Wartime service in the RAAF

At the beginning of the 1939-45 War, the Australian Defence Force requirements were mostly directed towards the Army. True, the Navy and the Air Force were also active, but it was the Army that was the basis of Australia's involvement in a war that was on the other side of the world, and desperately needed ground troops. So it was that both the Air force and Navy tended to set a much higher educational baseline for the recruitment of what they considered to be elite forces. In practical terms, such was the case to become a pilot or succeed in the technical services of both the Navy and the RAAF – you certainly needed the benefit of a good secondary education.

At the beginning of the war I was quick to attempt to enlist in the RAAF, I was no different to thousands of other men and to a smaller degree women who all saw the defence of the British Empire as their chosen duty. While I had good educational qualifications, mostly the fact that I had been an apprentice mechanic, I was still hopelessly undersized, probably still less than 50kg and under 150cm in height – well below the minimum requirement. I had been on some form of early hormonal treatment for my problem for some months and was starting to show some signs of growing but it was obviously going to be a slow process if it actually worked at all!

Several months passed and I had put on weight and grown a little taller, so I tried once more. This time I was given a trade test which I passed easily and my entry papers were processed whereby I proceeded to the physical examination, but once more I was rejected. I was pretty disconsolate having got so far, but it was a return to work on the production line at Kelvinator Aust. Ltd. at Keswick (SA). Time went by and suddenly I was aware that the RAAF was advertising for recruits in the engineering categories. I presented myself once more and this time there were no problems, my previous two attempts to enlist were noted, and my successful trade test, physical deficiencies were completely ignored, although by this time I was over 150cms and my weight had increased. The RAAF desperately needed mechanics and engineers to service the planes that were arriving on strength and I was in!

That evening I was on the train headed for Melbourne and basic military training, how to march and use a gun! This was carried out at the RAAF's No. 1 Engineering Depot which was also the site of the RAAF's boot camp at Laverton just south west of Melbourne. Thus began the marching and drilling in the use of Australia's basic weapon of war, the 303 calibre rifle. This training was not to last long, the pressure of wartime was starting to bite and in a couple of weeks I, along with the rest of my squad, was posted to Adelaide and my old apprentice school where we commenced to learn basic engineering that I had left some four years previously. I had a very definite advantage as I had already completed probably the hardest part of this course, and quickly advanced through to the finishing stages well ahead of most of my fellow students. This was a three months course, and newly uniformed in my home town among family and friends was a holiday to say the least, but we were still required to complete our boot camp training. This was done after the evening meal in the open space at the rear of the old Exhibition building in North Terrace, where we were billeted inside the main building and soon we were passed out to the satisfaction of our drill instructor.

Then it was a posting back to Melbourne and advanced engineering training at the Ascot Vale Showgrounds where the emphasis was on actual maintenance and servicing of the engines in use at that time in the RAAF's planes, basically Rolls Royce Merlins and Pratt & Whitney radials. This period covered nearly four months, and at the end of that time there was a comprehensive examination which determined to a certain extent our future postings. I was lucky being close to the top of the class, but for the moment that didn't mean much, and I was happy to be posted back to Parafield in my home state where I was a flight line mechanic at the Elementary Flying School where our future pilots began their training. Probably the most exciting thing about this job was the fact that you were continually swinging propellers to the cries of "switch off, switch on, contact!" and the possibility that one of the pilot instructors would take an interest in you and offer you a fly back to the main 'drome' when some flying training saw you operating from some farmer's erstwhile sheep paddock some miles away.

After about three months of this I was once again posted back to Melbourne to the Engineering depot at Laverton this being more in keeping with my examination marks, many recruits only attained the mustering of Flight Mechanic, which was precisely what I had been doing up until that time, but in actual fact I had been enlisted as an Engine Fitter 2E at a higher rate of pay. This fact gave me the opportunity to apply for, and finally get, a posting to Air Crew as an Engineer on Catalina flying boats which were being delivered to the RAAF from the USA. By the same token, the Flight Mechanics, after a period on the flight line or other mechanics duties could, with their superior's recommendation, do a further course which would elevate their status to Engine Fitter with the appropriate rise in pay.

Rathmines, NSW was a different world, almost surrounded by water in the lakes district south of Newcastle. Here we quickly mastered the art of being a mariner as well as a flier and became proficient in the use and workings of a .5 inch calibre machine gun, as well as the smaller .303 units. We became familiar with the two Pratt & Whitney radial engines that powered the 'Cats', for the first time being close to an engine that was actually running, and at times on full power as at takeoff. As an engineer you were particularly intimate with these engines, one being positioned each side of your head and only a couple of metres distant!

So the time passed with flying and classroom training and the exams which once again had some bearing on your future. I was near the top of the results and became a First Engineer, but while we were trained, there were no aircraft available at that time, so it was a posting to Cootamundra and once again a flight line mechanic with Avro Anson advanced trainers as my charges. As a senior with the Catalina training on my record, I soon graduated to a more responsible position, and the time in the pleasant country surrounds of this place passed quickly until I was soon recalled to Rathmines for 'crewing up' and final training as a crew unit. I was lucky enough to be crewed with a fellow South Oz, Captain Bob Honan, but he was only a lowly Sergeant and after only a short time, I was headhunted by my future Skipper, Flight Lieutenant 'Dinny' Lawrence, who was apparently unhappy with the performance (or maybe personality) of the Engineer that he had been allocated. Dinny was an excellent pilot, but inclined to be impulsive as we were to find out when we joined 20 Squadron and began our operational tour. Very early on he placed us in a situation where we were in danger of running out of fuel, and I found out how determined he could be in his efforts to win the War on his own. It was only after a desperate argument on my part, with help from the Navigator Stewart Ikin, that he finally turned for home at Milne Bay. We only just made it back to base on one engine and completely dry tanks! But he learned a lesson and from there on our crew worked very well together.

Around this time I was promoted to Sergeant and shortly afterwards the other crew members also attained this rank. Our Skipper was decorated several times, both by our government and the US (Distinguished Flying Cross and Cluster). The whole crew were also Cited by the Dutch government, but no official decoration was allowed because of some agreement between the Allied Nations, something that never seemed to bother the USA! Time passed and I was repatriated home almost at the finish of my second operational tour, now with 11 Squadron where the Skipper was Squadron Commander. I had contracted a bad ear infection which led to a perforated eardrum and I was grounded and posted back to Rathmines base where my ear healed and I was once more carrying out local flying duties. Then I was posted to the Catalina Ferry Flight based in San Diego USA, but at the last moment my posting was changed and I became a flight and classroom instructor at Tocumwal on four engined Liberator bombers. It was there that I saw the war out in Europe and later the Pacific.

My last posting was home to South Australia for final discharge with the rank of Warrant Officer which I attained when I was posted to instruction duties and so ended my service with the Royal Australian Air Force.