No. 79 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) flight training unit that has been formed on four occasions since 1943. The squadron was established in May 1943 as a fighter unit equipped with Supermarine Spitfires, and subsequently saw combat in the South West Pacific theatre of World War II. Between June 1943 and the end of the war in August 1945 it flew air defence patrols to protect Allied bases and ships, escorted Australian and United States aircraft, and attacked Japanese positions. The squadron was disbanded in November 1945, but was re-formed between 1962 and 1968 to operate CAC Sabres from Ubon Air Base in Thailand. In this role it contributed to the defence of Thailand against a feared attack from its neighbouring states and exercised with United States Air Force units. No. 79 Squadron was active again at RAAF Base Butterworth in Malaysia between 1986 and 1988 where it operated Mirage III fighters and a single DHC-4 Caribou transport during the period in which the RAAF's fighter squadrons were transitioning to new aircraft.
A No. 79 Squadron Spitfire Mk. VC and ground crew at Momote Airfield in April 1944
A No. 79 Squadron pilot (wearing uniform) and two members of the squadron's ground crew posing with a Spitfire Mk. VIII at Morotai during September 1945
No. 79 Squadron Sabres at Ubon
RAAF ground crew pushing a Sabre before it took off from Ubon in 1965
The CAC Sabre, sometimes known as the Avon Sabre or CA-27, is an Australian variant of the North American Aviation F-86F Sabre fighter aircraft. The F-86F was redesigned and built by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC). Equipping five RAAF squadrons, the type saw action in the Malayan Emergency in the late 1950s, and was employed for air defence in Malaysia and Thailand in the 1960s. Ex-RAAF models also saw service with the Royal Malaysian Air Force and the Indonesian Air Force.
CAC Sabre
A94-901 (Mk 30), the first production CAC Sabre, in the colours of the "Black Panthers" aerobatics team of No. 76 Squadron
A94-964 and A94-982 (Mk 32), Thailand, c. 1962