HISTORY -  Stories of the ACB

Draft Uploaded .24.11.2005 Initial Release  01.03.2006  Last Updated.30 January, 2012 13:41HRS

Jim writes - “I joined the RAF in May 1944 and after basic training was posted to the coast in Kent where they were franticly building radar buildings on the cliff tops to combat the VI flying bombs that were coming over thick and fast at that time, I counted over 23 in one hour and the guns on the beach below would fire at them as they come over the sea and then the Spitfires would take over trying to tip them over with their wing and another Spitfire would attempt to shoot it down. One flying bomb exploded right over our heads as we were pouring concrete and though we had bits of the flying bomb falling all around us not one of us was injured. They just had the radar buildings finished as the last flying bombs came over from France”

That’s Jim guarding some Jap prisoners doing old jobs around the house we were billeted in Kowloon soon after arriving in Hong Kong and lower right on the site of an pre war Indian camp guarding the plant equipment at night on the beach a few miles from the main camp near a village called So Kan Wat. Charlie our Chinese '' cook'' etc came from the village. Jim still has the Jap flag.

Still attracting the ‘birds’, Jim has plenty of friends

3. Memories of Reg Sidey 5001(AC)Sqn ‘Operation Crown’

During 5001’s deployment in Singapore I was the Plant Officer for the Squadron – It was during this period that the ACB became involved with the design and construction of Crown Camp airfield in Thailand (I can’t remember the name of the location but it could very well have been Mukdaban! I remember that it was very near to the river Mekong; right on the Laos border and that I passed though Ubon quite frequently. Looking at the map today certainly puts Mukdaban into the location frame!

            The circumstances relating to 5001’s involvement in this airfield are rather vague but I believe, originally, this was an ACB project; at a time when the Royal Engineers were making a strong political bid to put us out of business! The ACB certainly carried out the initial recognisance and submitted it’s recommendations! However the Army won the day and the Royal Engineers were tasked to build the airfield. There was a caveat ( imposed, I believe, by  the Thai Government) That it was to be a multi-national and multi-Service project. Hence Australian and British Army, Navy and Air Forces personnel were involved – There may have been others but time dims the memory! My input, as the 5001 Squadron Plant Officer, was to second 10 Plant Operators to the Royal Engineers in Thailand and inspect their circumstances once a month.

            At the time, I recollect, we were rather scathing (natural inter-service banter) about the way the Army ignored the ACB’s recommendations, regarding the correct location for the runway and I believe the type of construction. They decided to construct the runway using a soil stabilisation process and in quite a different location to that recommended by the ACB! At this time the Americans were either constructing or had completed a NATO type runway in the North of Thailand and it was apparently the Army’s wish to build theirs in a shorter time. Moving on several months – The airfield at Mukdaban was completed and the first aircraft to land was a Bristol Freighter! After touch-down and about 100yard along the runway, the aircraft’s wheels went though the consolidated surface and into a 14 inch void below! Subsequent investigation determined that the strip had been built over Paddy which had dried-out and shrunk resulting in the formation of this void!

 Eventually, I believe,  the Location was changed and a NATO type airfield was constructed. I’m rather hazy about this aspect after all these years. However I can’t recall Ken Steadman’s involvement. I did spend about nine months with Ken in North Borneo (on Active Service ) constructing a hard-standing  for use by RAF aircraft, particularly the Beverlys, visiting Tawau civilian airfield, but that was a 5003 Squadron detachment from UK!

Sqn Ldr R M Sidey (1962/67)

2nd February 2009

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