Wartime Winter 2023

MISSING

MISSING IN ACTION

An ace fighter pilot vanished while defending Darwin against the town’s 53rd Japanese air raid.

BY KRISTEN ALEXANDER

THE NEW GUINEA OFFENSIVES

Australian forces played a key role in major battles.

BY PHILLIP BRADLEY

GAVIN LONG’S WAR HISTORY

The Second World War official history was the largest history project ever undertaken in Australia.

BY KARL JAMES

F FORCE ON THE BURMA–THAILAND RAILWAY

A story that will keep for as long as there is history.

BY JONATHON DALLIMORE

44

HONOURING THE DEAD

Australia’s war graves units in New Guinea recovered the fallen and established important cemeteries.

BY LISA COOPER

50

PARATROOPERS ON CRETE

For the Germans, the invasion began disastrously.

BY CRAIG TIBBITTS

64

THE LAST COASTWATCHER

BY MEGHAN ADAMS

GALLANTRY IN AIR OPERATIONS

Rarely awarded, the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal recognised the daring and sacrifice of airmen.

BY BRYCE ABRAHAM

Ten months behind enemy lines in New Britain.

BY JAMES BURROWES

REFLECTIONS

FROM THE DIRECTOR, MATT ANDERSON PSM

Commission’s newest First World War cemetery, the first to be commissioned in over 50 years.

Visitors to the Memorial will have been met with much activity. The three major works packages (Southern Entrance and Parade Ground, Bean Building and Research Centre, and Anzac Hall and the Glazed Link/ Atrium) are starting to come up out of the ground. Work is also well underway for the design of the galleries that will do justice to the magnificent new spaces we are creating.

Supervising Editor Karl James

Editor Andrew McDonald

Manager Michael Kelly

Memorial Editorial Staff Lachlan Grant, Craig Tibbitts, Duncan Beard, Meghan Adams, Rachel Caines

Editorial Contributions

The Editor, Wartime

Australian War Memorial GPO Box 345, Canberra ACT 2601

E: wartime@awm.gov.au

Image sales (02) 6243 4542

General enquiries (02) 6243 4211

I received the news of the discovery of the final resting place of the Montevideo Maru with mixed emotions. To see the ghostly images of the largely intact vessel on the seabed, over 4,000 metres below the surface of the South China Sea, was a lonely and confronting reminder of the tragedy of war and the loss of more than 1,000 Australian service personnel and civilians. But I take great heart that there were families, friends, historians, philanthropists and Defence experts committed to search until the ship was found.

It is yet another reminder of what’s good about us. I need only think of Lambis Englezos, a retired teacher from Melbourne whose ‘magnificent obsession’ enabled us to find, recover and honour Australia’s missing diggers from the 1916 battle of Fromelles. Of the 250 bodies discovered in a mass burial site near Pheasant Wood, 173 have now been identified. So far, all have been Australian, and they now lie in the Commonwealth War Graves

THE MEMORIAL ONLINE

Readers will be pleased to know that the beloved ‘G for George’ will make its return to Anzac Hall in 2025, along with the Messerschmitt BF109G, ME163B Komet and, for the first time, our recently refurbished V2 rocket. They will be joined by a CH-47D Chinook, a battle-damaged Bushmaster, an M113 armoured personnel carrier, RAAF Kittyhawk ‘Polly’ and an Iraq War classic F/A-18 Hornet aircraft. These and others may be seen at our Big Things in Store open day on 2 September. Attendance is free, but please book your ticket in advance on the Memorial’s website.

We look forward to hosting Vietnam veterans and their families in August for the 50th anniversary of the end of Australia’s involvement in the Vietnam War. The RAAF continued to fly there until 1975; it will be an honour to host RAAF Vietnam veterans who served as Forward Air Controllers with the United States Air Force (USAF) and their families when they finally get to review the restored OV10 Bronco. At least seven Australians are known to have flown it in combat while attached to the USAF. It speaks to their professionalism, skill and bravery, and serves as a tangible representation of the Australia–US alliance.

Wartime is published for the Australian War Memorial by Hardie Grant Media

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Cover: Livingstone, NT. February 1943. Group portrait of pilots of No. 457 (Spitfire) Squadron RAAF on the wing of one of their aircraft. NWA0122

The most comprehensive collection of Australian military history is available on the Australian War Memorial’s website: www.awm.gov.au. It contains 200,000 photographs, 102,800 names of Australia’s war dead, details of 8,000 private records, items available at the Memorial shop and much more.

MAIL CALL

YOUR LETTERS

Proclamation Board

Thanks for Dr Thomas J Rogers’ explanation in Wartime 100 of the 1830 Proclamation board from the Tasmanian governor, and his putting it in context. I had seen that pictorial board before but had not understood its background or its many purposes.

I hope Wartime will keep adding to our intelligence about new and old frontier items in your collection.

GREG IVEY

Nui Dat

In Wartime 101 on page 6, there is a photograph of an ‘unidentified soldier’ working on a topographical survey map. I believe he is Graham Dowd. I replaced him in Nui Dat in October 1970. He died some years ago on Bribie Island.

The unit photographer at that time was Garran Hill; whether he took the photograph, I do not know.

LYN THOMSON

Editor: Our thanks to Mr Thomson; our photograph curators have found other evidence that supports his identification of Dowd.

ABOUT WARTIME

The opinions expressed in Wartime are those of individual authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian War Memorial or Hardie Grant Media. It is not the intention of the publisher to sensationalise human tragedy that is the result of war, nor to promote militaristic or chauvinistic sentiment, but to offer truthful, readable and

ADMIRAL HIPPER

On page 33 of Wartime 101 there is a photograph with the caption “Troopship SS Orana is sunk by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper”. The photo is not of the Hipper; it clearly shows a gun turret in front of the after castle. The Hipper had four main turrets, none of which was in front of the after castle.

CHRIS HUNTER

Editor: Mr Hunter is correct that the German ship in the photo is not Hipper but the destroyer Hans Lody (Z10). The caption could be mistaken as suggesting that it was Hipper, but that was our oversight.

Above: images provided by Chris Hunter

In our next issue

The next edition of Wartime , #104, out in early October this year, focuses on fighting other people’s wars.

entertaining stories that reflect the Australian experience of war.

© All material appearing in Wartime is copyright. Reproduction in whole or part must be approved by the publisher. Every effort has been made to determine and contact holders of copyright for materials used in Wartime. The Memorial welcomes advice concerning omissions.

Indigenous readers are advised that this magazine contains stories and images of deceased people.

The Australian War Memorial acknowledges the traditional custodians of Country throughout Australia. We recognise their continuing connection to land, sea and waters. We pay our respects to Elders past and present.

COLLECTION INSIGHTS

An organisational unit formed in March 1942 with the renewed hope of stemming the Japanese tide, the South-West Pacific Area (SWPA) was a significant theatre of war close to home. With United States General Douglas MacArthur as Supreme Commander of Allied Forces, major campaigns were fought in the Netherlands East Indies, New Guinea, the Philippines, Solomon Islands, Timor and Borneo.

EMILY HYLES, ASSISTANT CURATOR, MILITARY HERALDRY & TECHNOLOGY

Paillard Bolex spring-wound movie camera used by Corporal Douglas Hardy of the 9th Military History Field Team. With this camera, Hardy covered seminal events in the SWPA, including Australian landings at Tarakan and Labuan. REL24322.001

Senninbari are garments bearing one thousand stitches and given by families to soldiers for luck in wartime. This one was removed from a crashed Japanese aircraft at Madang by an Australian soldier. REL/03613

Engraved Dutch mess tin associated with Australian Sergeant Frederick Bates and Sergeant Johannes van Ark of the Netherlands East Indies Army. Both men were captured and held in a prisoner of war camp on Ambon. Both survived. It seems likely they swapped dixies while prisoners. AWM2017.1363.3

An inveterate pipe smoker, General Douglas MacArthur was often seen with his trademark corn cob pipe. This is another of his collection. REL/17067

An army chaplain in post-war Rabaul, Reverend Gordon Young was responsible for the welfare of condemned Japanese war criminals. This linen traycloth was given as a Christmas gift to thank Young and his wife for their support and kindness. REL/18687

IN 1914, MORE THAN 41,000 AUSTRALIANS AND NEW ZEALANDERS DEPARTED ALBANY, BOUND FOR THE FIRST WORLD WAR.

THIS IS THEIR STORY.

The National Anzac Centre is Australia’s foremost museum dedicated to honouring the ANZACs of the First World War.

Follow the real life experience of one of 32 ANZAC characters using multimedia, unique artefacts, rare images and film, and audio commentary.

the SEVEN UYENOS

From 1920 to 1941, a group of acrobats toured Australian cities and regional towns with Wirth’s Circus. Known as the Seven Uyenos (or the Royal Uyenos, or the American Uyenos) this skilled and experienced group of Japanese performers based in the United States was successful and well known, returning to Australia many times.

Led by Shojiro (Albert) Ueno, who had toured professionally since the age of five, this talented group was the highlight of the circus, with contemporary media reports noting that the Uyenos “stand out above all their predecessors at this

class of work”. The troupe were known for their juggling, tumbling, balancing and other feats. One member, Kaichiro (or Kakichi) Namba, was famous for his ability to ascend a ladder using only his head and none of his limbs.

The troupe arrived in Australia in late 1940 to perform with Wirth’s Circus as the American Uyenos, as they had in previous years. But the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 and the outbreak of war in the Pacific dramatically altered the situation of Japanese people in Australia. The seven members of the troupe – Ueno, Namba, Hatsutaro Kaneko, Uwao Akai, Ukichi Yamamoto and Hama Koyama – were interned as “enemy aliens” at Tatura Internment Camp in Victoria, where they remained for the duration of the war.

The 1939 National Security (Aliens Control) Act had required all “aliens’ over the age of 16 in Australia to register; “enemy aliens” could be naturalised British subjects who were born in enemy countries, or Australianborn descendants of immigrants born in enemy countries. By 1942, more than 12,000 people were interned in Australia. Tatura was a purpose-built camp, one of seven Victorian camps

that housed the majority of internees. Japanese nationals were interned (along with German and Italian people, and others) as well as Australians of Japanese heritage. Many were from the pearling industry or had worked in the sugar industry in Queensland. The Immigration Restriction Act of 1901 meant that there had been very little 20th-century Japanese immigration, so the Japanese-Australians interned were generally from families who had been in Australia for a long time and were well-integrated into their communities.

Ueno was a Japanese national, but he spoke fluent English, thanks to his life of international touring. He became the leader of B Compound at Tatura, which he was reported to run in a “democratic” and generous style. Life was difficult for internees, most of whom lost everything when they came to the camps: homes, jobs, opportunities, education and communities. Conditions were not necessarily brutal, but they were certainly not comfortable. Internees could not, for example, heat their cabins, even in the cold Victorian winter.

Doris Wirth visited the troupe at Tatura – even bringing an elephant, to the delight of the 361 children

interned there. Internees used the skills they had to support and occupy each other; concerts were a particular source of entertainment at which the troupe used to perform.

In some camps, there was conflict –both politically and culturally – between Australian-born Japanese internees and Japanese nationals. Ueno said that at the end of the war “it was a relief … most of us were happy” but that “there were some who couldn’t accept the news.”

Members of the troupe were forcibly repatriated to Japan in 1946. Ueno worked as an interpreter for Occupation forces in Ikebukuro, Tokyo, and then as an English-speaking guide for the Japan Travel Bureau. Namba joined the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus in the USA after struggling to adapt to life in Japan; his constant international touring meant that he lacked Japanese language skills. The troupe did not perform together again.

Curator, Photographs, Film and Sound

The author gratefully acknowledges the invaluable research of Yuriko Nagata.

Clockwise from top left: Group portrait of members of the Seven Uyenos. Montage of images of the Seven Uyenos to promote performances in the 1930s.

EMMA WHITE

THE PERTHsail

HMAS Perth, a modified Leanderclass light cruiser, was commissioned into the Royal Australian Navy in 1939. Its early war service included patrol and escort duties across the Atlantic, followed by the battle of Matapan and the evacuations of Greece and Crete.

By February 1942, Perth was part of a 14-ship ABDA (American, British, Dutch and Australian) force stationed in the Netherlands East Indies to stem the rapid Japanese advance. At 7 pm on 28 February, Perth left Tanjung Priok on Java’s north coast alongside USS Houston. In the Sunda Strait, Perth was not expecting to be troubled by enemy forces. However, just after 11.00 pm, Perth made contact with the Japanese Western Invasion Convoy. Heavily outnumbered, Perth

sank less than 90 minutes later, and Houston shortly afterwards.

Just over half of Perth’s crew of 680 perished in the sinking; of the survivors, most were picked up by the Japanese. After some hours in the water, three Australians found a Japanese lifeboat and looked for comrades; eventually around 50 Australians made it to Sangiang Island. There they decided to attempt the journey to Australia. They landed first at Anjer, then Labuan, and finally on an islet dubbed Refuge Island. For their best chance of reaching Australia, 2,700 km away, they selected a skeleton crew of ten. It was agreed that the remaining men (including the wounded) would surrender.

At Princes Island, a new set of sails was found and the crew named the

boat Anzac. A week later, at Tjilatjap on the Javanese south coast, low on both water and food, the crew went ashore. Japanese troops had already landed on Java, and the men from Anzac were taken prisoner.

To save the few possessions they had, Petty Officer Ray Parkin used this sail to wrap up their remaining food. The Anzac crew soon agreed that both the lifeboat and Perth needed to be commemorated. Parkin designed and drew the central decoration onto the sail in indelible pencil, before all ten of the Anzac crew signed it. Around Perth’s coat of arms Parkin wrote, “To the memory of the gallant ship HMAS Perth sunk in Sunda Str. March 1st 1942 in action this foresail was used in salvaged lifeboat of unknown origin. It was called Anzac and sailed to Tjilatjap by 10 survivors (signatures below).”

The signatures are for Lieutenant J. A. Thode, Sub-Lieutenant N. H. S. White, Chief Petty Officer H. F. Knight, Yeoman of Signals J. R. E. Willis, Petty Officer H. H. Abbott, Petty Officer A. J. E. Coyne, Petty Officer R. E. Parkin, Leading Seaman H. K. Gosden, Able Seaman H. O. Mee and Able Seaman N. J. Griffiths.

Nine of the Anzac crew were later transferred to a camp at Bandoeng. Jack Willis was left behind, as he was too sick to be moved, and the sail was left in his safekeeping. When Willis eventually arrived at Bandoeng, his Anzac crewmates had again been moved on. However, he met another Perth survivor, Navy Writer Donald McNab, and they decided McNab would add the names of all 310 surviving members of Perth’s crew, including the ten Anzac sailors. The job done, McNab returned the sail to Willis, who rolled it up as a pillow to keep it hidden from the Japanese.

Surviving the war, the sail was presented by Willis to Commodore Harold Farncomb, who had been Perth’s commissioning captain and was now commanding officer of HMAS Cerberus. The sail was displayed there for many years in St Marks Chapel before it was donated to the Memorial in 1994.

Of the Perth men who became prisoners of war, 105 died in captivity, including one member of the Anzac crew, Petty Officer Alfred Coyne.

AMANDA NEW Assistant Curator, Military Heraldry & Technology

From left: HMAS Perth at sea in 1942, is in her angular camouflage scheme. The sail autographed and decorated by Perth survivors. REL22654

MISSING in Action

An ace fighter pilot vanished while defending Darwin against the town’s 53rd Japanese air raid.

BY KRISTEN ALEXANDER

As a Japanese force powered towards Darwin, Squadron Leader Raymond Thorold-Smith climbed to meet it. “We’ll try and hit them before they bomb!” The 24-yearold fighter pilot, who had wanted to “have a crack at Hitler” and defend his homeland, was killed in battle on 15 March 1943. His body was never found.

After completing operational training at 57 OTU, Hawarden on the Welsh–English border, Raymond ThoroldSmith joined 452 Squadron RAAF, then based at Kirton-in-Lindsey, in mid-April 1941. Nicknamed ‘Throttle’, he gloried in the Spitfire’s speed and manoeuvrability. He claimed his first victory – a half share in a Messerschmitt Bf 109F – on 9 August. Demonstrating an aggressive fighting style, he downed two Bf 109Es on the 27th and another on 18 September. On 13 October, he fired a two-second machine-gun burst into a Bf 109’s belly, escaping a near collision as it plummeted, and then damaged another Bf 109. Thorold-Smith brushed aside his success: “The German was a sitter, I couldn’t miss him.”

Promoted to acting flight lieutenant on 15 October 1942, he was appointed

flight commander at the end of the month. His final victories on 6 November were against the formidable Focke-Wulf Fw 190 and a Messerschmitt Bf 109F that “blew up after a dog fight”. The Messerschmitt “gave a fireworks display”, ThoroldSmith told reporters. “Green smoke poured out of it and then bits of it fell off all over the place.” The 23-yearold, considered just an average pilot at his Australian and Canadian training schools, was now a fighter ace with six, plus one shared, enemy aircraft destroyed and one damaged to his credit. The “first class fighter pilot” and “most determined and capable flight leader” was awarded an immediate Distinguished Flying Cross.

Within months, 452 Squadron had been stripped of key personnel and was withdrawn from operations to the Isle of Man. Declared by the media to be “one of the outstanding successes of the Empire Air Training Scheme”, Thorold-Smith was promoted to acting squadron leader and commanding officer in March 1942. Now deemed to possess exceptional flying ability, he determined that the squadron would regain operational status

as soon as possible and implemented a rigorous training program.

Throttle continued to fly hard and fast, led by example and, even after a solid day’s work in the air, did not shirk night-flying duty. Respected by pilots and ground crew alike, ThoroldSmith became known as an experienced and effective operator, as well as a “fine man and a wonderful CO” who “looked after his men well”.

As Thorold-Smith diligently trained his pilots, Australia’s Minister for External Affairs, Dr Herbert Vere Evatt, was attempting to secure Australia’s defence against the Japanese in the wake of Darwin’s bombing on 19 February 1942. Evatt pressed Britain’s prime minister, Winston Churchill, for Spitfires and pilots. Churchill agreed to his request and 452 and 457 Squadrons RAAF and 54 Squadron RAF were soon on their way to Australia. ThoroldSmith would have been pleased at the opportunity to defend his homeland.

“Everyone realises how lucky we are to have been born Australians,” he had told his family. “You really don’t know till you leave it how much love you bear it.”

Darwin defence

The Spitfire squadrons arrived in Port Melbourne on 13 August 1942 but Thorold-Smith enjoyed no grand reunions. He had contracted glandular fever. “I am so furious at being sick!” Despite assuring his mother that “my sickness is very mild,” Thorold-Smith realised he would “probably be off flying for a few weeks.” The newly designated No. 1 Fighter Wing had only six Spitfires when Thorold-Smith returned to duty, as most had been diverted to the Middle East en route to Australia. The aircraft drought was soon over, however, and on 23 November Thorold-Smith implemented a training program designed to bring 452 Squadron to the “highest operational pitch”.

As Wing Commander Flying, desert war fighter ace Clive Caldwell was responsible for the wing’s tactical defence. Caldwell and ThoroldSmith were old friends. With similar senses of humour, they often joked around together and were not averse to a bit of roughhousing. Training at the wing’s bases on the outskirts of Sydney progressed steadily throughout December. Thorold-Smith and Caldwell were both skilled dogfighters – their victory counts attest to their success in close-quarters aerial battles – thus mock dogfighting and aerobatics were on both wing and squadron training agendas. Enthusiasts of the “big wing” doctrine (RAF Fighter Command’s standard tactic for

offensive operations), Thorold-Smith and Caldwell scheduled formation exercises that followed pre-arranged set moves. One of these was “the Balbo” – named after Italo Balbo, the Italian aviator and former general of the Italian air force, renowned for leading large formations of aircraft. In the Balbo, the wing leader directed three or more squadrons en masse.

The wait to be sent into action was soon over. The Spitfire Wing arrived in Darwin on 17 January 1943: 54 Squadron was based at RAAF Darwin, 457 was at Livingstone, 55 kilometres to the south, and 452 settled into Strauss, 45 kilometres south. The wing’s Australian defence was about to begin.

Thorold-Smith notched up few aerial hours during January and February, and missed out on the wing’s first successful encounter against the enemy on 6 February. Flying Mk. V Spitfire BS231, he had participated in a little formation work and local flying, convoy protection, and three night readiness stints. March, too, brought Thorold-Smith only a handful of operational sorties. Limited enemy activity, bad weather and paperwork continued to ground him. Perhaps, too, lingering glandular fever-induced fatigue contributed to his reduced flying hours. The result was that he had had no opportunity to test either his training program or his ability to lead his squadron into battle against the Japanese.

Tally-ho!

Thorold-Smith was tired. He had not slept for more than 36 hours. After responding to a Japanese incursion on 14 March, he engaged in a 95-minute practice interception at RAAF Darwin. He and a five-man contingent from 452 Squadron were then rostered on for night readiness, playing cards to stay awake. At 10.30 am on the 15th, Thorold-Smith decided to return to Strauss Airfield; one pilot stayed behind, so only five took off. Their oxygen bottles were nearly empty but, because the pumps at Darwin were perennially unserviceable, it was easier to refill them at Strauss.

Caldwell was at 5 Fighter Sector Control receiving minor medical treatment when he was alerted that a full-scale Japanese raid was in progress: it was the 53rd raid over Darwin. Twenty-two Mitsubishi G4M Navy Type 1 attack bombers (known to the Australians as Bettys) flown by 753 Kokutai (Naval Air Group), tightly escorted by 27 Mitsubishi A6M Reisen fighters (Zeroes) from 202 Kokutai , were converging on Darwin.

Despite Thorold-Smith’s lack of recent battle experience or as a wing leader, Caldwell advised the sector controller that 452 Squadron’s CO was to direct the defence. Again flying Spitfire BS231, Thorold-Smith was halfway to Strauss when the controller instructed him to take command; he was to rendezvous with the wing over Hughes Airfield (51 km south of Darwin and roughly equidistant between Strauss and Livingstone). As they had practised, a wing Balbo formation would face the enemy.

Over the next 20 minutes, 54, 457, and the rest of 452 Squadron took off. Meanwhile, Thorold-Smith’s section changed direction and began their ascent. As they reached 17,500 feet, two were forced to drop out: they had run out of oxygen. Thorold-Smith, Flight Lieutenant Ted Hall and Flying Officer Adrian Goldsmith continued to climb. Now just three aircraft, 54 Squadron rendezvoused with Thorold-Smith’s section but 457 and the rest of 452’s pilots straggled behind.

Throttle sped ahead, Hall on his right, Goldsmith to the left. They had attained 20,000 feet due north of Lee Point when Thorold-Smith saw a large formation to the north-west, just off the coast. It was daunting, “reminiscent of the Battle of Britain”, the 54 Squadron

Spitfires taking off to intercept Japanese raiders. Photograph: Harry Turner. AWM 014484

Thorold-Smith and Caldwell were both skilled dogfighters.

diarist later recorded: “most of us had not seen such a sight since that time.”

Thorold-Smith called the “tally-ho” (for “enemy in sight”) and changed course to meet the enemy. He continued to climb to 23,000 feet in a wide line abreast; 54 Squadron was with him but 457 and 452 were still trailing below. The wing still did not have unity or height – but ThoroldSmith decided to target the bombers before they reached Darwin. Ordering the attack just over Point Charles, Thorold-Smith instructed 54 Squadron to act as cover. He called his section to strike at the bombers; 457 and 452, which had caught up, would follow. But 54 Squadron was still too low. They could not climb high enough because Throttle was going too fast.

The Zeroes were between the Spitfires and the main enemy formation. Despite not having a clear run, Thorold-Smith dived a thousand feet onto the bombers to the left, with Hall and Goldsmith following. Hall “saw the CO fire at one of the fighters, and I called the others to watch out.” Simultaneously, enemy fighters closed in from the rear. Hall glimpsed Thorold-Smith as he turned from west to north in a slight dive, going down with a pair of Zeroes firing at his tail. Goldsmith also saw a smoking Spitfire diving vertically. Hall called out to Thorold-Smith. There was no answer.

Above: Wing Commander Clive Caldwell (centre back row) took command of 452 Squadron after Thorold-Smith’s death. To his right are Flying Officer Adrian Goldsmith and Flight Lieutenant Ted Hall who flew with ThoroldSmith during his final operation.

Below: Wing Commander Clive Caldwell DSO DFC & Bar successfully led No. 1 Fighter Wing in the defence of Darwin.

Photograph: Harold Dick, 28 July 1942. AWM 015291

Despite not having a clear run, ThoroldSmith dived a thousand feet onto the bombers to the left, with Hall and Goldsmith following.

“Smithy killed”

No one took over as leader. Spitfires were bounced (attacked from above) by Zeroes and it was virtually an everyman-for-himself situation. As the 457 Squadron diarist later described it, a “general dogfight ensued with the Zeroes over Darwin Harbour.” The wing later claimed six bombers and two fighters shot down. It seems, though, that – as was common – verified claims were based on more than one pilot seeing the same Zero plunge into the sea. Later research indicated that only one Japanese fighter had been shot down.

Thorold-Smith’s leadership had failed. He had ignored the basic rule of combat: do not attack until you have a tactical advantage. With little hindrance from the wing because of the Zeroes’ determined protection, the Bettys were not thwarted from their task. Darwin was bombed.

The wing lost men and machines. Two 54 Squadron pilots died. One from 452 bailed out and survived; his Spitfire was destroyed. But what of Raymond Thorold-Smith who, before taking off from Darwin that morning, had totalled 747 hours 40 minutes flying time, with just over 540 hours on Spitfires?

An aerial search of the Point Charles area, as well as the sea to the north-west, was carried out that afternoon. There was no sign of Thorold-Smith or BS231. The next day, 5 Fighter Sector Control advised that a Spitfire in a shallow dive had crashed a short distance from Flagstaff Hill. The squadron was despatched to the new site. Again, no trace of wreckage or man. The search was called off. ThoroldSmith was presumed to be dead. In a rare tribute – he did not do this for others who had died in action – Caldwell noted “Smithy killed” in his flying logbook.

What went wrong?

Caldwell could not simply mourn. As wing leader, he had to interrogate Thorold-Smith’s battle performance. The big wing defence would ultimately prove useless against Japanese tactics, but Caldwell could only base his analysis on how their pre-determined strategy had been effected. Reluctant to criticise a friend, Caldwell approached his tactical appreciation “with diffidence”.

Rather than second-guess ThoroldSmith’s actions, he speculated that factors “not apparent to others” had “dictated the methods employed”. He also firmly blamed 54 Squadron. They had not caught up to Thorold-Smith’s section, nor climbed high enough to provide cover. They had been “jumped from out of the sun”. Caldwell did not acknowledge that 54 had failed to “fly the battle formation they have been trained to do” only because ThoroldSmith had led too fast, impetuously ordering the attack before all elements of the wing were in position.

Caldwell continued to believe his old friend knew what he was doing. Years later, in a hand-written annotation on his copy of the tactical appreciation, he stated that 452 Squadron’s commanding officer “was an experience[d] and very able fighter pilot and so must have been convinced of the need to make the attack he did despite being at a clear disadvantage.”

But experienced pilots do not make basic mistakes. Thorold-Smith’s decision to strike without the tactical advantage is only comprehensible if we consider that his flawed judgement might have arisen from hypoxia, a state which results in lightheadedness, confusion, euphoria or even hallucinations because of low

levels of inspired oxygen (oxygen that has been breathed in) – which the pilot may be barely aware of. Without oxygen at high altitudes, he will rapidly lapse into unconsciousness.

Thorold-Smith’s oxygen supply had not been replenished before leaving RAAF Darwin. Two of his men dropped out of the battle climb because of empty oxygen bottles. Thorold-Smith must have still been wearing his face mask, which also contained his radio transmitter microphone, because he was heard directing the wing into battle position. For this reason, he could not gulp in air as he increased altitude. It is likely, then, that he was suffering oxygen deprivation.

There is a very brief period between the interruption of oxygen supply and the onset of its physical effects. During this time, a pilot can still fly effectively – hence Thorold-Smith’s initial ability to orchestrate the Balbo. But this time of useful consciousness (TUC) quickly decreases at higher altitudes. Impaired physical fitness also hampers effective

Left: With Japanese raiders inbound, members of an RAAF Spitfire Squadron run for their aircraft. Photograph: Harry Turner. AWM 014491

Below: John Baird, Mechanics working on a fighter plane, (1943, black conte crayon, 46 x 38cm). Leading Aircraftmen Guy and Holden adjusting the air screws on a Spitfire in Darwin. AWM ART27854

performance. Thorold-Smith had had little sleep beforehand, and perhaps he still experienced post-glandular fever fatigue: a remote possibility that cannot be discounted. Without oxygen, Thorold-Smith’s TUC was limited. Speeding for roughly 40 minutes to an attack height – 18,000 feet, 20,000 feet, 23,000 feet – his mental acuity would have rapidly diminished.

Pumped up to do battle at his first sight of a massed Japanese force, in an escalating state of hypoxia-induced euphoria or confusion, Thorold-Smith could well have ordered the attack, selected a target, and fired. And, in turn, was fired upon.

Below: Four Spitfires were shot down during a Japanese raid on Darwin on 15 March 1943. At least 14 Japanese aircraft were shot down and many others badly damaged. Photograph: Harry Turner. AWM 014565

Inset: Spitfire P7973 was acquired by the Australian War Memorial in 1945. Raymond Thorold-Smith was the first to fly P7973 operationally on 19 June 1941.

The West Arm Spitfire

An aircraft wreck was discovered in Darwin’s West Arm in the early 1960s. Police and the RAAF were advised. In November 1966, RAAF security police and civilian detectives visited the site. They discovered a singleengine, four-gunned aircraft, riddled with cannon and machine-gun fire, deeply embedded in mangrove mud. Even though the RAAF had been aware of the wreck, until then they had not identified it. They now believed it to be a Spitfire. A cannon, two machine-guns, and other objects, including the cockpit canopy and smashed windscreen, were removed. A newspaper report made no mention of the pilot’s remains.

No formal investigation of the wreck appears to have been conducted until that of the Aviation Historical Society of the Northern Territory (AHSNT) on 6 November 1983. Partially visible in the tidal waters was part of a corroded airframe, positioned in a straight and level attitude, sitting in a roughly north/south line which indicated that the aircraft had been flying in a northerly direction. Two propeller blades were bent in such a way that

indicated a power-on impact. Both wings appeared to have been sheared off but were nearby. Also apparent was an elongated depression, later assessed as the wake of the aircraft’s movement through the sediment as it ploughed to a halt. A large quantity of 20 mm ammunition was found. A number of items taken from the wreck confirmed that the aircraft was a Mk. V Spitfire. The remains of the pilot were not evident.

At low tide on 4 December, AHSNT member and aviation historian Bob Alford inspected the site in his capacity as an RAAF armourer. His brief was to safely remove weapons and derelict ammunition, and obtain the aircraft identification plate. Again, only part of the wreck was visible. Because of the possibility of crocodiles, Alford rapidly sketched the site and examined the interior by feel.

The crash site was some distance from the original Point Charles and Flagstaff Hill search areas. Could the West Arm wreck possibly be BS231? Evidence certainly suggested it. The aircraft’s disposition validated Ted Hall’s sighting during the battle of

a Spitfire which had turned to the north in a slight dive. Spent ammunition in the wreck confirmed Hall’s account that the diving Spitfire had been fired upon. Alford’s examination further revealed that this machine had crashed with the propeller in coarse pitch and undercarriage retracted; the pilot had not lowered it in order to land. Assuming it was BS231, and ThoroldSmith had been trying to put down, he would have changed pitch and probably deployed the flaps to slow the Spitfire. That he had not suggests that ThoroldSmith was injured, in a state of hypoxiainduced confusion, unconscious, or dead. Each of these states would explain why he had not changed pitch or lowered the undercarriage – and so would battle-damaged controls. With the pilot dead or unconscious, the aircraft continued to descend in a semicontrolled manner until it crashed. It is no wonder that BS231 had not been located after the battle. As was later

ascertained, the site was underwater on 15 March 1943.

But Alford discovered no skeletal remains. With the earlier removal of the canopy, there was no way to determine if Thorold-Smith had parachuted out with the Spitfire continuing in a gradual descent or had tried to climb out after entering the water. Searchers had found no canopy. So, if Thorold-Smith had bailed out, it seems his parachute had not opened.

As it happened, neither aircraft identification plates, weapon serial numbers, nor even aircraft status cards confirmed the identity of the Spitfire. Ultimately, by a process of elimination – with all other wrecks accounted for –aviation historians and archaeologists identified the West Arm Spitfire as BS231: Thorold-Smith’s Spitfire.

Raymond Thorold-Smith has no grave, and his name is recorded on the Adelaide River Memorial to the Missing. On 20 June 1989 Clive

Caldwell, Thorold-Smith’s two sisters, Ted Hall and other friends and family were given the opportunity to farewell the young pilot in a memorial service at Queenscliff Surf Lifesaving Club on Sydney’s northern beaches. It was a form of closure that had been denied Thorold-Smith’s parents. The plaque, situated a short walk from the ocean, honours him as the club’s former member and flag carrier, a state rugby union player, “Spitfire Fighter Ace”, and “dedicated, inspiring leader”. •

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr Kristen Alexander won the Memorial’s 2021 Bryan Gandevia Prize for Australian military–medical history. She is a visiting fellow at UNSW Canberra and the author of five books about Australia’s aviation history. The Northern Territory government is seeking submissions about whether historic aircraft wrecks should be declared a “protected class of place”.

Above: This Spitfire made a forced landing on the beach after being brought down during a Japanese raid on Darwin, 20 June 1943. The American pilot, who had shot down two Japanese aircraft, survived. AWM 152509

… this machine had crashed with the propeller in coarse pitch and undercarriage retracted; the pilot had not lowered it in order to land.

THE NEW GUINEA OFFENSIVES

When the Australian 9th Division landed east of Lae on 4 September 1943, it was the first Australian amphibious landing on a hostile shore since Gallipoli in 1915. It was also the start of a series of offensives that would take the Allied forces of General Douglas MacArthur’s South-West Pacific Area command beyond New Guinea shores some eight months later. Carrying out and supporting that series of operations – involving ten separate amphibious landings, an airborne landing and a series of land campaigns – took considerable resources and planning.

General MacArthur’s aim had not changed since he landed in Australia in March 1942, when he had famously vowed to return to the Philippines. In March 1943, that aim was still a long way off, and although the Papuan campaign had ended, both the Australian and American ground units required extensive rebuilding before any further operations. MacArthur’s orders at this time were to capture Rabaul in a series of offensives known as Operation Cartwheel. However, any advance into New Guinea would have to take place in stages, building air and naval bases as the advance progressed. To achieve this, MacArthur would need to expand his air arm and build an amphibious blue water naval capability from scratch. At a time when air and amphibious resources were in great demand worldwide, there was probably no one else who could have garnered such resources for the SouthWest Pacific Area.

The key to this development would be “MacArthur’s airman”, the 5th USAAF commander, Lieutenant General George Kenney, and the commander of the Seventh Amphibious Force, Vice Admiral Daniel Barbey. Both men were given free rein in utilising those resources that MacArthur was able to obtain, and they would achieve remarkable results in the following months.

BY PHILLIP BRADLEY

Salamaua

For the Japanese, unaware of the growing Allied amphibious capability, Salamaua was now the key battlefield, and the battles there were crucial in holding back the Allied advance into New Guinea. General Adachi wanted Salamaua “held till the very last, just like the Soviet Army did at Stalingrad.” It would be Allied air power that would make the first major impact, using General Kenney’s “attack aviation” concept to sink a Japanese convoy of eight merchant ships bound for Lae and four of the escorting destroyers during the battle of the Bismarck Sea on 2–3 March 1943. Lieutenant Kitamoto Masamichi watched some of the survivors come ashore. “All were jittery and full of fear as if they were seeing a horrible dream,” he wrote. “A pitiful scene of a vanquished and defeated

army.” Some 3000 to 4000 Japanese troops were lost in the battle, although a similar number were rescued. However, MacArthur claimed higher losses both in enemy ships and personnel. As photographer Damien Parer put it, “The war’s a phoney MacArthur-made one. He’s blown up a big balloon full of bullshit and someone will prick it one day.”

Despite the loss of most of the troops and extensive supplies in the Bismarck Sea battle, the Japanese used fast destroyers, motorised landing craft and even submarines to reinforce Salamaua and hold the Allies at bay there. Little did they know that the Allied intention was not to capture Salamaua but to draw in more Japanese troops, leaving Lae relatively undefended. Salamaua was to act as a magnet. By the end of the campaign, the magnet strategy had drawn in the three regiments of the Japanese 51st Division and elements from the 20th and 41st Division. These three divisions had been sent to reinforce New Guinea in early 1943.

The Japanese concentrated their defence around a series of ridges and hills inland from Salamaua. Following the earlier low-scale actions against Bobdubi Ridge and above Mubo, a major series of operations under the codename Doublet were planned to begin on 30 June. Major General Stanley Savige’s 3rd Australian Division would have the major role, with a

Left: Members of B Company, 2/27th Battalion (including the author’s father, Private Jack Bradley, 4th in line), advance along the ridge at Guy’s Post in the Ramu Valley. Photographer: Norman Bradford Stuckey. AWM 060244

Right: An Australian patrol wades ashore at Nassau Bay during the advance on Mubo. Photographer: Gordon Herbert Short. AWM 015323

Australian forces played a key role in major battles.

series of attacks against Bobdubi Ridge using the fresh 58/59th Battalion, and an attack against Mubo using the 17th Brigade. The 2/3rd Independent Company had the aim of securing the Goodview Junction area and thus linking the two fronts. The American 162nd Regiment would also take part, making an amphibious landing at Nassau Bay and then moving up the Bitoi River valley to cut off those enemy forces retreating from Mubo.

Although Mubo fell, parts of Bobdubi Ridge remained in Japanese hands until August. Meanwhile, the American landing at Nassau Bay, although successful, saw the loss of most of the landing craft in the heavy surf. The front then coalesced around Mount Tambu and Goodview Junction. It was only a brilliant Australian operation that got in behind the Japanese defences on Komiatum Ridge, which led to the fall of that stronghold and forced the Japanese back towards Salamaua; this would not fall until after Operation Postern, the attack on Lae.

Preparing the attack

Operation Postern would require largescale sea and air transport movements, so General Kenney’s 5th USAAF needed to establish air superiority over New Guinea prior to that operation. This meant attacking the newly built Japanese airfields around Wewak on the north-west coast. An intermediate airfield was secretly built by US airborne engineers at Tsili Tsili to enable escorted bombing raids which soon degraded Japanese air strength. Lowlevel strafing and the use of “parafrag” bombs (small bombs on parachutes) were particularly effective against Japanese aircraft on the ground. By the end of August 1943, the threat of air attack from Wewak against Lae had been nullified. This would also enable the dropping of US paratroopers northwest of Lae in support of the planned amphibious landing on the coast.

On the naval side, American Rear Admiral Barbey had cobbled together an effective amphibious force. In August, a landing was carried out on the undefended Trobriand Islands to iron out some of the operational difficulties involved. Meanwhile, the men of the Australian 9th Division, which would make the Lae landing, had been busy learning the ins and outs of landing craft operations.

The rapid capture of Lae opened up a number of opportunities for the Allied command, with airfield sites and anchorages at the top of the list. AWM 015856

Australian troops disembark from a United States Navy Landing Ships Tank in preparation for the assault on Lae. AWM 306542

Operation Postern: the attack on Lae

At dawn on 4 September 1943, the Australian 20th Brigade landed 20 kilometres east of Lae. However, with a number of river crossings between the beachhead and Lae, including the imposing Busu River, it would take time to reach Lae. The 24th and 26th Brigade, along with considerable artillery support, were also landed over the following days. On 5 September, the US 503rd Parachute Infantry Regiment, with an Australian gun detachment attached, was dropped on the undefended Nadzab airfield, 30 kilometres north-west of Lae. Australian pioneers and engineers then crossed the Markham River south of Nadzab and prepared the captured airfield for use. The 25th Brigade was flown in and began the advance on Lae. Caught unaware by “the wolf at the back gate” the Japanese scrambled to put defences in place along the road into Lae. The air supply operation was not without its dangers, typified when a Liberator bomber crashed into a 2/33rd Battalion truck convoy at Jackson’s airfield in Port Moresby, killing 60 Australian troops waiting to fly to Nadzab and 11 American aircrew.

Lae on 16 September, followed soon after by the 9th Division. The troops found Lae empty, just “one vast, crazy rubbish heap”.

The 8,650 Japanese army and naval troops in Lae had begun withdrawing on 12 September, heading north-west into the imposing Saruwaged Range, following a precipitous route across the mountains to the northern coast. The Japanese were led by hard-working engineers who managed to bridge the Busu River and construct a track of sorts across the range. At one point below the highest pass they set up a vine ladder so the men could climb the sheer rock face to the icy plateau beyond. As one survivor later wrote, “It was a sense of hell.” Despite the challenges, 75 per cent of the men reached the north coast.

Kaiapit

Meanwhile, the 9th Division had closed up to the Busu River and, despite losing men and equipment in doing so, the 2/28th Battalion was able to get across the river and establish a bridgehead on the Lae side. It would take time to bridge the mighty river but the Australians were now closing in on Lae from two directions. Troops from 7th Division entered

The rapid capture of Lae opened up opportunities for the Allied command, with airfield sites and anchorages at the top of the list. Engineers were already constructing new airfields around Nadzab, ultimately five in all. This was the first step in projecting air power further forward, and the flat grasslands of the Markham and Ramu valleys north-west of Lae promised more sites. The first target would be Kaiapit, a grass airfield 65 kilometres further up the valley from Nadzab.

Captain Gordon King’s 2/6th Independent Company was given the

task. After being landed on the river flats on the west side of the Leron River by C-47 transports on 17 September, the unit consolidated at Sangan and then marched on to Kaiapit on 19 September.

The main village was captured that afternoon and the commandos formed a perimeter for the night. Unknown to them, a Japanese force of some 500 men was moving down the Markham Valley to attack Nadzab, and it reached Kaiapit just on dawn the next morning. The strung-out Japanese were taken by surprise by the Australians, who immediately went on the attack; although 14 commandos were killed in the battle, the Japanese force was cut to pieces, losing about 300 men. A grass airfield was soon prepared for operations, and the first units of 21st Brigade from the 7th Division flew in to continue the advance up the Markham Valley.

When he later met Captain King, Major General George Vasey told him, “We were lucky, we were very lucky.” “I don’t agree with you, sir,” King replied. “We weren’t lucky, we were just bloody good.”

Above: The capture of Kaiapit gave the Australians a vital airfield from which to land fresh troops to pursue the Japanese into the Markham Valley.

Photographer: Norman Bradford Stuckey. AWM 057499

Caught unaware by “the wolf at the back gate” the Japanese scrambled to put defences in place along the road into Lae.

Finschhafen

Before dawn on 22 September, only six days after the fall of Lae, the 9th Division’s 20th Brigade landed at Scarlet Beach, north of Finschhafen, about 100 kilometres east of Lae. The capture of Finschhafen would provide an excellent anchorage and another airfield but, with some 4,000 Japanese troops in the area and another 3,000 on the way along the coast from Wewak, some difficult fighting lay ahead. The Japanese had fortified the Kakakog heights overlooking Finschhafen and, as Peter Hemery observed, “It was literally a jungle Gallipoli” with steep approaches and narrow gullies surrounding the fortress. It was not until 2 October that Finschhafen and Dreger Harbour were secured and contact made with the 22nd Battalion, which had advanced overland from Lae. The Japanese pulled back to formidable positions up in the ranges around Jivevaneng and Sattelberg. Then, when reinforcements arrived in mid-October, the Japanese counterattacked and put considerable pressure on the Australian lines. The attack

included a landing at Scarlet Beach, but the defenders held firm and by mid-November the Australians had advanced up the Sattelberg road. However, the enemy held out in their mountain fortress even after Matilda tanks had been employed. In the end, it was the inspired action of Sergeant Tom Derrick, leading his section up steep jungle paths, that caused the Japanese to abandon Sattelberg on the night of 24 November. The lack of supply also played its part. “We dream of good food,” one starving Japanese soldier wrote. “Friends die every day. I want to return alive from this war.” The Australians now began a slow advance westwards along the New Guinea coast as the Japanese withdrew west towards Madang: “the sideways crawl of the crab” as one Japanese officer put it.

Ramu Valley

Meanwhile, the two brigades of Major General Vasey’s 7th Division advanced rapidly into the Ramu Valley and captured the small airstrip at Dumpu on 5 October. A suitable site for a new airfield complex had also been

Above: The fighting to capture Mount Prothero was particularly grim, with one veteran reflecting that “Tobruk was a picnic” when compared with his battalion’s experience on Shaggy Ridge. Photographer: Colin Thomas Halmarick. AWM 064187

Below: A lone Japanese prisoner is surrounded by Australian and American soldiers shortly after the landing at the Finschhafen beachhead. AWM 057472

found at Gusap. From Dumpu the Australians moved into the Finisterre Range, intent on forming a perimeter to prevent any enemy observation of the valley. There were a number of clashes among the knolls and ridge lines before the Australians moved up onto the southern shoulder of the most imposing terrain feature in the area, Shaggy Ridge. The Japanese dug in around a group of knolls, from where the Ramu Valley could be observed, while the forward Australian units were targeted by mountain guns from further back along the ridge.

Despite operating on a one-man front, the 2/16th Battalion made a bold attack on the Pimple feature on 26 December 1943 and the southern end of the ridge was secured. Considerable air and artillery support was laid on for the assault, but it was the adaptability of the Australian infantry who climbed up the steep side of the ridge that led to the fall of the Pimple. Sergeant Jack Longman played a key role: boosted up on other men’s shoulders, he scaled a sheer rock face to place a grenade into an enemy bunker.

However, it took until the end of January 1944 before Shaggy Ridge finally fell to a coordinated three-battalion attack by Brigadier Fred Chilton’s 18th Brigade. While the 2/9th Battalion advanced along the narrow crest, the 2/12th Battalion moved along the Mene River valley on the western side of the ridge and managed to climb up a narrow spur onto the dominant Mount Prothero position at the northern end of the ridge. The battalion suffered 58 casualties in this operation, most as a result of close-range fire from an emplaced Japanese mountain gun. Evacuating these casualties back down the ridge and along the river valley tested the stretcher-bearers, with up to 16 men required for each stretcher in some areas. At the dressing station, Captain Clarrie Leggett worked for three days and nights, carrying out 45 separate operations and saving the lives of many men.

After the fall of Shaggy Ridge, Brigadier Heathcote Hammer’s 15th

Brigade took over for the difficult advance through to the north coast to capture Madang on 24 April 1944.

New Britain, Saidor and the Admiralties

After Finschhafen fell, the Allied naval force had ready access to the Vitiaz Strait, but it would not be secure until the eastern side on New Britain was also in Allied hands. Amphibious landings were therefore undertaken at Arawe on 15 December and at Cape Gloucester on 26 December 1943. General MacArthur used US troops for these operations,

putting in place Alamo Force under the command of Lieutenant General Walter Krueger and thus sidelining General Sir Thomas Blamey, the Allied land forces commander. The US 112th Cavalry Regiment landed at Arawe while the US 1st Marine Division was used at Cape Gloucester. The Royal Australian Navy landing ship Westralia took part in the Arawe landing while the RAN warships Australia, Shropshire, Arunta and Warramunga provided fire support. Both operations were successful, and a series of costly and fruitless Japanese counter-attacks at Arawe at the end of January 1944 were easily held.

Using Finschhafen as a base, the American amphibious force was kept busy with a landing at Saidor on the northern coast of New Guinea on 2 January 1944. Although the US 126th Regiment was in a position to block the Japanese retreat from Finschhafen, MacArthur was only interested in setting up a perimeter centred on the airfield, which could now be used to project air power even further forward. This would be important to the next operation, a landing on

Below: Rear Admiral Barbey with Generals Martin and Hopkins off Saidor in January 1944.

“It was literally a jungle Gallipoli” with steep approaches and narrow gullies surrounding the fortress.

the Admiralty Islands, which would provide another excellent anchorage as well as an airfield complex. The landing took place on 29 February 1944 and, despite heavy fighting, the 5th and 7th Cavalry Regiments had secured the key objectives by midMarch. On 20 March, Emirau Island was occupied unopposed, while an American landing at Torokina on Bougainville on 1 November 1943 and heavy air attacks against the Rabaul airfields and anchorage meant that Rabaul was now completely isolated. The aim of Operation Cartwheel had been achieved without having to actually capture the well-defended Japanese base.

The great leap

At Salamaua, Lae, Kaiapit, Finschhafen and in the Ramu Valley, the Australian army had broken the back of the Japanese army in New Guinea. However, one of the most vital contributions to the New Guinea offensives took place as Australian engineers swept for mines around the former Japanese base at Sio on the northern New Guinea coast.

When the Japanese 20th Division headquarters left the area, they had buried a metal trunk containing code books and other cipher material – and the Australian engineers had now found it. The papers were sent back to Australia where they were dried out and analysed, enabling the Japanese army code to be broken and giving crucial intelligence on enemy dispositions and plans. MacArthur now knew that Japanese strength was considerable in the Wewak area but, further west, Aitape and Hollandia were relatively undefended. With the temporary help of carrier air support, the last stage of the New Guinea offensives took place on 22 April with a landing at Aitape and two at Hollandia. The two RAN transports Manoora and Kanimbla played a role in the landing while Australia and Shropshire provided support fire. Within a week the anchorage and airfield complex at Hollandia had been secured.

In less than eight months since the landing at Lae, the New Guinea offensives had enabled the forward Allied airbase to move from Dobodura

to Hollandia and the forward staging ports to move from Milne Bay and Buna to Hollandia and the Admiralty Islands. It was a huge leap and within another six months the first landings in the Philippines would take place and MacArthur would fulfil his promise. The Australian army was sidelined from the Philippine operations but would soon get the job of mopping up the bypassed Japanese garrisons around Wewak and on Bougainville and New Britain. Therefore, another series of more limited New Guinea offensives would take place in 1944 and 1945. •

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

The evacuation of Australian casualties would not have been possible without the tireless work of the local carriers.

Photographer: Frank N. Bagnall. AWM 016700

Phillip Bradley is the author of six books on the New Guinea offensives, including Hell’s Battlefield, D-Day New Guinea and The Battle for Shaggy Ridge.

THINGS IN STORE

A VICTORY JOB

BY MEGHAN ADAMS

In June 1940, two women presented themselves for enlistment at a recruiting centre in Adelaide. They were immediately rejected with the closing line of one of Milton’s sonnets: “They also serve who only stand and wait.”

The idea of women serving in Australia’s military forces was controversial right from the early days of the Second World War. In contrast, women in Britain had been mobilised since 1938, taking up roles in the Auxiliary Territorial Service, the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force, the Women’s Royal Navy Service and the Women’s Land Army. Though women were making a valuable contribution to the war effort abroad, the notion was not easily accepted in Australia. One of the women rejected for service told the Barrier Miner: “There are innumerable well-trained women who are eager to take over the work of hundreds of young men who are filling positions in both the fighting forces to be sent overseas and in the militia … Women, hundreds of them with years of training and experience, capable to fill most of these positions, are just passed over at

the very time when they could do some good. The government should give the women of Australia an opportunity to take an active part in helping to avert catastrophe from their country.”

Despite their enthusiasm, it would be more than a year before Australian women were permitted to serve their country in uniform. Large sectors of society felt that a woman’s place was in the home, while others feared that inclusion in military life would compromise a woman’s femininity as well as the natural order of life.

As the war raged on and the debates about women’s service continued, women served in voluntary organisations including the Women’s Air Training Corps (WATC), Women’s Emergency Signalling Corps (WESC) and the Women’s Australian National Service (WANS). They filled employment shortages created by the war and undertook training for air raid drills, first aid, telegraphy, military drills, mechanics, clerical work, transport and more. In doing so, they demonstrated that women were capable of filling roles normally undertaken by men.

“Replace them with women”

By 1941, Australia’s armed forces were facing serious manpower shortages as more and more recruits were required for front-line roles. The armed forces turned to the women of Australia to fill these shortages, as had been successfully done in Britain. By the end of 1941, women in uniform were everywhere, and each branch of Australia’s armed forces had its own women’s auxiliary.

The Royal Australian Air Force was the first to adopt the enlistment of women into the service to fill manpower shortages in administrative and clerical roles. Sir Charles Burnett, a senior commander in the RAAF, commented to the War Cabinet in 1941: “There are a large number in the air force of able-bodied men who might be replaced by others. Every man that we give up in that way can go into the fighting service … We have a surplus of technical personnel awaiting aircraft duties and they are being employed as waiters and mess stewards while they actually have technical ability. It seems extraordinary that we should take

In the Second World War, women filled many roles in the military, paving the way for women in today’s services.

WAAAF trainee flight mechanics working on an aircraft engine under the supervision of RAAF fitters. 1942, Laverton, Victoria. VIC1177A

in people who are physically fit who could go into the army or navy if we could replace them with women.” To remedy this, the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force (WAAAF) was formed in February 1941.

The Navy soon followed suit, with the formation of the Women’s Royal Australian Navy Service in April 1941. Many of the initial WRANS recruits had trained under Violet McKenzie, who had pioneered technical training for women before advocating for their inclusion in Australia’s armed forces. With the training they had received, a small number of women began entering naval service, filling roles initially in intelligence, telegraphy and Morse code, before branching out into other roles as clerks, drivers, sick berth attendants and more. The Army was the last of the services to allow the enlistment of women, starting in August of 1941. It quickly garnered thousands of female recruits, who sought to fill any roles as typists, cipher clerks, drivers, signallers and searchlight operators.

“Whether we like it or not”

Despite rising to every challenge, women still faced opposition from some areas within the military, with the War Cabinet instigating an inquiry into the future of women’s military roles in November 1941. During this enquiry, enlistment for women’s services was suspended. Factors influencing the inquiry included fears that the use of women’s auxiliaries would break down the pay standards of men; a belief that expenditure of training and accommodation for female recruits was extravagant; and demands on limited resources for uniforms and materials needed for those at the front. A conference was held to discuss the future of women’s auxiliaries in December 1941, attended by the ministers for defence and munitions, as well as the heads of the Navy, Army and Air Force. The minister for the Army, Frank Forde, argued: “Over a year ago I was opposed to the recruitment of women to the various services but things have changed considerably since then. The demands of the services have greatly increased and I can see now that we have run into a very acute stage, if we are to achieve victory, we will have to employ women the same as has been done in England if this war is going to last very long.”

“If in this time of national stress,” one woman told The Dawn newspaper,

“women wish to render service to their country, the facility and opportunity should be provided for them to do so, especially is this so at the present time, when the recruiting question is a problem.” The Brisbane Courier-Mail argued for faster inclusion of women in the services, noting “the reasons stated on behalf of the federal government for its suspension of the recruiting of women for auxiliary defence services are not convincing.” In the end, the increasing pressure of the ongoing war meant that women’s services were allowed to continue. Forde was adamant: “Whether we like it or not,

Above: Recruiting poster designed to encourage women to join the services or become involved in industry to help the war effort. AWM ARTV00332

Right: Wing Officer Gwen Caldwell pictured at RAAF HQ in 1945. AWM VIC0819

we will have to utilise women.” However, it was made very clear from the outset that women would be included for the duration of the war only, with men to replace them as soon as the emergency was over. Not only this, but it was agreed that women in the auxiliary would be paid only two-thirds of the rate of pay

given to men in the same class of work. Pay equality for the sexes, which had been argued by trade unions, was not achieved; but the rate of pay for women in the auxiliaries was still higher than they might have expected in civilian occupations.

Justly proud

Over the following four years, more than 53,000 women served in roles in the AWAS, WRANS and WAAAF while 3,000 more served in the Australian Women’s Land Army. On 15 August 1945 Japan surrendered, bringing an end to the Second World War. Hostilities in

Europe had ceased only a few months earlier, but the world was irrevocably changed by six years of devastating conflict. With the end of the war came the beginning of demobilisation, as those who had served abroad and on Australia’s shores made their return to civilian life. The thousands of women who had served in uniform played no small role in Allied victory, and had proven their worth as a sex outside the traditional roles of motherhood and homemaking. Though they had made a significant contribution to the war effort, the Australian response to the formation of women’s services was

Wing Officer Amy

Gwendoline Caldwell

Amy “Gwen” Caldwell (née Stark) enlisted in the Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force in March 1941, one of five women to be appointed as assistant section officers. She recalled: “My father used to say, ‘Why do you want to do these things? Your sisters never did them!’ I was always after a bit of excitement … I wanted to do unusual things.”

Caldwell was the first officer selected in New South Wales, and served at a variety of bases across Australia, where she was in charge of airwomen serving in the North-Eastern Area and No. 2 Training Group. Reflecting on women’s contribution to the war effort, Caldwell said: “They were interested in what they were doing, and they were determined that they were going to a good job … They were really an integral part of the RAAF, and the RAAF could not have functioned without them. Their job was just as good as what the men were doing. Towards the end of the war, 75 per cent of people on the tarmac were women, and very few complaints were about those people.”

Caldwell was discharged from the WAAAF in 1946. Postwar, she was involved in the establishment of WAAAF exservice organisations, and spent time in Germany during the Berlin airlift of 1948–49. She was an active member of the Australian Women Pilots Association and was appointed OBE in 1968 for her contributions to aviation.

much less than that of other countries, including Britain, where some 640,000 women had served in uniform. The influx of men returning from the front after the war raised an important question – what future did women have in the military? Some branches of the military were keen to retain women in civilian, administrative positions after the war, but large sectors of Australian society were keen for things to return to the way they had been before 1941. A Gallup poll in 1945 recorded that eight out of ten people agreed that men should have first preference for jobs in the post-war period. Others felt more strongly about women’s roles, as one Rockhampton man expressed in the Morning Bulletin:

It was during the war that women were asked to go into the factories, become bus conductresses, mechanics and otherwise assist in industry while men were away in the services. And right nobly did they rise to the great occasion … After the war, the emergency became an opportunity. Women retained their place in industry as a privilege and now it is claimed as a dogmatic right. The war work by women should not be used as a handle to usurp man’s lawful place, by biological and domestic necessity, of being the support of his wife and children. Every woman who is doing a job that a man should be doing, irrespective of whether that woman can do the work or not, is selfishly upholding an unnatural anomaly.

Betty Fulmer

Betty Fulmer (née Strange-Mure) joined the Australian Women’s Land Army in 1944 at the age of 18. She was initially sent to Batlow, NSW, where “land army girls” worked on an apple and pear orchard: a “hard, but worthwhile time”. She later worked at Kingsvale, picking cherries, and at Griffith on a vegetable farm. “The government didn’t promise us any rewards,” Fulmer recalled. “We were paid three pounds, two shillings a week, of which at least two pounds and five shillings was deducted as board – but we saw the work as our duty,” she said.

Though Fulmer and her comrades served in uniform, the AWLA was

The idea of women in the home being slaves is surely a superstition or an unfortunate type of mental outlook. The home is not a prison.

Certainly, many were fearful of the impact that women could have on a man’s ability to find work on his return from the front. With women receiving lower rates of pay, it was feared that employers would choose to hire women as cheap labour, rather than returning men to their pre-war careers, if women were not forced to step down. As well as this, some also feared a falling birth rate, concerned that women might choose employment and wages over marriage and motherhood.

Nonetheless, some women were not looking to give up the opportunities and freedoms they had won during the war. “Women are free as never before,” claimed one woman writing to the Western Mail. “Women have worked too hard in this war to be pushed back into obscurity afterwards. But I don’t think these plums will drop into our laps without any effort on our part … we shall have to work and plan and fight for them. We shall be up against the tremendous problem of prejudice.”

Despite their achievements and the tenacity shown by Australian women during the war years, all three auxiliaries were disbanded almost immediately after the war. Little thought was given to a continuing role for women, who were expected to return to the domestic sphere, effective immediately. One ex-servicewoman told The Mail in Adelaide: “I don’t

never recognised as an official fourth service. Attempts to formally constitute the AWLA under National Security Regulations had not been formalised when the war came to an end. As a result, women who had served in the AWLA were not afforded the same rights as their counterparts in the AWAS, WAAAF and WRANS. They received minimal recognition until the 1980s, when they were finally permitted to march on Anzac Day. “One of the most memorable experiences of my life was the time I marched in Sydney on Anzac Day for the first time,” Fulmer recalled. “Just to hear the cheers and calls from the crowd of ‘Good on you, girls! You did a good job!’”

know what I’m going to do later. I used to help about the house and farm before the war, so I suppose I’ll be doing that again.” The former director of the WRANS, First Officer Margaret Curtis-Otter recalled: “We were very sorry. All the services were sorry, because the women had proved that they were very useful indeed in so many ways, and the services themselves I think wanted to keep the women. But the government of the day wouldn’t agree to it all so we had to be disbanded.” In June 1947, Melbourne’s The Age recorded the final discharges of women from the AWAS and WAAAF, declaring “so will end a chapter in the history of women’s service to this country of which everyone is justly proud.”

Below: Members of the AWAS give “eyes right” during the servicewomen’s march through Melbourne in 1942. AWM 136899

“Makes you think”

This chapter did not end, however, and many women did not return to the home sphere as some hoped. These women had been changed by their wartime experiences and had shown what they could do. Many remained in the civilian workforce in the following years. After January 1946, the number of women in civilian employment increased gradually, and by 1947 had almost regained the levels seen during the war. Post-war, female employment surpassed the wartime peak, as women continued to seek the opportunities they had proven themselves so capable of fulfilling. In the years after 1945, women continued to work in roles outside the spheres of “traditional women’s work” and followed career

paths which would not have been open to them in 1941. It was clear that the impacts of women’s work during the war would have a lasting effect into the post-war years and beyond.

In December 1951, women returned to the military sphere when the Federal Cabinet approved the enlistment of 4,000 women into the Citizens Military Forces (CMF). The Minister for the Army told the Daily Examiner: “Extension of the women’s army services to the CMF for the first time is a recognition that women no longer were mere auxiliaries, but an essential part of any army in peace or war.” Most notably, these women were recruited as part of the CMF, not simply in addition to it, and were once more able to step outside traditional female roles, working as searchlight operators, signallers, armourers and more. It took twelve months, however, for women to receive the same pay, service conditions and training obligations as men in the CMF.

Women who served during the Second World War were an important part of the development of women’s rights in Australia. Some forty years later, women were integrated into Australia’s Defence Force in their own right, not as part of a female auxiliary. Today, women make up just under 20 per cent of the Australian Defence Force and continue to serve in diverse roles in Australia and overseas as pilots, infantry, mechanics, medics and more. In 1947, Smith’s Weekly pondered the changes to Australian society: “So there you have a picture of modern industrial society: women crowding into engineer’s working overalls, men sitting down to sewing machines and spinning jennies which have been abandoned by their female tenders. Makes you think, doesn’t it?” One wonders what they would think now. •

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Meghan Adams is an historian in the Memorial’s Military History Section. She is a PhD candidate at the University of New England, studying veteran experiences after the First World War.

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© Copyright Lisa, Michael, Matthew and Joshua Moore.