About: Frederick Scherger   Sponge Permalink

An Entity of Type : dbkwik:resource/57M61t8UhqnTfVDn1WHt-A==, within Data Space : 134.155.108.49:8890 associated with source dataset(s)

Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Rudolph William Scherger (18 May 190416 January 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff, the RAAF's highest-ranking position, from 1957 until 1961, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1961 until 1966. He was the first of three RAAF officers to hold the rank of air chief marshal.

AttributesValues
rdf:type
rdfs:label
  • Frederick Scherger
rdfs:comment
  • Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Rudolph William Scherger (18 May 190416 January 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff, the RAAF's highest-ranking position, from 1957 until 1961, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1961 until 1966. He was the first of three RAAF officers to hold the rank of air chief marshal.
sameAs
dcterms:subject
dbkwik:military/pr...iPageUsesTemplate
serviceyears
  • 1921(xsd:integer)
Birth Date
  • 1904-05-18(xsd:date)
Commands
death place
  • Melbourne
Nickname
  • "Scherg"
Name
  • Frederick Rudolph William Scherger
Align
  • left
  • right
Caption
  • Air Commodore Fred Scherger, c. 1945
Width
  • 38.0
Birth Place
  • Ararat, Victoria
Title
Awards
death date
  • 1984-01-16(xsd:date)
Rank
Battles
  • Vietnam War
  • dbkwik:resource/7903rQFa4ct6U596PtvoOw==
  • World War II * South West Pacific Theatre * Bombing of Darwin * Western New Guinea campaign * Operation Reckless * Battle of Noemfoor * Borneo campaign * Battle of Tarakan * Operation Oboe Six Malayan Emergency
Before
  • Vice Admiral Sir Roy Dowling
  • Air Marshal Sir John McCauley
Years
  • 1955(xsd:integer)
  • 1957(xsd:integer)
  • 1961(xsd:integer)
After
  • Air Marshal Sir Valston Hancock
  • General Sir John Wilton
laterwork
  • Chairman ANAC
  • Chairman CAC
Source
  • Major General Sir William Oliver, Chief of Staff to General Sir Gerald Templer, Malaya
  • Air Vice Marshal Ellis Wackett
  • Fred Scherger on his removal from North Western Area Command in the wake of the February 1942 air raids
Quote
  • Scherger was the first to go to the CAS post with a bit of class; the others approached it in a registered, a pedestrian fashion. There was a strain of ruthlessness in Scherger; he would not spare you if his interests and yours conflicted.
  • You always got a straight answer from Scherger, even when you didn't like it. He was very pro-Australian, and why not?
  • I was unemployed for one month, which isn't very encouraging in the middle of a war.
abstract
  • Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Rudolph William Scherger (18 May 190416 January 1984) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff, the RAAF's highest-ranking position, from 1957 until 1961, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee, forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1961 until 1966. He was the first of three RAAF officers to hold the rank of air chief marshal. Born in Victoria of German origins, Scherger graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, before transferring to the Air Force in 1925. He was considered one of the top aviators between the wars, serving as a fighter pilot, test pilot, and flying instructor. He held senior training posts in the late 1930s and the early years of World War II, earning the Air Force Cross in June 1940. Promoted to group captain, Scherger was acting commander of North Western Area when Darwin suffered its first air raid in February 1942. Praised for his actions in the aftermath of the attack, he went on to lead the RAAF's major mobile strike force in the South West Pacific, No. 10 Operational Group (later the Australian First Tactical Air Force), and was awarded the Distinguished Service Order in September 1944 for his actions during the assaults on Aitape and Noemfoor in Western New Guinea. After the war, Scherger served in senior posts, including Deputy Chief of the Air Staff, Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington, D.C., and commander of Commonwealth air forces in Malaya during the emergency. In 1957, he was promoted to air marshal and became Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), presiding over a significant modernisation of RAAF equipment. Completing his term as CAS in 1961, he was the Air Force's first appointee to the position of Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC). As Chairman of COSC, Scherger became Australia's first air chief marshal in 1965, and played a leading role in the commitment of troops to the Vietnam War. Leaving the military the following year, he was appointed Chairman of the Australian National Airlines Commission and, from 1968, of the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation. Popularly known as "Scherg", he retired in 1975 and lived in Melbourne until his death in 1984 at the age of seventy-nine.
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