Operation 'Flying Saucer.'

Hi all

Did you know that the Australian Department of Air conducted Operation "Flying Saucer" in 1953?

I was browsing files at the National Archives of Australia website, when I came across file series A705 control symbol 153/1/1637, titled "Operation 'Flying Saucer'"owned by the Department of Air.

Operation Order No 5/53 - Operation "Flying Saucer" told the story.

"In time of war, No 22 (City of Sydney) (F) Squadron and No 23 (City of Brisbane) (F) Squadron may be called upon to defend vulnerable points in our coastal cities against air attack."

An exercise to test Sydney's air defences was conducted on 20 and 21 Jun 1953. The attacking forces were from No 82 (B) Wing and No 32 (T/T) Squadron. "The code name of this Operation is 'Flying Saucer.'"

After reading the file, I couldn't find any reason for the choice of the code name "Flying Saucer."

I checked the National Library of Australia's digitised newspapers, which did carry several articles about this air defence exercise. They all mentioned that the Operation was code named "Flying Saucer" but again, no reason was given for this choice.