Shatin Airfield – 1954 article about British Army/RAF use
HF: Shatin Airfield was a small military airfield which had a single concrete runway. It was built in 1949 for use by the British RAF and demolished in the early 1970s as the Shek Kong Airfield was consolidated, and was later re-developed as part of the New Town project for Shatin.
The 28th May 1954 edition of Flight magazine contains an article about 1900 Flight, a combination of British Army and RAF personnel that used Shatin Airfield known to them as the “Strip”.
Caption: “The fitter in the picture above, working on one of the A.C.P. Austers.has as an incentive the prospect of accompanying the pilot on a flight.”
Caption: “The group picture shows the pilots of 1900 Independent A.O.P. Flight—(left to right) a visitor, Capt. J.H. Pike, R.A., Capt. P.J. Furse, R.A., Maj. A.D. Andrews, M.C., R.A., Capt. H.G. Horner, R.A., and Capt. T.J. Reynolds, R.A.
Caption: “Three R.A.F. ground-crew (LA/C. D. E. Smith, S.A/C. T. Slim and L.A/C. D. Gobbett) are seen refuelling one of the Austers. Here there are no high-speed pressure refuellers.
This article was first posted on 3rd February 2015.
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I was stationed at sha tin in the 50s sac William (jock) Dick and it was mainly an army post when I was their we had 9 of a staff I was airframe and I remember 3 of the pilots capt Allson capt Barton we nicknamed him (Dick) and major King as I said majority army Royal Artillery, for recriation we had a pontoon in the water at the rear of the camp which we swam out to dive from was good fun on free time, we had a great basketball and footy teams of which I played for both, have photos of them people dont believe you when you tell them that the Austers were cartridge started thats right a shell I think if I can remember there was 6 in the breach and at times they would fail to fire hence the reason people didnt believe you that we had to start them by swinging the prop if I can remember I would shout to the pilot contact sir he would shout back contact and you swung the prop as hard as you could while walking away from the craft there was loads of other stuff which I could share hope someone remembers this litte part about Sha Tin
Hello Bill
Good to hear from you.
It was interesting to hear about those almost forgotten days when there was an airfield at Shatin. It’s hard to imagine such a thing when you visit modern Shatin.
You don’t happen to have any photos of your time there with “Dick” Barton, the Austers, and swimming out to the pontoon do you? I, and I’m sure the readers of this site, would love to see them.
Thank you so much for contacting the website.
Best wishes
Hugh