Air Vice Marshal (AVM) Cecil Bouchier addresses airmen on the occasion of the disbandment of RAF 607 (County of Durham) Squadron at Mingaladon airfield, near Rangoon, Burma.

A woman of the Women's Auxiliary Service (Burma) (a so-called 'WAS(B)') slicing a cake. Airmen gather around a WAS(B) mobile canteen. Flight Lieutenant Donald Nicholson, pilot of Spitfire Mk VIII JG534 AF:Z, climbs out of his aircraft after completing the squadron's final sortie. Nicholson greeted by AVM Bouchier. A jovial-looking Bouchier given a mug of tea. The WAS(B)s distribute tea and slices of cake. Spitfire VIII AF:C MV208 taxiing with two more Spitfires behind. A staff car arrives and AVM Bouchier and an Air Commodore get out. Bouchier informally addresses the men of the squadron standing on the bonnet of a jeep. He shakes hands with one of the airmen.

Notes

No slates and dopesheet undated. Date above the date of the squadron's disbandment. No cameraman named.

Dopesheet states the squadron's 'bag' of enemy aircraft was the largest of any squadron in South East Asia Command. The squadron had been in action against the Japanese for three years, and up until its disbandment, was heavily engaged in the Battle of the Sittang Bend. This battle would be the last major battle in Burma, seeing 11,500 Japanese killed, before the surrender on 15 August 1945.

AVM Bouchier was Air Officer Commanding RAF 221 Group.

Related photographs can be found under references below.