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Quote:

Originally Posted by Keg

A RAAF senior officer that I've had the pleasure of listening to always said that the primary role of the RAAF was to 'kill people and break their stuff'. It may not be politically nice to say but it probably is an apt description!
Just my view from the cheap seats.

Another twist on a similar Bar Room Moto I heard for the RAF is "Drop Bombs and Kill People"

Quote:

Originally Posted by South Bound

Thought it was 'hard work' not hardship...?

You can trasnslate it either way, or indeed a number of others; English has a number of ways of getting the gist of the idea across.

I was quite amused the first time I saw the RAF Regt motto... More so when I saw the SERE Sqn motto at Cranditz which goes, IIRC, "hodie hic, cras abiere".

Don't mind working hard, hardship is a bit out of order though!!!!

Quote:

Originally Posted by ORAC

RAF web site history of 22 Sqn says it was 7 Wing HQ, not 7 Sqn...
Badge: On a Torteaux, a Maltese Cross throughout, overall a 'pi' fimbriated - approved by King Edward VIII in May 1936. The Greek sign 'pi' denotes the Squadron's service in France with the 7th Wing, the pilots often taking off over the Wing's HQ - hence the 22 over 7, or 'pi'.

For the anoraks yet another question is promted by ORAC's reply. How many crests were approved by KE VIII?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator

For the anoraks yet another question is promted by ORAC's reply. How many crests were approved by KE VIII?

7? Or was it 8?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pontius Navigator

Archimedes, thanks for that. I think I have seen the can opener in the shield but it could be fading memory. However that prompts a second question.
Has any sqn changed its crest from one approved style to another?

208 before and during WW2 flew with a device known coloquially as the "flying shufti"; a winged human eye, which tied in well with the sqn motto "Vigilant". The Eye of Horos (? forgive my scanty classical education) also fitted well with the squadon's long connection with Egypt. When the time came to regularise matters through the Chester Herald, the legend (in my time) was that he took exception to the device because, festooned as it was with a luscious growth of lashes, it bore too close a resemblance to the female genitalia - depicted athwartships (or Chinese fashion for those who served on squadrons with an RFC background). So the device was replaced by a Sphynx (which accounts for its inscrutable smile). In addition I have a copy (from The Sun"of a sensuous young lady sitting on the text "208 penetrates" - a relic of the Bucc era.

On 50 Sqn we were allowed to put up the "Dingos" on the fins in fluorescent plastic silhouettes for detachments to the Antipodes, although each aircraft bore the official badges of all three squadrons at Waddo.

Per Ardua Ad Astra

I thought that meant...

Go to Work in a Vauxhall

I always liked "F:mad: this for a game of soldiers".

I always tried to live up to 46 Sqn's motto - "We rise to conquer"

Keg

I was told it ment "Through Adversity to the Stars" while at 1RTU. But the quote I like is that the RAAF is just a flying club with bombs.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Keg

This from the RAAF news on the issue of the RAAF (and RAF) official motto.
More great news from the RAAF available from here:
http://www.defence.gov.au/news/raafn...topstories.htm
A RAAF senior officer that I've had the pleasure of listening to always said that the primary role of the RAAF was to 'kill people and break their stuff'. It may not be politically nice to say but it probably is an apt description!
Just my view from the cheap seats.

Keg: that's it! -see my original post.
Do you have a name for this RAAF chap or any written reference.
Cheers
Cusco

'Per Ardua ad Astra'

'By arduous ways to the stars'

That was what we were taught in 1964 when I signed up.

'We knew how to whinge but kept it in the NAAFI bar.'

Quote:

Kita chari jauh (Malay)

Very bad Malay. They should change it.

Although Brats often reckon that "Per Ardua Ad Astra" translates as "Through Difficulties To The Cinema," every airman would agree that it means "After work we're all off to the cinema."...

Quote:

'In Omnia Parati'... ...means 'we drop paratroops everywhere' Possibly still does.

I never knew the Legions had paratroops. They never had aeroplanes at any rate, perhaps they threw them over the walls with a balista centenaria? Or called upon Hercules himself.

Hey, ho. Jalan-jalan, menchari makan.

Bit off the topic.. .but I remember a friend and I getting a shopkeeper to come out from the back room and serve us after yelling

"Hello... we are breaking your stuff" :}

I thought it was through "Adversity" to the stars!

"Through Endeavour to the Stars" rings a bell!!!

PA

I think 'Through Endeavour to the Stars' is NASA's motto. Clearly stolen from the RAF.

From the RAF Intranet:

Quote:

The Royal Air Force Motto
" Per Ardua ad Astra"
As far as can be ascertained, the motto of the Royal Air Force dates back to 1912 and the formation of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC). The first Commanding Officer of the RFC (Military Wing) was Colonel Frederick Sykes. He asked his officers to come up with a motto for the new service; one which would produce a strong esprit de corps.
Shortly after this, two junior officers were walking from the Officers' Mess at Farnborough to Cody's Shed on Laffan Plain. As they walked, they discussed the problem of the motto and one of them, JS Yule, mentioned the phrase "Sicictar ad Astra", from the Virgilian texts. He then expanded on this with the phrase "Per Ardua ad Astra", which he translated as, "Through Struggles to the Stars". Colonel Sykes approved of this as the motto and forwarded it to the War Office. It was then submitted to the King, who approved its adoption.
The question of where this motto had come from can be answered by he fact that Yule had read it in a book called "People of the Mist" by Sir Henry Rider Haggard. In the first chapter was the passage, "To his right were two stately gates of iron fantastically wrought, supported by stone pillars on whose summit stood griffins of black marble embracing coats of arms and banners inscribed with the device 'Per Ardua ad Astra'".
As to where Sir Rider Haggard obtained this phrase is still unclear although it is possible that it originated from the Irish family of Mulway who had used it as their family motto for hundreds of years and translated it as "Through Struggles to the Stars".
The authoritative translation of the motto is just as unsure as the source. Since there can be a number of different meanings to 'Ardua' and 'Astra', scholars have declared it to untranslatable. To the Royal Air Force and Commonwealth Air Forces though it will remain "Through Struggles to the Stars". It is peculiar to the Royal Air Force and has been made famous by the heroic and courageous deeds of our air forces over the years.

If that was copied and pasted from the RAF Intranet, then it's a shame it garbles the original 'sic itur ad astra'. I know Latin is difficult if you don't understand it, but really!

And the Latin words in question don't have several meanings, either (back to an earlier post) - it's just that their exact meaning can't be expressed by an exactly equivalent English word. That's almost always the case with translations, at least of abstract concepts.

Tim

Very interesting.

If I understand it correctly, the RA was allocated a block of squadron numbers for their new AOP sqns just prior to WWII, starting with 651 Sqn. These were then adopted by the AAC in 1957 and are still going strong.
The latest squadron is 677 Sqn AAC (V), a TA ground support sub-unit within 6 Regt, re-badged from RA(V) to feed the mighty Apache. With a prevailing wind, the next one after that should be 678 Sqn AAC(V).

Now 677 has taken its badge and motto from its predecessor unit, 202 Bty RA(V). Are there any conventions that dictate what can and cannot chosen for 678 ? I ask because there is a very nifty motto for 644 Sqn: "Dentes draconis serimus" ("We sow dragon's teeth "). The badge is also rather fetching and links nicely to 16 AA Bde:

http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/h644.html
http://www.rafweb.org/Sqn621-650.htm

However, 7644 Sqn RAuxAF claims a golden thread to this unit but has a completely different badge and motto.

Could one just pinch the badge and motto anyway ??