Description
Wing Commander A. H. Donaldson, Royal Air Force flew a multitude of missions in Sunderlands of No. 205 and 88 Squadrons during the “Firedog” operations in Malaya and off the coasts of Korea – he also notably effected the dramatic Air Sea Rescue of the stricken M.V. Joseph S., saving the lives of 23 of her crew in December 1950.
He first took to the skies with the Royal Air Force in a Tiger Moth at No. 4 EFTS in March 1945, completing further training at RAF Booker in July 1947. Having moved on to fly Harvards, he took further training at No. 6 FTS, Tern Hill in 1948 and at 235 OCU, before joining No. 205 Squadron at Koggala, Ceylon and flying their Sunderlands. An All-Weather Flying Course at Tengah, Singapore in July 1949 prepared him for his first operational posting when the Squadron moved to Seletar in September that year to participate in the Malaya operations. Having taken part in a Naval exercise in co-operation with H.M.S. Triumph on 2 October, he completed an Air Sea Rescue search for two P51’s that had crashed in the Sumatran Jungle on 14 October with no luck.
Donaldson appears to have flown on around 30 ‘Firedog’ missions besides two on Operation ‘Thor’ in January 1950 in which 25 bandits were killed by a patrol of the 1st Battalion, 2nd Gurkha Rifles in the Yong Peng area of Johore. Donaldson assisted ably with 280 x 20lb bombs dropped on 17 January and a further 250 x 20lb bombs on 23 January.
On 15 January 1951 whilst on an anti-submarine patrol in the Japan sea, he also shared in the saving of a United States Naval Corsair pilot who had ditched east of Wonsan.
Having flown his final ‘Firedog’ mission on 16 October 1952, Donaldson retired on 4 January 1954 with a total of 2329.55hrs flying on his Logbooks. He flew 44 operations in Malaya, 46 in Korea and took part in 14 Air Sea Rescues. Re-joining the service as a Corporal Radar Operator on 10 October 1955, he flew for the final time on 9 September 1977 in Meteor WA669, target towing for Hunters, with a final Grand Total of 2367.45hrs flying.
Sold with two Pilots Flying Logbooks Form 414, with a few newspaper cuttings tipped in and photographs of the aircraft he flew.
