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Detailed account of the search for the pilot and navigator of a Vultee Vengeance dive bomber lost in the outback of Western Australia in 1944. The search for the missing airmen was one of the largest in Australian history. Includes photos, notes, glossary, bibliography and index.

He was our first Aboriginal fighter pilot, he flew multiple sorties during Australia's World War II Pacific campaign, and he should have had a world of opportunity ahead of him at the war's end, but Len Waters became the missing man in the country's wartime flying history. 'You were the master of the machine...you were an airman.' Flying Officer Bob Crawford Len Waters was a Kamilaroi man. Born on an Aboriginal reserve, he left school at thirteen and by twenty was piloting a RAAF Kittyhawk fighter with 78 Squadron in the lethal skies over the Pacific in World War II. It was serious and dangerous work and his achievement was extraordinary. These would be the best years of his life. Respected by his peers, he was living his dream. The war over, it should have been easy. He believed he could 'live on both sides of the fence' and be part of Australia's emerging commercial airline industry. He had, after all, broken through the 'black ceiling' once before. Above all, he just wanted to fly. Instead, he became a missing man in Australia's wartime flying history. Peter Rees rights that wrong in this powerful, compelling and at times tragic examination of Len Water's life. He also tells us something of ourselves that we need to hear.

In 1915 the Australian Flying Corps, the predecessor of the Royal Australian Air Force had its first combat operations in Mesopotamia. In 2002 the RAAF was again operating in that same area where Lieutenant Merz was the first Australian airman fatality in 1915. During the intervening years men and women of the RAAF have served over the sands of the deserts of North Africa and the Middle East, the skies of Europe and the fetid jungles of New Guinea and Asia. They have served with distinction and bravery in all the major theatres and campaigns of both world wars, and in Korea, Viet Nam and Iraq. This book is a tribute to those men and women of the RAAF.

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The remarkable story of an Australian airman and POW in North Africa, Italy and Germany

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The Life of Australia's Pioneer Aviator and Wartime Commander Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett CB CBE DSO FRAeS Air Vice-Marshal Don Bennett CB CBE DSO FRAeS is best known as the Australian commander of the Royal Air Force's elite Path Finder Force in the Second World War. His drive, determination and passion for excellence saw him play a principal role in prosecuting the bombing campaign against Nazi Germany. Yet, the full story of his life has never been comprehensively explored. Few can recount his exploits as a pioneering aviator, or know why he was regarded as the most technically brilliant airman of his generation. Fewer still know the man's background, interests, passions and obsessions, or what drove him to his many aviation achievements. Relentless Skies, Volume I: The Most Efficient Airman, explores Bennett's life up to 1942. New light is shed on his early years, pilot training, participation in the Centenary Air Race, setting world records in the seaplane Mercury, the 1940 rescue of the Polish General Staff from France and how he survived being shot down whilst attacking the Tirpitz. Binding together this series of extraordinary events and achievements is, crucially, an exploration of Bennett's character and how it influenced his choices, relationships and approach to leadership. Unparalleled access to the Bennett archive has enabled biographer Ian Campbell to reveal the many facets of one of Australia's greatest, and often misunderstood, wartime leaders. Volume II: An Exacting Task will explore Bennett's time leading the Path Finder Force, and his post-war career.

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Originally published: London: Hutchinson & Co., c1934.