RAF Station Kuala Lumpur 1948 [Link]

National Service at KL

Searching for the F1 racing circuit I found RAf KL which took me back to 1948.
Posted to RAf KL in June as a ground wireless operator our office close to the operations room looking down on the airstrip.
Standard sleeping arraingements I was in basher 27
If memory serves me right there were Spitfire squadrons 60 and 28
beaufighter 45 Dakota 110 and another .
We had two frequencies 7930 and 8885 call sign P30, 7930 was for local aircraft normally keeping w/t contact with Dakotas on supply drops.We lost a couple.
Also had contact with ships Black Swan, Amethyst and Belfast.
Have some photos including the football team I was a member of, there were several aircrew in the team inluding Sgt Pilot Pete Warral who flew us to Singapore when we played there. What happened to those guys?

National Service at KL

Searching for the F1 racing circuit I found RAf KL which took me back to 1948.
Posted to RAf KL in June as a ground wireless operator our office close to the operations room looking down on the airstrip.
Standard sleeping arraingements I was in basher 27
If memory serves me right there were Spitfire squadrons 60 and 28
beaufighter 45 Dakota 110 and another .
We had two frequencies 7930 and 8885 call sign P30, 7930 was for local aircraft normally keeping w/t contact with Dakotas on supply drops.We lost a couple.
Also had contact with ships Black Swan, Amethyst and Belfast.
Have some photos including the football team I was a member of, there were several aircrew in the team inluding Sgt Pilot Pete Warral who flew us to Singapore when we played there. What happened to those guys?

Hi all.

Thank you for mentioning Spitfire tp231 which we are trying to find out the remaining of the plane near Serendah. Also we found the wreckage of Dakota KN633.

Hope to continue posting here..

Thanks

Shaharom Ahmad
Malaya Historical Group – Researcher

Spitfire TP231

More here:-

http://www.geocities.com/malaya_hg/spitfire_231.htm

Mark

Some interesting photos, especially Spitfires……

http://www.gtitec.com.my/af_museum/raf48.htm

Enjoy !
Martin

Martin,

Many thanks for that link. Some very interesting photos. Although some have appeared on this forum before, most were new.

The groundcrew grouping around the the tail of Spitfire FR XVIII, TP231, was particularly poignant. This aircraft was lost on ops on 12 November 1948. It was seen to go out of control on pulling up from a live dive bombing attack near Serendah, north of Kuala Lumpur. The pilot, Fg Off P M Sketch, was killed. A further five people (4 RAF & 1 Army) were killed in the subsequent search, when Dakota C4, KN633, of 110 Sqn hit tree tops and crashed while looking for the Spitfire and its pilot. None of the bodies were ever recovered. Their names are inscribed on the Memorial Wall at the Terendak Military Cemetery, near Malacca, along with all the others who fell during that time and have no known graves.

Attached below is a photo of that wall, which I visited a year ago.

BR,

Laurie.