous employer as a cost clerk. In September 1960
he joined Glynwed working his way up to Salaries
manager, Personnel Officer, Personnel Manager before
progressing to Divisional HR. Jeff's speciality was employment law and heath and safety regulations. After
completing 41 years service with Glynwed/Tyco Jeff
recently took early retirement and lives with his wife Eileen and one son in Oldbury. His other son recently married an
Australian girl and relocated to Brisbane where Jeff recently enjoyed a long
stay.
SAC Malcolm Hughes,
a Driver in the International M T Section arrived at AAFCE in October 1954 and
left in April 1957 for demob. He had such a wonderful time at Fontainebleau
that he found it difficult to settle in Civvy Street
working the night shift at Ford's in Dagenham. After various engineering jobs
Malcolm became a self-employed decorator for 30 years before working for a
local garage driving new cars before finally retiring in September last year.
Malcolm lives in Great Clacton Essex with his wife ex
SACW Lavinia.
FIRST INTERNATIONAL POLICE FORCE
The following article
appeared in Provost Parade in April 1953 and is reproduced by kind permission
of the Provost Marshal.
Flags over
Fontainebleau
By HOWARD K FINCHER (United
States Air Force)
Office of Public Information, H.Q., A.A.F.C.E.
Not so long ago the idea of
an international police force was reserved for the world of fiction. Today it
borders on fact.
Proof lies in thc 99.9 acre triangle landscaped
out of historic Fontainebleau forest. Here trim military police ~ wearing six
different uniforms and speaking three languages -keep an incessant watch in and
around the multi-winged stucco buildings that house Europe's best aerial minds
this side of the Iron Curtain.
This is the new headquarters
of Allied Air Forces ~ Central Europe (A.F.F.C.E.) commanded by General Lauris Norstad. At its fingertips
are every jet fighter plane and pilot in the continental
air defences growing under Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers in Europe
(SHAPE).
Its security police, drawn
from AAFCE's six nations, are close to the fictional concept of an international police force in their unified -if less
spectacular -effort toward a common goal: internal security.
Their Commander at this
North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) nerve centre is red haired, ruddy
faced Squadron Leader J A Smith, RAF, from Blair Atholl, Scotland. He is a veteran of 19 years in military
and civil police service.
Smith is quick to agree on the
international flavour of his crew. It is composed of hand-picked security
police from his own Royal Air Force, the air forces of the United States,
Canada and The Netherlands and a detachment of French gendarmes.
A contingent of Belgian air police is expected soon.
But he is apt to chuckle if
their operation is compared to fanciful deeds attributed to a world police organisation
in fiction.
"Our work isn't nearly so exciting" he'll tell you.
"Police work seldom is. Most of it here is routine security measures. The
job doesn't offer much variety to our lads, many of them specialists in
investigation and other technical aspects of crime detection."
"But you can't minimise
its importance" he cautions. "Internal security in peacetime can have
a vital bearir1g on external security in wartime. It may be a dull business,
but it is a deadly serious business.
His belief is reflected in the businesslike attitude of his men.
At the three AAFCE gates
open to traffic, and the two entrances to the main headquarters building, they
deal politely but firmly every day with streams of visiting military and
civilian dignitaries as well as the headquarters working population.
Using two official tongues
of AAFCE -English and French -the policemen maintain rigid control of entry
points. At night they check offices for open filing cabinets and other security
violations. They initiate background investigations of every civilian and military
man who comes to work here. And they enforce discipline among its national
support groups both in the military realm and in relations with civilian authorities.
They are responsible, too,
for countless little military niceties that air police traditionally inherit,
such as flag ceremonies and guards of honour.
111e
qrowlll of Smith's security police force -almost two
years old now -parallels that of AAFCf~ .
Wherl former C;eneral of the Army Dwight D Eisenhower and General Norstad sinlult,lneously look comrllarld of Sf1APE and AAFCE respectively on April 2nd
1951, Sgt. Donald McDougal1 and two othcl I~AF Pollcemell were in charge of security at the old Western
Union (UNIAIR) headquartels In the P;l!,lCC' of lontalrlebleau.
AI(j(~u by a dr:!.tachment of French gendarmes,
McDougal1 and hj~ companions h,ld
sC't up sllOp III tll(' ( UlJr fjenri
Quatre building
of the palace. Their main job was
escorting V.I.Ps. to tile nUrl1(~IOU',
conferences held in the old
palace ~ talks that ultimately were to spawn AAFCE.
f\III('(j
Air Forces Ilcadquarters was established in the Allcs gcs Princes scctlorl of th(' 11,11(1rC',
(111(1 r,1LI)ougall's men were joined by a handful of
USAF Air Police.
JIl
,1dditlon
to their security work, they were charged with resporlsibllity
in a matter conlplete!y UIVOICC'(j f[()rll nlilitary policing but one
the Allies felt deserved special attention. That was the protl~ctlon
of till' 1111\l'lc'ss rclrcs
of Napoleonic history inherent in the famous old palace.
Arllollg thcnl
were the table on which Napoleon signed his abdication in 1814, the forc'coult whc~rc
Ill! adurcsscd his Old Guard
before going into exile, the hat he wore when he csc(1pcd
from thc Isll' of fllJa, and the room wllCrc he
tried to take his own life.
As the passing months
saw the skeletal frame of AAFCE and its subordinate flcld
\Orllnlandc" tllC :?nd
arld 4th Allied Tactical Air Forces, fleshed out with
tangible power, so did the AAFCE sl~curlty pollr:c flourish and expand.
Fr-Onl
arl urldcrmanncd collection
of national air police units -responsible to their fcd('ral
govl,r-nnlentc; only: they grew to a well
disciplined, smartly-heeled police force consolidated under Snllth',;
supcrvision.
On July 19th 1952 -littlc more than 15 months after its inception: AAFCE nlovcd irlto ItS prcscrlt £3,500,000
physical plant, 40 structures which by their scope and complexity magllificd cnOrmollsly the task
of internal security.
Fortullatcly Srllith's
organisation was by then bcginning to ladle off its
share of inflowing pl~rsorlncl.
"Thc headquartcrs was getting to
be pretty big business by then" rcmembers
McDougall.
"Irl contr-ast to nly Western Union days, we didn't have to rely on a dozen
RAF policemerl and Frerlch gcrldarnlcs. Today wc havc alnlost 70 trained men -25
of ~ RAF boys."
"Likc NATO wc arc starting to get thc tools we need to do the
job."
l-jow wcll they havc
done thc job is apparent in thcir
spotless record. no major security brcach
and fcw flagrant incidents of any kind.
Rcccrltly the entire RAF
complement got an indirect pat on the back for tllcir
job hcrc whcn SQt McDougal1 was awarded the bi-annual RAF Police Citation
for outstanding scrvice.
McDougall's mates
never got to scc his award.
Big "Mac" completed his tour of duty h(~rc and rcturnc~u to his horllc in Balbeggic, near Perth,
Scotland to await rcassignment.
Mcanwililc thc
AAFCE police continue to grow, unhampered by a pcculiar
kind of nlanpowcr problcrll
th(lt plagucs other sections of the
headquarters. Many scctions are overstockcd
with USAF and RAF pcrsonrlel bccausc
its other members simply haven't got thc
men. Not so Srllith's security pollcc.
Thcy ar(, (Jpproaching authorised strcngth without losing their international flavour.
"Pl~rsonncl quotas in NATO arc divided among the 14 nations
of its subordinate military COmrll;1rlds by flxcd manpower formulas based on the size of each mcmber's contribution" Smittl
cxplalns.
"In
that WiJy wc crlSUrc a truly irltcrnational dcfence team at headquarters Icvcl
as wcll as rn tile fic!u"
r)ccausc of that fOrnlUla
Smith has thc makings of an intcrnatiorlal
police force tilat 20 ycars
aqo W(lS considered as irllpossiblc as a single minded European defencc family such as NATO.
Both arc all fact, not
fiction.
FINANCIAL REPORT
Below is the
Income and Expenditure Account for the 11 months to 30 September 2001 The financial year will now end on 30 September each year to
enable the statement to be presented at the Reunion
There is a
healthy cash balance. If the stock is included we are in a strong position At
the Reunion I will propose that we skip calling for another contribution from
the members this autumn However our costs are likely to increase this year with
the loss of the print run and copying facilities The position will be monitored
and a view can be taken later in the year
Income & Expenditure Account ~ 11 months to 30 Sep 2001
£ £ £
Balance 31 Oct 00
Cash (137.28)
Stock at cost 339.40
Total assets at 31 Oct 00 202.12
Cash Balance brought forward (137.28)
Income
Subscriptions 545.00
Merchandise sales
Ties (16)
Blazer badges (16)
Enamel badges (17)
468.50
Other income 322.00
Total Income 1335.50
Expenditure
Postage 116.12
Telephone 81.79
General Expenses
131.30
Benches and wine 126.87
Purchase of Merchandise 283.85
Total Expenditure (739.93)
Cash Balance at 30 Sep 01 458.29
Merchandise in stock at cost
Ties (13) 83.20
Blazer badges (22) 199.50
Enamel Badges (28) 44.80
Value of stock at cost 327.50
Balance ~ cash & stock 785.79
OBITUARY
Included in the
TIMES obituaries column recently was Air Marshal The
Rev Sir Paterson Fraser, KCB, CB, AFC who passed away on 4 August. He served at
AAFCE Fontainebleau 1954- 1956 replacing Air Marshal John Plant RCAF as Chief
of Staff. He was a brilliant flyer with a flair for logistics. He is pictured
here as a young officer in India 1932 with a Wapiti in the background.
POSTINGS
At the end of
July Peter and Ellie Taylor relocated to :
1136 Princes
Street, KINCARDINE, Ontario, N2Z 1WB Canada
Telephone: (519) 396-3577 Email: ptaylor@bmts.com
Bill Garland is in the process of relocating to live in his native
Scotland in October.
John and Joan Fitzgerald have a new address in Surrey.
Arthur and Anne Mooney recently moved within the Edinburgh area
Mick and Gwen Champ's new e-mail address is: -mickchamp@iprimus.com.au
AND FINALLY........
Many of you have
asked for a Membership list to be published ~ so here it is on the next few
pages. Take a copy if you wish but please do not remove it from the Newsletter.
STOP PRESS ~ LATE
SIGNING
Chief
Technician Bernard Bonner was a Telegraphist I in the
Joint Communications Agency at Fontainebleau from October 1963 until March
1966. Bernard left the RAF in 1967 after 22 years service and was accepted for
service by the RNZAF but had to decline due his wife's ill health. He joined
Johnson Mathey as a security officer and on moving to
North Wales he worked as a courier/driver for Wallace Arnold. An injury
sustained in the RAF forced Bernard to take early retirement at the tender age
of 58. Bernard's wife passed away in 1997 leaving him with three loving
daughters, grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
Published by: DM ROGERSON, BROOKWOOD, HUNGERFORD,
BURSLEDON, SOUTHAMPTON SO31 SDF