The Royal Hong Kong Auxiliary Air Force provided air support to the Crown Colony’s government for almost 50 years, via a variety of aircraft, as Andrew Thomas shows.
Maritime colossus
Shackleton Boys Volume 1, Steve Bond, Grub Street, hbk, illus, 256pp, £25 Due to the scale of the subject matter, author Steve Bond has divided his latest work into two parts, with the second to be published next year. Shackleton Boys Volume 1 covers UK-based Avro Shackleton units flying from Ballykelly (including Aldergrove), Farnborough, Honington, Kinloss, Lossiemouth, St Eval and St Mawgan, plus various overseas detachments including Christmas Island and Majunga. As with all of the eminently readable …Boys series, it features informative and entertaining stories from air and groundcrew veterans. Complementing these detailed personal accounts are hundreds of original photographs and extensive appendices. The Shackleton was the RAF’s first line of defence in the maritime role from 1951 for 20 years, thereafter continuing to serve as an airborne early warning platform for another two decades, until 1991. This superb collection proves the ‘Shack’ is still viewed with gr…
