Marville, France
The Story of "Fang"

It all began when a group of No 439's young Tigers came upon a picture story in the National Geographic magazine about the tiger collection of the Marharajah of Rewa, in Northern India. The story told of His Highness' success in breeding very rare, pure white albino tigers. Two things seemed evident to the young pilots; the Marharajah of Rewa knew a great deal about the big cats; and secondly, far from being the be-whiskered, forbidding oriental potentate one might expect, His Highness looked as though he might very well turn out to be a sort of "tiger" himself if given half the chance. On the strength of this, a delegation of the young pilots confronted their squadron commander, W/C Bell with the proposal.

The winter passed without a word. Then in March 1962, a letter arrived from the palace at Rewa, apologizing for the delay, which had been caused by the difficulties of getting an export permit from the Indian Government. It went on to say that a nicely-stuffed tiger had departed Bombay recently, and might be expected at Marseilles, France within a week or so. On 18 June, 1962, "Fang" arrived at Marville, and the whole station turned out to welcome him with a ceremonial parade.

As may be imagined, No. 439 Squadron was grateful in the extreme for the Maharajah's gift and they responded accordingly. The highest honour that can be bestowed by a group of young "Tigers" on an individual is to accept him into the "Den" and so the official wheels turned rapidly, and His Highness the Maharajah of Rewa was installed as an honorary member of the Squadron, with appropriate crests, plaques and pictures sent to the palace.

And on the basis of his past performance, the sight of His Highness crossing the aerodrome from the direction of Rewa, astride a ceremonial elephant, surrounded by retainers, gun bearers, and dancing girls, on his way to a 439 Squadron Mess Dinner would not surprise the boys a bit.