Royal Air Force News Friday, December 26, 2025 P2
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We’re friends on land but we’ll be enemies at sea ”
I felt I had unfinished business with this role”
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My family now have more of an idea how hard this sport is” RAF bobsleigh ace Cpl Alex Cartagena as he is joined by his mum and sister on the ice in Austria
Tom Hiddleston is back for the second series of popular BBC thriller The Night Manager
Rowing ace Wg Cdr Emma Wolstenholme set for epic Atlantic race against three of her RAF Cadet protégés
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Brize on point Simon Mander
RAF News Room 68 Lancaster Building HQ Air Command High Wycombe Buckinghamshire HP14 4UE Editor: Simon Williams Email: editor@rafnews.co.uk Features Editor: Tracey Allen Email: tracey.allen@rafnews. co.uk
AIR DROPPING food aid to starving Gazans has won Brize Norton a top humanitarian award. The station received the Firmin Sword of Peace for its role in preventing famine, awarded by CAS ACM Harv Smyth. Codenamed Operation Underhill, the global effort was the first time the RAF used the Atlas A400M for humanitarian air drops and involved 83 EAG, 206 Sqn, Joint Air Delivery Transport Evaluation Unit and 47 Air Despatch Sqn. Detachment Commander Sqn Ldr Lucy Playle said: “Everyone wanted to deliver the aid as quickly as possible and it’s warming to see all those enablers come together to be recognised as a team and Whole Force.” ACM Smyth said: “Together, they delivered hope where it was needed most, setting a benchmark for operational excellence and teamwork.”
Flying Santa
TEAM EFFORT: CAS presents the Sword of Peace to Sqn Ldr Chris Bowen, on behalf of all who played a role in Operation Underhill
● Continued from p1 “Without the Puma it has been a little more challenging to navigate,” said station spokeswoman Emma Macreadie. “The joy this brings the children has the parents in tears, they are so grateful as they can’t go to visit Santa in grottoes. “The bedside visits are to the Critical Care ward and those in isolation for infection control, where the crew waved through the window. It was very emotional.”
This Week In History
News Editor: Simon Mander
1941
Lancaster arrives
Sport: sports@rafnews.co.uk
THE FOUR-ENGINED Avro Lancaster bomber enters service with 44 Sqn at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
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CHRISTMAS MISSION: Meeting families and patients at the John Radcliffe Children’s Hospital in Oxford
1929
Trenchard leaves SIR HUGH Trenchard stands down 17 years after the creation of the Royal Flying Corps and 11 years after the formation of the RAF in 1918.
1965
Whirlwind rig rescue A 202 Sqn Whirlwind Search and Rescue helicopter is scrambled after the UK’s first offshore drilling platform, Sea Gem, capsizes.
Extracts from The Royal Air Force Day By Day by Air Cdre Graham Pitchfork (The History Press)