[Col Ford]

W/Cdr C.W.M. 'Larry' Ling DFC, AFC (Greece). He was already a W/C in early 1941, having been a pre-war member of the RAF serving in the Far East and Middle East. From June 1940 to August 1941 he served as the Chief Flying Instructor at No.4 FTS at Habbaniya in Iraq with the rank of W/Cdr. He was there during the Iraqi Insurgency in 1941.

There he was heavily involved in the RAF air operations in defence of that RAF Station against insurgent Iraqi forces supported by elements of the Luftwaffe and Italian Air Force from May 2, 1941 until May 31, 1941, leading one of the hastily formed ‘squadrons’ “C” Squadron equipped with ten Hawker Audaxes operating off the Station’s polo field. During the battle for Habbaniya, he had been sorely injured by ground fire from Iraqi positions during a diving bombing attack flying a Hawker Audax. He was wounded through both buttocks which required his hospitalisation, lying on his face due to the nature of his injuries. (For more on the Battle for Habbaniya may I commend "Hidden Victory - The Battle of Habbaniya, May 1941" written by Air Vice-Marshall AG Dudgeon CBE DFC, who was a Squadron Leader with No.4 SFTS under W/C Ling at the time.) After recovering from his wounds, he was detached for ‘special duties’ in August 1941 in the Balkans. The award of an Air Force Cross by the Greek Government that was notified in the London Gazette of December 29, 1942 gives no indication of what the ‘special duties’ might have entailed.

He served briefly as Officer Commanding of No.268 (FR) Squadron RAF at the time based at Snailwell flying Mustang Mk.I aircraft from 19 April 1943 until 20 June 1943. Given that Ling was a rather tall and solidly built person and his main pre-War RAF experience was on multi engined types, his time with 268 did not see him fly many operational sorties. Key to that was that the Mustang cockpit was just too cramped to accommodate him - his head was hard up against the top section of the framed canopy, even with the pilot's seat in the fully down position. After he left 268 he went for a short stint to a Staff position before eventually ending up in command of No.51 Squadron flying Halifaxes.

I suspect, the air to air victories noted in his DFC citation may have something to do with his time on "special duties" in the Balkans for which he had been awarded an AFC by the Greek Government. During his time with 268, he was rather "stumm" about what he got up to in the Balkans, but did talk a bit about his exploits in Iraq and his pre-War flying activities. By coincidence, the previous OC of 268 was the older brother of S/L (later AVM) Dudgeon who had served under him at Habbinaya.

He was an A/g Croup Captain by May 1945 and M-I-D in June 1945.

Regards,