90 FLYPAST August 2018
Spotlight
Short
Sunderland
Bowing Out
Ken Ellis explores the RAF’s last Sunderlands
and how Britain had to go overseas for its
museum examples
I
t had been a long time coming;
seven years after the Shackleton
MR.1 entered service with
the RAF, the first example
for the Far East Air Force touched
down at Changi, Singapore, on May
25, 1958.
At the controls of VP254 – the first
production machine, already eight
years old – was the commanding
officer of 205 Squadron, Wg Cdr R
A N McCready.
For the ‘boss’ of 205 and his
personnel, the arrival of the ‘new’
age evoked mixed emotions. The
advent of the Shackleton meant
the writing was on the wall for
the last of the unit’s charismatic
Sunderlands...and thus the end of
the RAF’s flying-boat era.
After entering RAF service in
June 1938, the Sunderland type
remained in production throughout
the war. The last example, Mk.V
SZ599, was completed by Short
Brothers and Harland (or simply,
Shorts) at Queen’s Island, Belfast,
and test flown from the waters of
adjacent Belfast Lough on June 14,- These flying-boats continued
to keep Shorts busy well into the
1950s, via overhaul for further RAF
service and the refurbishment of
others for export/civilian operators.
Far East nale
While the Shackletons settled in
at Changi, to the west along the
northern shoreline of Singapore
Island was 205 Squadron’s other
‘office’, the combined airfield and
flying-boat base of Seletar. There,
its dwindling Sunderland fleet
continued to undertake patrols
until the Shackletons were ready to
take over.
Close to the huge maintenance
hangar at Seletar was a ‘graveyard’,
where retired Sunderlands were
stripped of parts to help keep othersRight
FEFBW MR.5 SZ577
being ‘slipped’ at
Seletar, 1954.Below right
Dumbarton-built
MR.5 RN293 ‘F-for-
Fox’ of 205 Squadron
chocked on the
Seletar slipway in
1955, having just
emerged from
minor servicing.airworthy. When these donors
became empty hulks, local scrap
merchants dismantled and carted
them away. The carcasses of at least
seven Sunderlands were hacked apart
during 1957, presenting a depressing
sight to personnel who had spent
their time flying or maintaining
such magnificent machines.
The bustling complex at Seletar
had been home to the Far East
Flying Boat Wing (FEFBW),
established in February 1950 to
oversee three Sunderland units,
88, 205 and 209 Squadrons. These
were engaged in the long-running
fight against communist rebels in
Malaya. In June 1950, the Korean
War erupted and the FEFBW was
also committed to maritime patrolseven Sunderlands were hacked apart
during 1957, presenting a depressing