Qantas at war

[kaz3g]

Have just finished reading a history of the part played by Qantas during WWII. Written by Jim Eames, “Courage in the Skies” was quite an eye opener to me.

 

I remember the beautiful Empire class flying boats in Rose Bay, and I have read and reread the stories of Sunderland in the Bay of Biscay, and of the RAAF Catalinas in the NG campaign, but had no idea of the extent to which unarmed Qantas aircraft and crew provided critical transport services to RAAF, Army and to the Yanks during this period. They started with DH86s from their pre-war NG service, added Empire flying boats maintaining a link with UK as well as keeping Port Moresby and Milne Bay supplied during the darkest days, established a run to Rangoon from Perth via Cocos Island using Catalinas grossly overloaded with fuel, and a heck of a lot more. Many acts of incredible bravery and quite a few lost to enemy attacks.

 

The book was only $15 at Australia Post and worth every cent.

 

The more I read, the more I am perplexed how we English speaking nations ended up winning despite the bureaucracies, the inter-service rivalries, and everything else.

 

kaz

 

 

[kaz3g]

I should have added they also flew B24s, Liberators, Hudson’s and Lodestars towards the end. And their engine shops reconditioned 1000s of engines...Pegasus, P&W and Wright Cyclones for the big stuff and also engines for fighter. And more than 20000 instrument repairs in their instrument shop.

 

Two of their Empire class which had been impressed early on were returned by the RAAF and formed the nucleus of the post-war civil,service.

 

kaz

 

 

[naremman]

Don't forget the "Double Sunrise" flights Kaz, operated by Qantas between Perth and the then Ceylon, a short leg of about 3500 miles taking around 27 hours in a Catalina during WW2. Still recognised the longest airtime commercial flight of all time. This run was ultimately flown by Qantas using Lancastrian aircraft, but they cribbed by landing at Learmonth and not making Perth in one hit.

 

There is a great tribute to these flights at the RAAFA Museum in Perth, alongside a PBY Catalina restored beautifully. Talking to one of the guides it took a good number of hours of flight before they could ever consider single engine flight without a downwards component. That they never lost an aircraft in the two years of operation is testimony to the gear, and the maintenance that supported them.

 

Sounds like a good book, and another one to find space for in the library.

 

 

[naremman]

The more I read, the more I am perplexed how we English speaking nations ended up winning despite the bureaucracies, the inter-service rivalries, and everything else.

kaz

 If you read Adolf Galland's autobiography Kaz you might form the opinion that our mob were not in the same league.

 

The English were probably fortunate to have a Canadian born bloke named Max Aitken on their side!

 

 

[onetrack]

Have to agree with Kaz, the story of QANTAS and their pilots during WW2 is one of the stories of unsung heroes of the War.

 

The three worst QANTAS crashes ever, were the shootdown and total destruction of the three Short S-23 Empires, G-AETZ, G-AEUH (ex-VH-ABD), and VH-ADU, by Jap fighters.

 

The fatalities from G-AETZ totalled 20 people (no survivors) - from G-AEUH, there were 13 fatalities out of 18 POB - and from VH-ADU, it was 13 fatalities out of 31 POB.

 

These were unarmed civilian aircraft that the Japs shot down, and the level of atrocity involved, is equal to the torpedoing of the hospital ship, the Centaur.

 

 

[kaz3g]

 If you read Adolf Galland's autobiography Kaz you might form the opinion that our mob were not in the same league.

The English were probably fortunate to have a Canadian born bloke named Max Aitken on their side!

 

I have a copy and his precautions with Bader when he allowed the legless pilot to sit in a 109 have always stuck in my mind.

 

kaz

 

 

[kaz3g]

Don't forget the "Double Sunrise" flights Kaz, operated by Qantas between Perth and the then Ceylon, a short leg of about 3500 miles taking around 27 hours in a Catalina during WW2. Still recognised the longest airtime commercial flight of all time. This run was ultimately flown by Qantas using Lancastrian aircraft, but they cribbed by landing at Learmonth and not making Perth in one hit.

There is a great tribute to these flights at the RAAFA Museum in Perth, alongside a PBY Catalina restored beautifully. Talking to one of the guides it took a good number of hours of flight before they could ever consider single engine flight without a downwards component. That they never lost an aircraft in the two years of operation is testimony to the gear, and the maintenance that supported them.

 

Sounds like a good book, and another one to find space for in the library.

Their celestial navigation skills finding Cocos in the middle of the ocean were unequalled. One of them found it at night and conducted a successful emergency landing ina small lagoon.

 

kaz

 

 

[onetrack]

I went into my local P.O. this morning to post some parcels, and spotted several other assorted WW2 aviation history books, besides the Qantas one on the rack.

 

"Bomber Boys", the story of the 18th Squadron, took my eye, and there were two more there, the names of which, I've forgotten already.

 

"Bomber Boys" is the story of the NEI blokes who escaped from the East Indies, who then merged with a group of RAAF blokes, to form the amalgamated Australian-Dutch 18th Squadron.

 

One of the members of the 18th Sqdn was the legendary Gus "Wild Bill" Winckel.

 

Gus was the bloke who, during the course of the Japanese bombing of Broome, whipped out the .50 cal machine gun from his Lodestar, that he'd been servicing - and bracing himself against a handy tree, managed to wing several of the attacking Zeros, and bring down one of them down. The Zero was never recorded as a kill, because it was seen to be on fire and never returned to base - so it obviously crashed - and no-one knows where it crashed.

 

Gus fired the .50 cal with its barrel resting across the crook of his arm and incurred some deep burns as a result. He died in NZ in 2013, just a couple of months short of his 101st birthday.

 

 

[onetrack]

Hmm, just read the reviews on Amazon for "Bomber Boys", and they are not conducive to purchasing the book. The author, Marianne van Velzen, is pummelled for her glaring lack of knowledge about her subject.

 

I knew from a quick glance through the pages, when in the P.O., that it was written in a "novel" style of writing, but the reviewers are all disappointed with the general inaccuracy of the information in the book.

 

 

[RocketShip]

Another very good book to read about the Qantas WW11 is Peter FitzSimons Charles Kingsford Smith.

 

A long read 700 odd pages, but worth every bit of that. He has researched very well for this book.

 

He goes right back to the early days of aviation and covers all the greats from those early days. 

 

 

[Old Koreelah]

...the legendary Gus "Wild Bill" Winckel.

Gus was the bloke who, during the course of the Japanese bombing of Broome, whipped out the .50 cal machine gun from his Lodestar, that he'd been servicing - and bracing himself against a handy tree, managed to wing several of the attacking Zeros, and bring down one of them down. The Zero was never recorded as a kill, because it was seen to be on fire and never returned to base - so it obviously crashed - and no-one knows where it crashed.

 

...

I've read a Japanese account of that action which mentions they lost at least one Zero pilot on the way home to Timor because of fuel lost thru bullet holes.

 

 

[onetrack]

Old Koreelah - Gus claimed he damaged two Zeros, but only one was actually credited to him, as a possible kill. Warrant Officer Osuma Kudo was officially recognised by the Japanese military as being killed in the Broome attack.

 

W.O. Kudo initially attacked a USAAF B-24A that was taking off from Broome. This B-24A had 20 military personnel on board, it had reached somewhere between 200 and 400 feet altitude, and after Kudo's attack it crashed in the sea about 7 miles off Cable Beach.

 

Two survivors from the B-24A made it to shore, but one of the survivors was in particularly bad condition. He was flown to Perth and died a couple of days later, leaving only one survivor from the crash.

 

Kudo returned to strafe the aircraft on the airfield after shooting down the B-24A, and that was when Gus peppered his aircraft with the .50 cal he was wielding.

 

Kudo's Zero was seen to be on fire after Gus's attack, and it most certainly crashed somewhere not far from Broome. Peter Dunn's good WW2 website says it crashed on the beach near Broome, but I can find no verification anywhere for that statement.

 

A second Zero, of the nine Japanese Zero's that attacked Broome, certainly did run out of fuel due to a punctured fuel line, on the way back to Java, and was listed as crashing into the Timor Sea.

 

It is more than likely that this was the second Zero that Gus claimed to have hit. However, at least one other person fired a machine gun at the attacking Jap aircraft from one of the Dutch flying boats.

 

I have no idea what happened to the pilot of that aircraft that ran out of fuel - one would presume he bailed out, but his chances of being picked up would be slim.

 

Gus was actually awarded the Bronze Star for his attack on Kudo's aircraft, and this award was later upgraded to the Bronze Lion.

 

An interesting story on the ABC in 2015 and 2016, tells of local Aboriginals finding W.O. Kudo's body in a tree in the mangroves near Broome, hanging by his parachute. The Aboriginals claimed they buried him nearby, and this story has only recently been revealed.

 

It seems strange that it took so long for this story to come out - but as the Aboriginal elder said, "No-one asked us about it!" It is quite possible their story is true, they have little to gain from making it up now.

 

http://australiagallagher.weebly.com/attack-on-broome.html

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-03-16/japanese-government-inspects-suspected-wwii-pilot-grave/7251822

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-13/plan-to-exhume-wwii-pilot-in-broome/6850350

 

https://www.ozatwar.com/wa12.htm