WAITE, Air Cdre Reginald Newnham (1901-1975)

Papers relating to his RAF career, 1942-[1953], principally comprising correspondence relating to the development of a submersible target at RAF St Eval, Cornwall, 1942, dated 1948; manuscript notes on the problems of establishing Coastal Command Station, Nassau, Bahamas, as a training centre for Coastal Liberator crews, 1942; official report on the RAF occupation of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany, 5-11 May 1945; printed reports on the progress of air disarmament in Germany in 1944-1946, produced by British Air Forces of Occupation, 1945-1947; correspondence relating to his work as Director of Air Branch, Control Commission, Berlin, 1947-1949, and to the planning of the Berlin Airlift, 1948-1949; official report on organisation and structure of Berlin Airlift administration; RAF training course notes and papers, 1950; papers relating to his service as Assistant Chief of Staff, Allied Air Forces Central Europe, [1951-1953], notably including photographs of Waite, [1951-1953]; published RAF manuals, 1948, 1950.

Born in 1901; educated at Repton School and RAF Cadet College, Cranwell; commissioned, 1921; various posts in Coastal Command, 1921-1939; served in First Lord's Operations Room, Admiralty, 1939-1942; commanded RAF Station, St Eval, Cornwall, 1942, commanded Coastal Command Station, Nassau, Bahamas, 1942-1944; served at Supreme HQ, Allied Expeditionary Force, 1944-1946; Director of Air Branch, Control Commission, Berlin, 1947-1949; devised and organised the Air Lift to Berlin in 1948; conducted Anglo-Russian enquiry into collision between Yak fighter and GB civilian aircraft flying from Hamburg to Berlin during the Berlin Airlift, 1948; Commandant, RAF Bircham Newton; Assistant Chief of Staff, Allied Air Forces, Central Europe, 1951-1953; retired 1953; died in 1975.

Arranged in the following sections: RAF St Eval; Coastal Command Station, Nassau; British Air Forces of Occupation; Berlin; course notes; Allied Air Forces Central Europe; RAF manuals.

Open, subject to signature of reader's undertaking form.

Loaned to the Centre by the family in 1984, and subsequently microfilmed in 1999 prior to withdrawal.

Summary Guide available on-line at http://www.kcl.ac.uk/lhcma/top.htm, and in hard copy in the Centre's reading room.

The Public Record Office holds a copy of his report into the Viking-Yak disaster, 1948.

Copies, subject to the condition of the original, may be supplied for research use only. Requests to publish original material should be submitted to the Trustees of the Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives, attention of the Director of Archive Services.