92 FLYPAST August 2018
SPOT FACT The type was usually entered through
the bow compartment door on the left forward sideA ceremony on New Year’s Day
1955 marked the end of 209
Squadron. Its personnel and aircraft
were then absorbed by 205, after
which it was often referred to as
‘205/209 Squadron’.Scrappings
In the UK, the support structure for
Sunderland squadrons had begun
to wind down from October 1953,
when 235 Operational Conversion
Unit (OCU), based at the famous
station at Calshot Spit on the Solent
was disbanded. This left two British
flying-boat bases, the vast Pembroke
Dock in southwest Wales and Wig
Bay, near Stranraer in Scotland.
Pembroke Dock, known as ‘PD’ to
those who served there, took up 235
OCU’s role with the Flying Boat
Training Squadron (FBTS),
which worked alongside the resident
201 and 230 Squadrons. The last
course went through FBTS in
October 1956.
On February 1, 1957 a ceremony
was held at PD to mark the end of
Sunderland operations in Britain,
and 201 and 230 Squadrons
formally stood down at the end ofSunderland family survivorsSerial Other Variant Location Notes
JM715 VH-BRC Sandringham 4 Solent Sky, Southampton, UK ex US, Virgin Islands,
Australian, NZ civil operators
JM719 F-OBIP Sandringham 7 Musée de l’Air, Le Bourget, France ex French, Australian and
UK (BOAC) civil operators
ML796 MR.5 Imperial War Museum, Duxford, UK ex Aéronavale
ML814 N814ML MR.5 Fantasy of Flight, Polk City, USA ex RNZAF, USA, Virgin
Islands and UK civil operators
ML824 MR.5 RAF Museum, Hendon, UK ex Aéronavale, see main
text
NJ203 N9946F Solent 3 Western Aerospace Museum, Oakland, USA ex Seaford I, UK (BOAC),
Australian and USA civil
operators
SZ584 NZ4115 MR.5 Museum of Transport and Technology, NZ ex RNZAF
ZK-AMO Solent 4 Museum of Transport and Technology, NZ ex NZ civil operatorNote: The cockpit of former RNZAF MR.5 N4112 (RAF VB881) is held by the Ferrymead Aeronautical Society in
Christchurch, New Zealand.Solent 4 ZK-AMO was delivered to Tasman Empire Airways of New
Zealand in 1949. Today it is displayed at the Museum of Transport and
Technology at Auckland. MOTATthe month. Pembroke Dock was
reduced to ‘care and maintenance’
status, never to be revived.
Wig Bay was the home of 57
Maintenance Unit, tasked from
its establishment in 1943 with the
storage – mostly at moorings on
the waters of Loch Ryan – of the
RAF’s various flying-boat types. As
the Sunderland fleet wound down,
57 MU disbanded and was replaced
by the Flying Boat Storage Unit
(FBSU) run under contract
by Shorts.During 1957, about 20
Sunderlands were scrapped and, by
the end of the year, there was no need
for the FBSU. Some hulks lingered
into 1959 as a scrap merchant
chopped up the last examples.‘Orphan’ out t
Since 1957 and the demise of PD,
205’s Sunderland echelon had
become an ‘orphan’ outfit. By May
1959, the unit’s Shackletons were
fully functional and preparations
were made for the last-ever RAF
flying-boat sorties.
It was business as usual on May 14
as DP198 set off for a co-operation
exercise with Royal Navy vessels.
This was the last ‘frontline’ flight
by a Sunderland; after that, the
excursions were ceremonial.
Completed in December 1943
as a Mk.III at the factory on the
shores of Lake Windermere in the
Lake District, DP198 had been
converted to Mk.V status in 1946.
Retired from 201 Squadron in 1956,
it languished at the FBSU. In July
1957, it was released for a last gasp
of service, joining 205 Squadron at
Seletar. Duty carried out, on June 1,
1959 the veteran was placed in the
graveyard, to await oblivion.
A formation of 205 Squadron
Sunderlands – records vary, itwas a pair or perhaps a trio – flew
around Singapore Island on May 15.
One of these was ML797, built at
Rochester, Kent, and issued to the
RAF in October 1944.
It was ML797 that flew the RAF’s
last Sunderland sortie on May 20,
1959 for the benefit of Air Marshal
P R Gardner, the Earl of Bandon,
Far East Air Force’s Air Officer
Commanding-in-Chief. P-for-
Peter, ML797, was overhauled with
the intention of ferrying it back
to the UK for preservation. JustRight
Issued to 205
Squadron in
1953, RN273
served through
to retirement in
March 1957. With
the starboard rear
access door open,
the individual
code appears to
be ‘I’, but it was ‘L’
and the ’boat was
known as
‘L-for-Leather’!