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136 FIGHTER SQUADRON - THE WOODPECKERS - REST IN PEACE.....by FLT LT IAN ADAMSON..................

When the Squadron left Imphal and then the Arakan a backward over the shoulder look could not be avoided. There could be seen a deep blue sky 鈥� now clear and empty. The Woodpeckers were on their way to the Cocos Islands, to draw up once again in a line of battle. This time for the reconquest of Malaya and onwards as part of Operation Zipper which in the event proved unnecessary. Perhaps the efforts of the previous long hard three years had helped make it so.

The mind lingered to evaluate that long thrust. The effort left, from Calcutta to Imphal, through the Arakan to Rangoon and beyond, a long line of green graves 鈥攁nd forever love- because it is nurtured by everlasting memory.

It recalls the foolhardy bravery of furious, redheaded Eric. The precise, cool, calculating, killer performance of Bob. The gentle faraway smile of 鈥楥hota鈥� Fred. The frightened super-gallantry of Johnny. The irrepressible cackling laughter of Fuggy; melting with many others鈥�. A line no longer trod by an enemy.

In memory from then to now, can it be asked if it was worthwhile? Did it change anything? Was the sacrifice of very young men, their future denied 鈥� was the cost excessive?

Were they to be asked, there is no doubt whatever that they would be surprised that there could be such a question. They embodied selflessness. Selflessness does not equate or measure, it simply recognizes a task and carries it out. They were volunteers from all over, to return to their ambitions once the task was completed 鈥� should there still be life.

Such dedication could not have been effective without the magnificent performance, in face of unfair odds, of the ground-crews. They mostly had been conscripted away from their families who remained in the uncertainty of a Britain under enemy bombs and the temptation of masses of Allies. They did their jobs superbly under pitiful conditions of damp, heat, deplorable rations and barbarous accommodations. Behind the effectiveness of on the job there was a remarkable domestic harmony. The many moves, many times through hostile territory, were made proficiently everyone attending to their area of their responsibility.

The Squadron was a living organism, functioning under any circumstances, often without a Commanding Officer. The only concern being the ultimate performance of the task in hand - it gave an exhilirating sense of indifference regardless of the odds.

In the end it produced the most distinguished and highest scoring fighter Squadron in the Far East Theater of Operations; a distinction extraordinary for a volunteer unit, performance that at the time moved Sir John Baldwin, Chief of the Third Tactical Air Force, Burma, to state: 鈥淚t was the most outstanding success achieved by any Squadron on the front..鈥� and Sir Archibald Sinclair, Secretary of State for Air, to offer congratulations to: 鈥渢he Squadron that fought so well.鈥� and Sir Winston Churchill, Prime Minister, to send 鈥淢y congratulations and compliments on your brilliant exploit.鈥�

The Woodpeckers Squadron will be remembered by its badge embedded, half way up to the altar, in the aisle of St.Clement Dane, the Royal Air Force Church, Aldwich, London and the memorial on the transept wall of St. Andrew鈥檚 Church, Kirton- in-Lindsey, Lincolnshire, with the same badge representing a Rampant Woodpecker, with its affirmative motto 鈥淣ihil Fortius.鈥�

THE WOODPECKERS represent the gathering of men from all over the world who joined to fulfill a vital task of the moment, and once done, disbanded to follow their private pursuits. They honor the fulfilment of their motto, they honour the fallen, and that, in an hour of dire need they constituted a well-spring of freedom....

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