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All in a Day's Work: Some Experiences of 45 RAAF Pilots 1939-1945
All in a Day's Work: Some Experiences of 45 RAAF Pilots 1939-1945
All in a Day's Work: Some Experiences of 45 RAAF Pilots 1939-1945
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All in a Day's Work: Some Experiences of 45 RAAF Pilots 1939-1945

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This book captures a day in the lives of 45 Pilots serving in Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) between 1939 and 1970 including incidents World War II, Korea and Vietnam.
Some days are routine but others are not, and the combination of individual pilot skill and good or bad luck on a particular day makes for interesting reading.
LanguageEnglish
PublisherBookBaby
Release dateFeb 28, 2014
ISBN9780992432607
All in a Day's Work: Some Experiences of 45 RAAF Pilots 1939-1945

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    All in a Day's Work - Jim Turner

    Young

    Chapter 1

    Eric ‘Basher’ Barnett

    Pilot

    31 Squadron RAAF

    Beaufighter Mk Ic - A19-66

    Timor & Aru Islands, Timor Sea

    On July 9, 1941 I was training with 5 EFTS Narromine and flying a Tiger Moth R-4884 on a cross country exercise, it was a triangular course and on the second leg which ran parallel to the Dandedoo to Trangie road which stretched in a straight line for miles, it was a disastrous fascination.

    I took the aircraft down so that the wheels were on the road. With a little backward trim so that a slight pressure with my thumb held the plane down. As a car approached, release the thumb, the plane rose, forward pressure back on the road and so I was driving along the road in an aeroplane.

    Along the way I noticed a mob of kangaroos, being city born and bred I went to investigate and spent a short time chasing them as they hurdled the fences of the homestead.

    I resumed my cross country flight at the demanded altitude. Rumour has it that a scared motorist or maybe it was a local farmer who reported the incidents but the aircraft was bright yellow with huge black numbers. At any rate the result was I was greeted on my arrival at the tarmac by the CO with a pair of armed guards.

    From there to the guard house where I was informed my crimes were too large to be handled by the CO and so days later off to Parkes for a court martial where a list of charges were presented among them being ‘Flying below a specified height, low flying, endangering His Majesty’s aircraft, endangering His Majesty’s personnel’ (to whit myself) and ending in the be all and end all. Conduct to the prejudice and good order and Air Force discipline.

    I was defended by a local officer whose advice was to tell all. I found I was the principal witness for the prosecution and was sentenced to 28 days in Holdsworthy Prison Camp where for four weeks I had the benefit of military legal wisdom, court procedures provided by men who had experienced the courts and gaols throughout Australia.

    I resumed flying in the subsequent No. 14 training course fitting neatly into the same position as what I had left in the No. 13 course. I was next posted to Forest Hill (2 SFTS), followed by GR School at Laverton. I was posted to 31 Squadron RAAF (Beaufighter) on August 6, 1942.

    It was December 23, 1942, I was flying A19-19, one six aircraft dispatched to attack Fuiloro a new Japanese strip being built on the plateau in E. Timor. It was in the middle of the ‘wet’ season and the tropical monsoonal front was established midway between Timor and Australia and so after 40 minutes flying formation was lost and each aircraft flew alone.

    The Beaufighter possessed no automatic pilot it required hand and feet control. This was no ‘seat of the pants flying’ as the human balance becomes lost in the first few minutes of blind flying. It becomes a total disregard of human feelings with an absolute dependence on maintaining the instruments on the flying panel in their correct positions while at the same time having no undue muscular stress in either hand or feet. The aircraft had to be trimmed by means of adjustment tabs on the control surfaces so that the least pressure was needed by hands or feet. Bodily feelings as to your equilibrium must be subordinate to the belief in the instruments. The longer the time the harder it became.

    After about 50 minutes I was in the clear and proceeded to the rendezvous off the coast of Timor. There were three other aircraft there and we set off for the target in loose echelon formation. Crossing the escarpment I spied an army lorry and attempted an attack but lost it in the hills and trees. I resumed my course but was now way behind the other aircraft.

    I climbed for the attack but sighted no aircraft. As I dived on the strip my only target was a tent at the end of the runway. I gave it a squirt and levelled out at about 20 feet. I then spotted a single engine fighter at about 10 o’clock high I went into a steep port climbing turn under full throttle. As I straightened out the aircraft was heading directly at me. I opened fire and observed cannon shells exploding in the engine nacelle and a large part of the cowling blew off. There was a flash of panic at having a head on collision. A wisp of smoke as the aircraft passed below my starboard wing I turned to follow it down when Paddy my navigator yelled out that another one was on my tail and shooting. I went immediately for the ground, skidding the aircraft to confuse the others aim.

    As soon as Paddy reported the enemy as climbing I straightened out and ran. It followed but dropping back and never came close enough to open fire. By the time we had reached the escarpment it was out of sight. We flew down to the ocean and set course for Darwin and resumed the second battle with the elements.

    Five aircraft returned to base the first having turned back because of the weather while one failed to return at all.

    On the next day the aircraft rigger showed me the navigation light on the tip of the port wing. The Perspex was badly scratched and abraded at its tip and underside and wedged in the slit between the light and the main-plane, was jammed with grass stems.

    F/L Ken Cahen returned from a further Fuiloro raid reporting the wreckage beside the strip. The aircraft I had shot at had gone straight in.

    On the afternoon of January 31, 1943 we flew from Coomalie to Drysdale, arriving there at 4.10p.m. All aircraft were immediately refuelled in order to be ready to take off early the following morning, when we were to carry out a strafing attack on Penfoei Aerodrome.

    After taking off at first light we formed into a V formation which was led by S/L Savage. I was flying A19-66 on his port side with F/O Greenwood on my left and then F/O Delaporte in that order. F/O Blundell and F/L Madden were on the starboard side of the formation. After about an hour in the air F/O Blundell returned to base with engine trouble. The remaining aircraft continued towards Penfoei in the same formation, flying about 20 feet above the water. We arrived off the coast of Timor near Cape Oilmatmoeti and the set course to arrive at a position about 3 miles west of Penfoei.

    Crossing the coast we climbed up through 10/10th cloud which was down to ground level. At 1,200 feet we emerged from the cloud into bright sunshine and almost immediately S/L Savage, F/L Madden and myself, observed our target through a break in the cloud. It was directly in front and below us, so we dived down for a low-level attack, heading northwards across the strip.

    At about 500 feet I decided to test fire my 20mm cannons on a large building with a red tile roof. The building was partly cut into the hill, with a retaining wall along the eastern side. It was located on the western side of some low hills to the west of the airfield. I fired a short burst and watched it hit the roof the building immediately disintegrated in three tremendous explosions and flattened everything within a 2 mile radius. It turned out I had hit a munitions factory nobody knew about.

    I was momentarily stunned and recovered to find myself flying upside down at about 1,000 feet, in the explosion both cockpit windows had been blown out and everything movable had been sucked out of the aircraft’s cockpit including my smokes and matches.

    I was bewailing their loss to my navigator just after he had finished a report to HQ and the transmitter was left open and the whole area was informed of my loss. A large mushroom cloud of thick black smoke had risen from the site where the building had been, and was already up to the base of the clouds. A deep red-coloured fire was burning in the remains of the building.

    Having checked that my aircraft hadn’t been damaged, I dived to attack the airfield, flying about 20 feet off the ground. I fired my cannons and machine-guns at two Betty’s on the strip outside some pens. One of these aircraft caught fire and is considered to have been destroyed.

    At the northern end of the strip I turned left and opened fire with cannon and machine guns on two more Betty’s parked on the main strip. One of these bombers caught fire considered destroyed, while the other was damaged. I then fired into some blast pens and damaged a Zeke fighter following which I attacked a heavy A/A position, killing or wounding three personnel.

    At this point I began a gentle right-hand bank and decided to have a quick look over my shoulder back down the strip, turning back to see where I was going, I instantly applied full power and went into a steep climbing left turn.

    As I began the turn, my wings sliced through a number of long wire radio aerials, while the leading edge of my right wing between the cockpit and engine was speared by part of a wooden flagpole, still bearing a Japanese flag. While I somehow managed to miss the radio towers, I did collect several long wire aerials.

    Climbing away, I set a southerly course across Timor Island for base, but a short time later I noticed F/O Delaporte under attack from a Lily. As I turned right to intercept the Lily it also turned right so I fired one long burst from 800 to 1,000 yards but no result was observed.

    The flight home was uneventful. I still had small segments of the Japanese flag flapping over the top of the wing until it finally fell off about 80 miles north of Drysdale. At Drysdale the other aircraft refuelled and returned to Coomalie, but my aircraft needed repair so we were unable to return to Coomalie until the following day.

    The wire from the radio aerials had damaged the leading edge of the wing and wrapped around the propeller hubs, welding, itself into rings that had to be cut off with a hacksaw.

    In the subsequent week, reports filtered back to the squadron including one concerning misuse of aircraft’s transmission and another recon of the appearance of a large clearing adjacent to Penfoei aerodrome.

    On May 6, 1943 I was involved in the initial raid on the Taberfane float plane base in the Aru Islands. It was most memorable for me for its unique experiences.

    We flew from Darwin to Millingimbi late in afternoon of May 5, after a meal and briefing we retired to our tents where I was bitten on the hand by a scorpion as I felt for my blankets. The pain was excruciating and the hand began to swell. After flattening the scorpion, a couple of aspirins and a short disturbed sleep I was feverish but excited at breakfast.

    We took off in the dark and flew the first 200 miles at about 10,000 feet. As we neared the islands I saw the sun just appearing over the horizon to the east. Soon after we descended to sea level where it was still dark and a few minutes later I saw my second sunrise for the day.

    We flew up the eastern side of the islands and then turned west led by S/L Gordon Savage, crossing the island we pulled up to 1,500 feet to make out attack. It was a complete surprise we came out of the sun from the east. What little ack ack there was concentrated on approaches from the south and west from the sea.

    There were a couple of aircraft on the water but the remainder were either pulled up on the beach or floating at the shore line. The attack was almost line abreast and after firing the aircraft turned right and left to attack again and soon there was one aircraft not burning and everybody was trying to get at it. By then our cannons were empty and we were only using our machine guns.

    After our machine gun pass I had Paddy (F/L Ken Cohen) turn on the reserve cannon which we kept for the return trip and it was good to see that aircraft burn. Aircraft were milling around seeking targets. P/O W McKinnon cut a lugger in two with one burst, the two ends standing up and sinking. F/O J Kearney went looking for targets after the nine planes were destroyed and strafed the huts and canoes of the encampment.

    Normally we had one pass only at a target for soon anti-aircraft fire becomes intense and fighters were in the air. We raced in and were chased out, here it was different we hunted targets until our ammunition ran out and it was quite a while before we set off for home.

    On the way back reaction set in and I became ill, vomiting in my seat, but whether it was my navigator standing in the well behind me with aircraft medical kit, muttering about morphia and needles that kept me going I don’t know but we arrived safely with myself and the cockpit smelling like a drunken party.

    For further reading see NO. 31 SQUADRON ASSOCIATION No.31 Beaufighter Squadron Album (ND)

    Also See McDONALD, K.N. Coomalie Charlie’s Commandos Banner Books 1996

    Letters to author Typed dated May 28, 1995, typed dated June 5, 1995, typed dated June 6, 1995, typed June 21, 1995, handwritten dated January 14, 1998, handwritten dated April 2, 1998 handwritten dated, handwritten dated July 24, 2005, several visits to him at his home in Sydney.

    Biographical Details

    Flying Officer E.J.C. Barnett

    Eric Barnett was a school teacher prior to joining the RAAF on March 13, 1941 when 22 years old. After training at Lindfield (2ITS), he went to Narromine (5 EFTS) then Forest Hill (2 SFTS), followed by GR School at Laverton. He was posted to 31 Squadron RAAF (Beaufighter) on August 6, 1942 serving until June 25, 1943. On July 27, 1943 he was posted to 2 AP Ferry Flight remaining there until he was demobilised in September 1945. The last aircraft he flew was a Mosquito. After the war he returned to school teaching and was a headmaster when he retired in 1979.

    -oo0oo-

    Chapter 2

    ‘Nicky’ Barr

    Fighter Pilot

    3 Squadron RAAF

    Kittyhawk Mk III - FL-889 (CV-N)

    Libya, North Africa

    On May 28, 1942, exactly six months after arriving at 3 Squadron RAAF (Kittyhawk) in the Middle East as a Pilot Officer, I became its CO.

    My log book shows, that on May 30, 1942, 3 Squadron took part in aerial combat over the Knightsbridge-Acroma area, with me as formation leader. These missions were aimed at halting Rommel’s swift advances in the push towards Cairo. On that day I was flying No. 889, a new aircraft flown for the first time by me on the previous day. My usual motif (a devil) was not painted on as no time existed for such displays. The markings were CV-N and although bomb racks were fitted, I was not carrying a bomb, thank goodness!

    Enemy air activity and anti-aircraft operations were intense throughout the socalled ‘Battle of the Cauldron’. Two sweeps were made over the area without sighting enemy aircraft, so I elected to strafe, in three flights of four, a concentration of transports and troop carriers moving eastward adjacent to the main desert road.

    I thought the attack went successfully enough but it broke up the formation, and as our first flight was re-forming we were attacked by eight Me109s. It was a hectic time, seeming much longer that it actually was. I managed only three bursts with no visible result and found myself evading frantically at ground level when I was hit in the wing section from an astern attack.

    Only seconds later, quite inexplicably, I was thrown almost over on my back. Although I was able to correct my position relative to the ground, as the plane straightened out, the propeller hit the ground and I crash-landed a few hundred yards further on.

    As shots were being fired all around me, I became preoccupied with getting out of the aircraft rapidly, not long afterwards it burst into flames and exploded. I remember being disoriented and very confused until I realised that I had landed in an area between Rommel’s forces and the 8th Army.

    I found the ground noise of the battle very intimidating, and, as my vision was impaired, I opted to crawl my way eastwards. I had moved less than 200 yards when a voice from a loud hailer bade me in very pukka English ‘NOT TO MOVE’. The voice then informed me that I was nearing a mined area and that they hoped to reach me shortly.

    After what seemed and aeon, some five or six men of the Royal Gloucester Regiment gathered me up and moved me back to their Casualty Clearing Station. Some journalists wrote this up as my second escape from the enemy, which I suppose is factual enough, but the reality is that I was rescued by some very courageous solders.

    A medical examination found that I was bleeding from my eyes, ears, nose and a small leg wound, and it was thought I was concussed. Preparations were being made for a trip to our hospital in Tobruk. Casualties were streaming in and I thought I was being asked to ‘sing for my supper’ when asked to assist in a tracheotomy on a tank officer. He had much of his lower jaw shot away and kept swallowing his tongue.

    Following an overnight stay in Tobruk I was cleared to return to my squadron. There never seemed any time to dwell upon a particular incident; each 24-hour period was so full, and that in itself was excellent therapy for most of us.

    The ‘upside-down flip’ has been discussed with many experienced flyers. They believe that as I was flying over a very concentrated flak area, my outside wing may have been tossed by a shot or air blast which follows. I was low enough, it sounds feasible, but I just don’t know. What I do know is how fortunate I had been to have had so much training and fighter experience (totalling about 800 hours at this time) in doing countless pinpoint barrel rolls and inverted flying, otherwise I could not have reacted automatically as I did.

    The incredible efforts of the ground crews, at this time particularly are mentioned in the book Three Squadron at War, Chapter 5. Around this period I received a signal from Air Vice-Marshall Cunningham:

    ‘Personal from A.D.C. to Commanders 112 & 3 Squadrons (Kittyhawk fighterbombers) A special word of praise and appreciation to your squadrons for the magnificent work being done by your Kitty bombers. Well Done.’

    For further reading see DORNAN, P., Nicky Bar, an Australian Air Ace Peter Dornan, 2005

    Also See GIBBES, R.H., You Live But Once by W/C R.H. Gibbes. DSO, DFC & Bar, 1997.

    Letters to author Handwritten dated December 2, 1996, handwritten dated April 5, 1998, two undated letters, one being his biography the other details about May 30, 1942, also visited him at his home in 1999.

    Biographical Details

    Wing Commander A.W. Barr, MC, DFC & Bar

    ‘Nicky’ Barr had studied accountancy, and was in England as a member of the Australian Rugby Union team when war was declared. He joined the RAAF on March 4, 1940 when 24 years old. After training in Victoria he was commissioned in December 1940 and posted to 23 Squadron and then to 3 Squadron RAAF (Kittyhawk) in the Western Desert. On May 28 1942 exactly six months after arriving at 3 Squadron as a Pilot Officer he became its CO. He also became its top scorer during 84 sorties with 12 destroyed, two probables and eight damaged. On June 26 badly wounded and forced to bale out of his Kittyhawk he was captured and spent months in POW hospitals before escaping and being re-captured a number of times. Sent to the infamous Gavi prison in northern Italy he spent 90 days in solitary confinement. Escaping again he worked with guerrilla groups and the remnants of an SAO force close to Field Marshall Kesselring’s Nazi HQ at Aquila. Although suffering from malnutrition and malaria he led 18 people through the German lines and rejoined the allied forces, for which the British Army awarded him the Military Cross He returned home in September 1944 a Wing Commander. Posted to Mildura he was Chief Instructor at No 2 (F) OUT from November 1944 until retiring in August 1945. Then followed positions on boards and in management with companies including, Felt and Textiles Aust. Ltd, Theiss Bros Ltd, Wm Cooper and Nephews and Meggitt Ltd. He became chairman of a number of organisations functioning through the FAO and reporting to the United Nations before he retired in 1980.

    -oo0oo-

    Chapter 3

    Bill Berry

    Bomber Pilot

    50 Squadron RAF

    Lancaster Mk III - ED-588 (VN-G)

    France & Germany

    I was posted to 50 Squadron RAF (Lancaster) and in mid April 1944 I flew six raids to France and Germany, a different target every second night. This was the first of the six and supposed to be and easy one, Juvisy, on the southern edge of Paris, was the location of enormous railway marshalling yards from which supplies for the German war machine were sent to the various fronts.

    Usually we carried a mixed bomb load of 500lb and 1,000lb bombs. However, on wandering down to ‘G’s’ dispersal we were surprised to see only 1,000lb GP (general purpose) bombs being loaded, 14 of them!

    At briefing we were fully informed on what it was all about. The area was heavily defended with flak and searchlights but, more important, the yards were surrounded by the French civilian population, so we had to make sure our bombs were dropped in the target area. If a few strays went wide and blew up homes we might not get a good reception if we were unlucky enough to get shot down.

    At 2106 we were airborne, circled the station, flashed ‘G’ on the down-light, and headed for Paris via a couple of doglegs on the way. The fireworks were certainly on when we got there and the bomb-aimer identified the aiming point quickly. ‘Open bomb doors’ and after a couple of ‘left, left, steady, bombs gone’ I felt the bombs go, two from the front then two from the rear alternately, until all 14 were gone.

    I kept straight and level for about 20 seconds to get a good photo, then, we turned to leave the target area. It was then I felt, rather than heard, this ‘thump’ on the port side and at the same time the rear gunner started yelling and swearing like mad. When I asked him if he had been hit he said ‘No, they just missed me’

    A piece of shrapnel had gone through the side and rattled around in the fuselage, making quite a noise; then Brian Holmes, my engineer, said we had a port inner engine failure. We quickly feathered the engine and, after checking for any hung-up bombs, closed the bomb-bay doors and headed for the deck.

    I chose to go low, with only 75 per cent of power; I reckoned the fighters couldn’t get underneath me and I would be past the coastal flak before they were aware I was there.

    It was already getting light as we crossed the coast heading back for base. At about the same time the Mosquitoes from the Photo Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) were over the target taking some amazing pictures of the devastation.

    The next day the Illustrated London News printed those photos and it was unbelievable what damage had been done to the rolling stock. Better still, hardly a bomb had landed outside the target area, and our casualties were also light.

    Two nights later, on April 20-21, we carried out a raid on the same sort of target on the north side of Paris, la Chappelle. On this raid we had a bomb load of five 1,000lb and eleven 500lb bombs, as on the previous occasion, the target was devastated with little damage done to the surrounding area.

    On the night of April 22-23, it was a 6-hour flight and our target was Brunswick, Germany. Then on the raid of April 24-25, we did our longest flight in these series of raids, 10 1/2 hours in the air, to bomb Germany. This was followed on April 26-27, by a raid on Schweinfurt in Germany, which took about 9 hours to complete. The final raid in this series was to the south of France, the target being St Medard-en-Jalles, a round trip of about 7 hours.

    I completed 23 operations in VN-G and this aircraft was eventually shot down while flying on its 128th operational

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