A SMALL tribute to Manchester's own RAAF squadron has been given a temporary home in the Air and Space Gallery of Manchester's Museum of Science and Industry.

Dwarfed by the hugely popular flight simulator, a modest glass case houses memorabilia of the men for whom air flight was not a fun experiment, but a business of life or death, the brave recruits to No. 613 (City of Manchester) Squadron of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force.

There were many Bolton men among those who served in the Squadron, like George Dickinson, of Ladybridge, a founder of the 613 Squadron Association and its chairman, as well as editor of its regular newsletters.

George, now 82, enjoyed a brief reunion with former 613 members at the museum and was delighted to meet former Squadron Leader Vic Hester, DFC, RAF, who, following six months of picking people out of the North Sea in Air-Sea Rescue aircraft, flew into history in a particularly daring and difficult mission on April 5, 1944. His was one of six crews chosen to "take out" just one large house in a row in The Hague. The aim was to destroy documents gathered by the Gestapo which would shortly be used to help the Germans round up all the Dutch underground operators - and there were many of them.

Vic Hester recalled: "Excellent leadership, navigation and bombing by leader Bob Bateson and his navigator, at below 50ft all the way there and back, was the key to the success of this attack.

"The building was destroyed and burnt out . . . the buildings on either side undamaged except by glass debris."

The former Squadron Leader is the first of six outstanding pilots of 613 to feature in the small display in Manchester's Castlefield centre over the next 18 months.

He chooses to remember the fun times of his flying career rather than the serious incidents, and it affords him enormous pleasure to be a part of the remarkable esprit de corps which exists between former Squadron members. The City of Manchester Squadron came into being on March 1, 1939, as one of the "reserve" squadrons with local affiliations. It was disbanded in 1957. Curator of the Air and Space Gallery, Nick Forder, said it was felt appropriate to mention the Manchester unit in conjunction with the display of the Spitfire, on loan while the museum's own Spitfire is being renovated.

The best-known aircraft in relation to 613, however, were Mosquitos. For most of the war they were the fastest planes in the RAF. In 1942 one destroyed Gestapo HQ at Oslo in a spectacular rooftop attack. Another former 613 man is Derek De Maine, an art historian and head of Bolton School's art department, who joined as a national serviceman and trained as a jet pilot in America before flying for the Royal Canadian Air Force and the RAF between 1953 and 1957.

George also joined after the way and rose to the rank of Squadron Leader.

He flew Hurricanes, Mustangs and Spitfires and later became the Civil Aviation Authority's adviser to the Middle East in the Persian Gulf, based in Beirut.

He is proud of the fact that 613 Squadron has the Freedom of the City of Manchester. It was the least the city could do for the brave personnel who fought - and sometimes paid with their lives - to see that succeeding generations of Mancunians enjoyed their freedom from the oppression and tyranny averted when Hitler was vanquished.

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