Originally Posted by
idle bystander
Moving Australia! I joined the Navy hoping to fly as my father had, in the same entry as the "bearded one", of whom the less said, probably the better, but unlike whom I fell foul of the sudden reduction in the need for aviators, thanks to the RAF cheating in their presentation to an innocent, and ill-informed, Denis Healy, which led to the cancellation of the carrier programme.
That would be the former Major Denis Healy MBE (Military Division) RE who was in Combined Operations in the Med between 1942 and 1945. He actually admits with hindsight that canning the Carriers was a bad idea, but at the time the country couldn't afford to have a viable force (more than one). This is worth a read.
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documen...or-Defence.pdf
As a further point, the basis of the RAF moving an island on a map story is covered here. Let's just say it wasn't Australia, and it was the incompetence of an Wing Commander, more than a conspiracy within the upper reaches of the Air Staff.
https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documen...cy-1962-65.pdf