Nostalgic visit to War Museum

Peter David Stenning from New Zealand yesterday visited the War Museum for a trip down memory lane: his father had been a radio officer on the SS Ohio.

Mr Stenning is one of the 280 people attending a reunion of the Royal Air Force 203 Squadron.

During the reunion, about 280 Luqa-based retired Shackleton and Nimrod aircrew, their wives and partners are visiting their former barracks, chapel and cinema apart from rekindling memories with their Maltese workmates and friends. They yesterday visited the Malta Experience as well as the museum.

The squadron was based at airfields around the Mediterranean, including Egypt, Crete, the Western Desert, Libya and Cyprus, apart from Malta.

Late and post war years saw the squadron operate in India and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and finally to the UK.

In January 1969, the Squadron moved to RAF Luqa operating the Avro Shackleton Mk3 and the Nimrod MR Mk 1 maritime patrol aircraft until it was disbanded at the end of December 1977.

The squadron finally left Malta in March 1978 and was resurrected for service two years ago. It is now based at St Mawgan, Cornwall, in the UK as the Sea King Search and Rescue training squadron.