Tocumwal 1944-1946

I was at Tocumwal from October 1944 until February 46, as a Warrant Officer Engineer Flight and Ground instructor, this after Operational Tours with 20 and 11 Squadrons on Catalinas.

We did ground instruction in a small complex on the Western side of the prairie, just past the radio communications building on the North side of the main road. We had a unserviceable Liberator (I think it was 8 or 9) parked behind the small buildings which housed an officer in charge, a telephone and not much more. An instructor's office and rest room (officers and ranked men) was in the Western end of the main building, and a couple of class rooms on the Eastern end. We also had one of the disused hangars opposite on the Northern side of the road – not all that far from the wreckage of the hangar fire, which occurred just prior to my arrival. We had another unserviceable Liberator In the hangar for hands-on instruction, it was wired up, and most of the components could be operated, with hydraulics live. I can't remember if the aircraft was jacked up off the ground, but it may have been. As a Warrant Officer, I was the senior instructor on what was basically an engineer's course, with the addition of a basic familiarisation of the aircraft to all pilots of all ranks. This included those pilots of high rank who had been in operations in the European theatre of war.

One thing that may interest you is the fact that myself and a Flight Officer Ryan, flew number 6 to Point Cook on the 28th November 1944, after quite a few attempts by others. The aircraft which was only very basically flyable, with a lot of unserviceable components including the radio gear, had gone fully unserviceable in a number of ways several times before, between it's parking place and the end of the runway. Even losing an engine just prior to the take off! It was becoming quite a joke! At odd times it would pop up on the daily flight schedule, 'A 24-6 to Point Cook' and basically the instructor pilots would toss for the job, and return an hour or so later with news of the latest chapter in the 6 saga!

On this particular day Flight Officer Ryan grabbed me, and said, 'Come on Keith, we are going to get this bloody thing off the ground and definitely not bringing it back here, even if we have to put it down somewhere between here and Point Cook!'. As it happened, he was partly right! Number 6 shuddered off the runway and slowly gained height in the direction of it's intended destination, but almost immediately we were feathering a prop on an outer engine (I can't remember which side, although I think it was starboard). Anyhow we exchanged looks, and it was obvious that we were going to press on! And so we settled down with a bit of trimming of the controls, the auto pilot being useless. Not long afterwards, we had sorted everything out, and determined to carry on, not having changed course, when bang, and the other motor on the same side gave up and was quickly feathered!

We were now in a bit of bother, we had run out of useable trim, and definitely couldn't turn the aircraft unless we attempted a long sweeping turn. We were past the point of no return, so with both of us at the controls which were almost over hard one way, and me with one foot braced somewhere to help on the controls in whatever way I could, and with Point Cook in sight, the other 2 engines complaining, and flying speed dropping, we continued on! I was trying to raise Point Cook on the radio, which was useless, and so the pilot said 'To hell with that, get the wheels down and just get your hands back on the wheel and help me, we are going straight in' and we just cleared the fence at the Northern end of the runway and flopped 6 down! Taxiing proved to be difficult so we just turned off the runway on to the grass and cut the other two motors and climbed out to be greeted with just about every motor vehicle the station possessed. As it turned out, 6 had been scheduled to make the journey so many times and failed, that Point Cook was also treating it's radioed arrival instructions with uncertainty. When we failed to make radio contact, and were perceived to be approaching from the North at almost ground level, Point Cook went into full attack alert – us coming in low was the final straw! Naturally you won't find this in any of the station records!

So Liberator instruction courses were transferred to Point Cook, and as is the case with regulations, in due course I was posted to Point Cook – not as I expected at an instructor – but as a student! In time my course duly sat for our exam, and I passed and officially became a Liberator Flight Engineer. But the big event of that time was that the 'BOMB' was dropped on Japan, and I returned to 'Toke' and the two last classes that were still in progress! But no-one really cared what went on, the war was over! The classes were set to work cleaning up around the hangars and instruction buildings, but it was bloody hot, so we organised a 'Battleships and Cruisers' (on paper) championship. Soon pretty much the whole station was standing down early, and going down to the river for a swim.

At weekends, flying exercises were scheduled to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and other places, and I had the opportunity to jump on a departing mission at any time. From there on until my posting for discharge I spent very little time on the base, as I was in the position of not having to report to any one except the officer in charge of the training section, and he was only there at odd times anyhow! Suddenly it became a pretty wonderful war for most of us. Any time I checked on my courses in the hangar, the 'Battleships and Cruisers' game was still going on, everything was ship shape, and every day, the classes became smaller as discharge notices came through. I think they were placing bets daily as to who would be next.

I had taken part in the Prisoner of War return flights, and they were a truly heart warming event in my life. Landing at Sydney and Brisbane with barely walking returned men, some helping their mates stand and walk, and seeing them greeted by their families, the names having been radioed ahead, the tears and embraces, (the crew too!) was something that I will always remember.