Anjo Peninsula

ANZAC Day

at Anjo Peninsula

By John Collins

My ANZAC Day at Anjo is a complex story that had its origins many years prior to my birth and more than 50 years before my extraordinary Dawn Service experience, which remains a significant meaningful memory for me almost three decades later.

There are many reasons for sharing this story, including paying my respects to the now largely nameless and overlooked people who rallied to protect Australia during the dark days of World War Two. While this recollection is primarily related to the tragic events that occurred pre-dawn (20th May 1945) on a single day at a secret airbase that most have never heard about, I hasten to acknowledge the under-appreciated local heroes who “did their bit” to assist military personnel adjust to the hash, remote and unforgiving landscape. Another reason for sharing my remembrance is to help overlanding travellers to appreciate the beauty of the landscape and better connect with the local people as they travel the vastness of the Western Australian outback, while providing connections to other locations of interest whenever possible. I think the back-story began on 28th March 1943 when Keith “Bluey” Truscott, a distinguished RAAF fighter pilot who flew battle missions in Britain and as a Squadron Leader at Milne Bay in New Guinea, was killed in an Exmouth Gulf aviation accident. Bluey, in company with Flying Officer Ian Louden, were tasked with escorting a Catalina flying boat returning to base from a mission off the remote north west coast of Western Australia. Perhaps due to the boredom of such a tedious mission or simply to hone their attack skills, the fighter pilots began making mock attacks on the flying boat.

Milne Bay, Papua. 1942-09. Squadron Leader: Keith Truscott, Commanding Officer of 76 Squadron RAAF, returns from an operational flight and taxis up the metal runway to the dispersal bays set in amongst the coconut palms.

Photo: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/ File:AWM_026647_P-40_Milne.jpg

During the attack sequence the Catalina commenced a shallow descent that went unnoticed by the escort pilots and when Bluey “broke-off” his final assault run, he rolled his Curtis P40 Kittyhawk intending to pass below his target. Unfortunately, both aircraft were at a very low altitude and the Kittyhawk smashed into the smooth glassy sea of the Exmouth Gulf. On that day at 1735 hours, No. 76 Squadron and Australia lost a gallant aviator and friend. Today, Keith “Bluey” Truscott is buried at the Karrakatta War Cemetery, and he is remembered at the Truscott Memorial Club in Exmouth, which is a great place for travellers to visit, enjoy an ice-cold beverage and learn a little about protection efforts of Australia’s western wartime flank. The Australian War Memorial has A29-133, a Curtis P40 Kittyhawk “Polly” very like the aircraft flown by Bluey and this example also served to protect Australia at Milne Bay in New Guinea with predominately No. 75 Squadron. Late in 1943 the South West Pacific area was starting to become the main Allied advance to defeat the Japanese. Coordinated by General Douglas MacArthur, the plan would see an Allied push north west through New Guinea, then north through the Philippines and eventually onto Japan itself. The security of MacArthur’s left flank was critical to his eventual success. The left flank was Australia’s North West Area (NWA) that consisted of North West of Australia and

the occupied islands further north and to the north east. MacArthur had decided that the NWA campaign would be an air-war. These air operations that would protect the exposed flank while forcing the Japanese military to deploy large amounts of men, equipment and resources to defend their captured territory and thereby creating a drain on valuable resources that otherwise could be diverted to oppose the main Allied thrust towards Japan. To conduct offensive air operation more effectively from the NWA additional and larger airfields were required within closer distance to the target areas that by late 1943 had moved further and further behind Japanese lines. This required extending the range of bomber and other strike aircraft against targets in Timor, Java, Sumatra, Borneo and the Celebes. This was best accomplished by using airfields further to the west of Darwin as final staging and refuelling points in support of the offensive air operations. The long-range B-24 Liberators of the 380th Bomb Group USAF continued to stage through the large Corunna Downs base located approximately Excerpt from Hema’s WA State map. 200 kilometres south east of Port Hedland and the Exmouth base. These bases' geography seriously reduced the effective range of the B-24s as they are up to 1300km south of the most northern tip of Western Australia. RAAF surveyors re-examined the existing runways at the Drysdale River Mission (now known as Kalumburu) during February and again in August 1943 hoping to upgrade the existing runway lengths but found several deficiencies relating to access from Napier-Broome Bay that made extension impractical. A major impediment to the site was that during the wet season, both existing runways became unusable quagmires. Late in August the

No. 12 Survey and Design Unit undertook a desktop survey of the Anjo Peninsula area west of Kalumburu (Drysdale River Mission) in preparation for a ground truthing survey. The airfield was named Truscott to honour the memory of an Australian war hero. The new airfield needed to have: 1. One runway at least 8000 feet (2438 metres) to provide an all-weather airfield for general reconnaissance and heavy bomber aircraft, 2. Dispersal areas for parked aircraft, to make such aircraft less vulnerable in the event of an enemy air raid, sufficient for 18 heavy bomber aircraft, and 3. Minimum facilities for an Operational Base Unit (OBU) of 300 personnel. The construction of the new airfield was hot, tedious work, and the supply of potable water was a constant concern. Nevertheless, the ground works progressed, and significant effort was expended building supporting defence, early warning, and long-range navigation facilities. Although the airfield was not used by the heavy B-24 Liberator aircraft until October 1944, smaller aircraft including Spitfire fighters, reconnaissance, and smaller bombers were based or passed through Truscott. Nineteen B-24 Liberators from the USAAF’s 380th Bombardment Group arrived on 18th October 1944 to commenced a three day mission attacking harbour installations and shipping in the Celebes. There was a lot of activity between February 1943 and October 1944 in the general vicinity of Truscott including a bombing raid in September 1943 by an estimated 36 Japanese aircraft on Kalumburu (Kwini and Kulari country) that destroyed mission buildings and killing four Aboriginal children, one woman and a priest. Stories about this day and other historical information has been recalled by local artists wanting to express the experiences of their relatives. It is important to remember the non-combatants who lost their lives on Australian soil during this period of our history and pay our respects to their memory. Kalumburu also provides an opportunity for overlanders to engage with this history by visiting nearby aircraft wreckage or by viewing artworks. A strange twist to the Japanese air-raid was the bomb damage to the organ located in the bombed church. The organ had apparently been donated by Adolph Hitler’s Government as an acknowledgement for assistance rescuing the German aviators Hans Bertram and Adolf Klausmann who in 1932 embarked on a round-the-world flight in a Junkers floatplane, but were forced to land in the Kimberley, lost and running low on fuel. Using a float taken from their plane as a life-raft, the men then endured a 39-day ordeal as they attempted to sail to safety travelling from Seaplane Bay northwards on the Kimberley coast. The pair eventually were found languishing in a cave near Cape Bernier by travelling Aboriginal people. Their eventual rescue has a strong contemporary Wyndham connection with the local men who carried word of the aviator’s plight and raised the alarm that eventually facilitated a lugger rescue from Kalumburu. The two men, Andumeri (Ronald Morgan) and Jalnga, ran on foot to get help. Andumeri travelled the 250km from Cape Bernier to Wyndham in under four days! Overlanders can get an idea about the landscape that Andumeri and Jalnga travelled by viewing some of the 4x4 adventure videos posted online about the Carson River Track. Early on the morning of 20th May 1945, Liberator A72-160 of 12th Squadron, R.A.A.F on a mine laying mission crashed on take-off and all eleven crew members were killed. Taking off in the early morning darkness from Truscott airstrip, the aircraft became airborne approximately halfway down the strip. It is believed the aircraft became airborne early due to a noticeable hump in the airstrip causing the aircraft to suddenly climb approximately 20 feet. According to

eyewitnesses who were part of a working party directly in front of the aircraft when it became airborne, the aircraft apparently veered left moving rather slowly, gaining little speed or height. The aircraft then rose to about 40 feet before falling sharply to the ground a short distance away from its initial point of take-off. Despite fire crews quickly making their way to the scene, any hope of finding survivors was lost when a number of the depth charges the aircraft was carrying exploded. The crew from 12th Squadron are: F/Lt F. L. Sismey, pilot; F/O W. S. Bell; W/O T. N. Rust; W/O B. L. Cox; F/Sgt L. Duncanson; F/Sgt L. M. Bailey; F/Sgt I. N. L. Eadton,; F/Sgt T. W. Allan; F/Sgt D. D. Benson; F/Sgt J. A. Hollis; and, F/Sgt J. R. W. Herps. The crew’s remains, initially interned at Truscott, were reburied at the Adelaide River War Cemetery in the Northern Territory. While living in Kununurra in the 1990s, I became involved with a group of exservicemen who had formed 'The Truscott Base Tribute Committee'. Lead by the founding committee President, the late Howard Young, the group dedicated themselves to building two memorials using local stones at Truscott with the intention of conducting an ANZAC Day memorial service together with annual reunions on 20th May to mark the day when the 11 crew of A72-160 were killed by the crash and ensuing explosion. Mr Young acknowledged that organisation of memorial services was much harder to organise as time progressed as, "Many of those who served are unfortunately no longer around." For me, ANZAC Day at Anjo began in the afternoon of the previous day with a light aircraft flight to Truscott. Rather than making a direct flight, I decided that a more leisurely scenic flight was appropriate. Leaving Kununurra, we proceeded along the Ord River passing through the multicoloured irrigated agricultural fields to where False House Roof Hill raises approximately 300 metres above sea level and the river opens out and becomes tidal. At that point we come down to a more suitable height for spotting crocodiles, which are easy to see while they rest on the exposed tidal mud banks of the river as we travelled past the spectacular Ord River Nature Reserve. Approaching Adolphus Island, we climbed higher and were able to look north towards Lacrosse Island and southwards along the Cambridge Gulf to the Wyndham Port, while the spectacular landforms of the area revealed themselves as we continued our climb and journey to the Berkley River, King George Falls and on to Kalumburu for a brief visit. We arrived at Truscott in the late afternoon to be greeted by Howard Young and introduced to our camp hosts who managed the base facility for Santos Ltd on behalf of other entities involved in oil and gas exploration in the Timor Sea. Our overnight stay was taken meeting other visitors and exchanging stories about Truscott and the surrounding area. The RAAF had decided to travel to Truscott using two Land Rovers and two Unimog trucks. The RAAF crew contributed to the evening conversation by recounting the difficulty they experienced finding the track from Kalumburu to Truscott, which hadn’t been used for many years! After a few hours of sleep, the camp stirred at around three in the morning as people prepared themselves for the Dawn Service. While still very dark, we assembled and climbed onto the Unimogs for the short trip

Santos kindly provided overnight accommodation for the ANZAC Day participants.

the A76-160 crash site memorial. Arriving in good time in the early darkness I recall it was a solemn occasion with a bare minimum of talking much like most Dawn Services I have attended. The service followed a familiar ANZAC Day routine although the memorial was initially draped with an Australian flag, but with the scene illuminated by bright television lighting.

Once the Dawn Service was completed and the memorial had been unveiled, the television lighting was moved as the media team began to interview some of the attendees. By this time of morning, the new day's sun was still just below the horizon and as people moved off or became involved in

The 1992 ANZAC Day inaugural Dawn Service and Memorial unveiling to the eleven crew of A76-160 who died here on 20th May 1945.

Floral tributes at the base of the newly unveiled A76-160 memorial.

Following the unveiling and ANZAC Day Service 25th April 1992 showing some of the wreckage of A72-160 in the foreground and members of the Truscott Base Tribute Committee with the RAAF Unimog in the background.

other activities, the area surrounding the memorial was overtaken by an almost eerie quiet that was punctuated with the muted tones of quiet conversation. I recall that as some of the first shafts of the new day’s light filtered through the woodland canopy some of these first beams of sunlight stuck the memorial’s make-shift cross, which was a repurposed fuselage remnant of A76-160 found lying nearby. For me, that instant became a treasured memory as in that fleeting moment I felt a connection with Flight Lieutenant Francis Leonard Sismey and his crew that I won’t forget! The late Howard Young rounded off the day with enthusiastically guided tours of some of the sights at Truscott and the landing at West Bay. Points of interest included the remnants of the “Anjo Palace” Cinema where many of Wunambal Gaambera Traditional Owners watched their first ‘cowboy’ movie films. This former heavy World War Two bomber forward base built by Australians and local people in 1944 to raid (what is now) the Indonesian islands and protect our Australian NWA as an important part of the war effort. The once “Secret Kimberley Airbase” over the years has been developed to support helicopter logistics to offshore oil and gas rigs in the Timor Sea. Today the Mungalalu Truscott Airbase has all the equipment and facilities necessary to provide aviation logistic support to operations including coastal surveillance services, the oil and gas industry, pearling, aquaculture, fisheries, minerals exploration and mining, aerial surveys, defence, tourism and other operations requiring a support base in the Kimberley. The Mungalalu Truscott Airbase is owned by the Wunambal Gaambera people and access is strictly Traditional Owner Escort Only by prior arrangement with Wunambal Gaambera Aboriginal Corporation.

Participants chatting after the 1992 Dawn Service showing the aircraft wreckage in the background.

A member of the Truscott Base Tribute Committee placing a wreath on 25th April 1992 with the modern aircraft hangar and RAAF vehicles in the background. This memorial would be the centre piece of the 20th May 1994 commemorative reunion when approximately 250 veterans and families attended.