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No.3 Sqn RAAF - Squadron Profile.

No.3 Sqn RAAF

Founded :
Country : Australia
Fate :

No.3 Sqn RAAF

No.3 Sqn RAAF Artwork Collection
Click the images below to view the fantastic artwork we have available to purchase!



Desert Hawks by Robert Taylor

Aces for : No.3 Sqn RAAF
A list of all Aces from our database who are known to have flown with this squadron. A profile page is available by clicking the pilots name.
NameVictoriesInfo
Frank R Carey28.00The signature of Frank R Carey features on some of our artwork - click here to see what is available.
Andrew Barr12.00The signature of Andrew Barr features on some of our artwork - click here to see what is available.
Bobby Gibbes10.50The signature of Bobby Gibbes features on some of our artwork - click here to see what is available.
Aircraft for : No.3 Sqn RAAF
A list of all aircraft known to have been flown by No.3 Sqn RAAF. A profile page including a list of all art prints for the aircraft is available by clicking the aircraft name.
SquadronInfo

Hurricane




Click the name above to see prints featuring Hurricane aircraft.

Manufacturer : Hawker
Production Began : 1936
Number Built : 14533

Hurricane

Royal Air Force Fighter, the Hawker Hurricane had a top speed of 320mph, at 18,200 feet and 340mph at 17,500, ceiling of 34,200 and a range of 935 miles. The Hurricane was armed with eight fixed wing mounted .303 browning machine guns in the Mark I and twelve .303 browning's in the MKIIB in the Hurricane MKIIC it had four 20mm cannon. All time classic fighter the Hurricane was designed in 1933-1934, the first prototype flew in June 1936 and a contract for 600 for the Royal Air Force was placed. The first production model flew ion the 12th October 1937 and 111 squadron of the Royal Air Force received the first Hurricanes in January 1938. By the outbreak of World war two the Royal Air Force had 18 operational squadrons of Hurricanes. During the Battle of Britain a total of 1715 Hurricanes took part, (which was more than the rest of the aircraft of the Royal air force put together) and almost 75% of the Victories during the Battle of Britain went to hurricane pilots. The Hawker Hurricane was used in all theatres during World war two, and in many roles. in total 14,533 Hurricanes were built.

Kittyhawk




Click the name above to see prints featuring Kittyhawk aircraft.

Manufacturer : Curtiss

Kittyhawk

Curtiss Kittyhawk, single engine fighter with a top speed of 362mph, ceiling of 30,000 feet and a range of 1190 miles with extra fuel tanks but 900 miles under normal operation. Kitty Hawk armaments was four or six .50in machine guns in the wings and a bomb load of up to 1,000 lb's. A development of the earlier Tomahawk, the Kitty Hawk saw service in may air force's around the world, American, Australian, New Zealand, and the Royal Air Force. which used them in the Mediterranean, north Africa, and Malta. from January 1942/ apart from the large numbers used by the Us Air Force, over 3,000 were used by Commonwealth air force's including the Royal air Force.

Tomahawk


Click the name above to see prints featuring Tomahawk aircraft.

Manufacturer : Curtiss
Number Built : 16802

Tomahawk

A total of sixteen Royal Air Force squadrons used the Tomahawk from British bases, and five more squadrons in the Middle East, as well as South African and Australian units. The Curtiss Tomahawk equipped the legendary Flying Tigers of the American Volunteer Group in China, in 1941, before the United States was officialy at war with Japan. In all, 16,802 Curtiss Tomahawks in a succession of improved models, were mainly built for the US Air Force.
Signatures for : No.3 Sqn RAAF
A list of all signatures from our database who are associated with this squadron. A profile page is available by clicking their name.
NameInfo

Wing Commander Nicky Barr
Click the name above to see prints signed by Wing Commander Nicky Barr

12 / 6 / 2006Died : 12 / 6 / 2006
12 / 6 / 2006Ace : 12.00 Victories
Wing Commander Nicky Barr

Born 10th December 1915. Nicky Barr was commissioned as a pilot officer in November 1940, joining No.23 Sqn, patrolling Queensland, but soon joined No.3 Sqn RAAF flying the Tomahawk. During the war in the desert at El Alamein, he was successful against several enemy aircraft before being shot down himself, being wounded and forced to crash land. While escaping the enemy lines he was wounded again, but reached the safety of Allied lines after a three day desert trek. On 30th May 1942, he was again forced to crash land by enemy fire, but again he returned to fly again. During the fighting around Tobruk, he was shot down once more, baling out injured from his burning aircraft, but this time he became a prisoner of the Italians. Months later he attempted to escape, reaching the Swiss border before being captured once more. Whilst being moved to Germany as a POW, he jumped from a moving train to escape, only to be recaptured weeks later by the Germans. Once more he escaped, conducting sabotage operations, and in March 1944, organising escapes for other POWs. Later in 1944 he became an instructor in Australia, leaving the RAAF after the war. He died 12th June 2006.




Group Captain Frank Carey
Click the name or photo above to see prints signed by or with the mounted signature of Group Captain Frank Carey

6 / 12 / 2004Died : 6 / 12 / 2004
6 / 12 / 2004Ace : 28.00 Victories
Group Captain Frank Carey

Born 7th May 1912. Frank Carey joined the Royal Air Force n 1927 as a 15 year old apprentice. Carey was first employed as a ground crew fitter and metal rigger but in 1935 Frank carey was selected in 1935 for a pilots course. He was then posted as a sergeant pilot to No 43 Squadron, the Fighting Cocks, whose aircraft he had been servicing. Demonstrating exceptional panache in the Hawker Fury biplane fighter, Carey was selected for the squadrons renowned aerobatics team which took part in many air displays. In early 1939, No 43 Squadron was re-equipped at Tangmere, Sussex, with the eight-gun Hurricane fighter. During World War Two, Frank Carey scored 25 enemy aircraft destroyed, one of the highest Allied fighter pilot totals. Carey opened his account at Acklington in Northumberland, when he shared in the destruction of several Heinkel shipping raiders during the cold winter of 1939-40. This was followed by a short spell at Wick defending the fleet at Scapa Flow before he was commissioned as a pilot officer and posted with No 3 Hurricane Squadron to Merville in France after the German invasion, adding to his total. After six days day of continuous combat, during which he bagged some 14 kills Carey was shot down. He had attacked a Dornier 17 bomber and was following it closely down in its last moments; the pilot was dead but the surviving rear gunner pressed his trigger to set Careys Hurricane alight, wounding him in a leg. The fire stopped, and Carey lwas forced to land between the Allied and enemy lines. Carey managed to get back by hitching a lift with a Belgium soldier on the back of his motorbike until he was picked up by a Passing Army truck which got him to a casualty station at Dieppe, he was put on a Hospital train but the train was attacked by the luftwaffe afer the attack the Engin eDriver had detache dthe train form the carriages and left the wounded. The wlaking wounded managed to push the carriages to the relative safety of La Baule on the coast. Frank Carey along with some other RAF personel managed to obtain a abandoned Bristol Bombay whihc they flew back to Hendon with Carey manning the rear gun. Carey found himself listed as missing believed killed and awarded a DFC and Bar to add to an earlier DFM. He returned to Tangmere just in time for the Battle of Britain. During the Battle of Britain, Carey was shot down during an attack on a large formation of German aircraft, when after several ships had been lost from a Channel convoy during the summer of 1940 Carey and five other Hurricane pilots of No 43 Squadron arrived on the scene to find enemy aircraft stretched out in great lumps all the way from the Isle of Wight to Cherbourg. Frank Carey said about the combat At the bottom were Ju87 dive-bombers; above these Me 109s in great oval sweeps, and above them Me 110s. Three of us got up into them. It was absolutely ludicrous - three of us to take on that mob. At one stage I found himself hooked on to the tail of the last of an echelon of 109s and started firing away quite merrily. Then I had an awful wallop. It was an Me 110 with four cannons sitting just behind me. There was a big bang and there, in the wing, was a hole a man could have crawled through. Carey was slightly wounded by an explosive bullet, then a second Me 110 attacked and caused damage to Carey's rudder; but he managed to return to Tangmere only to be fired at by its anti-aircraft guns. That he managed to land was, he said, a great tribute to the Hurricane. He had been in combat up to six times a day when on August 18, the squadron's losses enabled him to lead No 43 for the first time in an attack on a mixed bunch of fighters and Ju 87 dive-bombers. The fur was flying everywhere, he recalled. Suddenly I was bullet stitched right across the cockpit. Since Tangmere was under attack he turned away and found a likely field for a crash landing at Pulborough, Sussex, where his Hurricane turned violently upside down. he spent some time in hospital. In November 1941 he was posted to Burma with No.135 Sqn when war broke out in the Far East. No 135 was diverted to Rangoon in Burma , , On February 27 1942, Carey was promoted wing commander to lead No 267 Wing, though it could seldom muster more than six serviceable Hurricanes. After destroying several Japanese aircraft he was forced to move to Magwe. As Japanese air raids increased Carey turned the Red Road, the main thoroughfare across the city, into a fighter runway. One advantage, he recalled, was that it was quite possible to sit in Firpos, the citys fashionable restaurant, and take off within three to four minutes. I managed it on several occasions. Early in 1943, Carey formed an air fighting training unit at Orissa, south-west of Calcutta, for pilots who were unfamiliar with conditions and Japanese tactics. In November 1944 he was posted to command No 73 OTU at Fayid, Egypt, in the rank of group captain. Awarded the AFC, Carey returned to Britian as the war ended in 1945, where he was granted a permanent commission and went to teach tactics at the Central Fighter Establishment at Tangmere. After attending the Army Staff College he reverted to the rank of wing commander to lead No 135 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force in Germany, where he flew Tempests. Converting to jets, he moved to Gutersloh as wing commander, A succession of staff appointments followed until 1958 he was appointed air adviser to the British High Commission in Australia. Carey, who was awarded the US Silver Star and appointed CBE in 1960, retired from the Royal Air Force in 1962 and joined Rolls-Royce as its aero division representative in Australia, New Zealand and Fiji, retiring in 1972 and moving back the the UK. . Frank Carey died 6th December 2004.

Frank Carey with the original painting - Fighter General - by Graeme Lothian.



Bobby Gibbes
Click the name or photo above to see prints signed by Bobby Gibbes

11 / 4 / 2007Died : 11 / 4 / 2007
11 / 4 / 2007Ace : 10.50 Victories
Bobby Gibbes

Born 6th May 1916. Bobby Gibbes began pilot training in 1940, and by June 1941 was flying Tomahawks with No3 RAAF Sqn. By February 1942, he was commanding the squadron. Upgrading to the Kittyhawk, he had more aerial victories, before being forced to bale out on May 26th 1942. On December 21st 1942, during an action in the Western Desert, an aircraft from the squadron was forced to crash land a few miles from the target. Gibbes landed his aircraft in the rocky desert, aiming to pick up the downed pilot. He ditched his own parachute, sitting on the pilots lap in the cockpit. On take-off, one wheel fell off the aircraft after colliding with an object on the groud, but he managed to land the aircraft on the one remaining wheel, avoiding a damaging belly landing. He was then shot down behind enemy lines, evading capture for three days before being rescued. He returned to Australia, and was injured during a training flight crash. He died 11th April 2007.



Peter Jeffrey
Click the name above to see prints signed by Peter Jeffrey

6 / 4 / 1997Died : 6 / 4 / 1997
Peter Jeffrey

Fought in North Africa with 3 Sqn RAAF. In April 1941 he shot down a Ju52 as it landed, before destroying another 3 on the ground. Two months later he shot down a Ju88 and a Martin 167 within three days of each other. He was awarded the DFC. He managed to return to base after being shot down in November 1941, sharing a Bf110 later in the month. He was then awarded the DSO. He died 6th April 1997.



Alan Rawlinson
Click the name or photo above to see prints signed by Alan Rawlinson

28 / 8 / 2007Died : 28 / 8 / 2007
Alan Rawlinson

Alan Rawlinson was born on 31st July 1918 in Fremantle, Western Australia. Alan Rawlinson was a keen aviator and at the age of 19 in 1937 received a private pilots licence while learning to fly in DH60 Gypsy Moths. In 1938 Alan Rawlinson enlisted in the RAAF and in 1939 graduated as a Pilot Officer and was posted to 3 Squadron at Richmond, New South.Wales. When World War ll broke out 3 squadron was posted to the Western Desert and Pilot Offcier Alan Rawlinson was involved in combat flying in September 1940 to April 1941. From May 1941 to August 1941 he was stationed at Cyprus then returning to the Western Desert , Rawlinson became commanding Officer of 3 squadron soon after. It was while he served in the western desert that Rawlinson received the DFC. He returned to Australia in 1942 as Chief Flying Instructor at Mildura and was promoted to Squadron Commander and Wing Leader in 1943 and served in the Pacific campaign. In 1947 Alan Rawlinson transferred to the RAF flying the new jet aircraft Vampires and Meteors, finally retiring in 1961. Alan Rawlinson passed away 28th August 2007.


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