Prisoners of War return flights 1946

At the cessation of hostilities in the Pacific, plans were immediately made to evacuate prisoners of Wars (POWs) from wherever they were being held in the South Pacific areas. The RAAF had at least two aircraft capable of carrying passengers – Catalina flying boats and land based Liberator B24 bombers, but neither were equipped to do so. However they were immediately pressed into service as they were, with bundles of blankets, and supplies of food and water for flights that were of quite long duration at times. At this point I was no longer on Catalina's, but as part of the Liberator crew training scheme at Tocumwal, Victoria, I along with other instructor pilots and engineers, became part of the transport fleet.

Following is a description of one such flight as taken from my flying logbook.

A little over 2 weeks after the War's end, on 15th August 1945, at 9am on the 4th September, we were lifting off the strip at Tocumwal, bound for Mascot aerodrome in Sydney. My skipper was Flight Lieutenant Hastilow who I had flown with previously. I have no record of the 2nd pilot's name, or the radio operator and we only carried one engineer – myself. There were few engineer's duties on B24's outside of combat – both engineers then being carried as part of the air gunnery defence, with very little in the way of engineering flight duties. I never took part in operations in Liberators – all my active service operations were in Catalinas. I cannot remember details, but we were at Mascot for less than 2 hours at midday, which would have been a lunch stop and possibly collecting blankets and supplies and our orders. At 4.30 in the afternoon, we were parked at Amberley (Brisbane) and being fueled up in readiness for the flight to Darwin.

A day later on the 6th we lifted off at Amberley at 6 30am and landed at Darwin 10½ hours later – obviously our cruising speed was far less than the passenger jets of today! At 4.15am the next morning we were aloft at Darwin and 9 hours flying later, we were on the ground at Zamboanga field in the south of the Phillipines enjoying a late lunch. Little more than an hour later we were in the air once more en-route to Manilla airfield to await further orders. The next morning a half hour flight to Clark field for a one day stopover for refueling and some servicing, and we finally had our orders to turn about, and fly 6 hours South to the island of Moratai in the Halmahera group of islands, South of the Phillipines, where our POW's were now waiting.

The rules of air transport had been laid down as only for those prisoners who were capable of walking, and were considered to be medically fit enough to stand the rigorous flights under rather primitive conditions. So it became the self imposed task of any ex-prisoners who were reasonably fit, to somehow help their less fortunate mates on board, get them settled, and care for them during the flights. The alternative trip home was by boat or hospital ship once the ex-prisoners had gained some health and strength. But the possibility of being home in a couple of days gave then great fortitude, and I for one was overwhelmed at the strength of purpose that they all displayed to make it home together with their mates – no one wanted to be left behind!!
This in itself was heart rending. All the men were terribly emaciated from the privations that they had endured at the hands of the Japanese, so basically the rules were forgotten, as we somehow managed to get them on board and settled comfortably on the hard metal floors.

Many were laid out on the inside of the roll-away bomb bay doors – something that I for one wasn't too happy about, as the doors were not designed to be load bearing, and the bomb bays were far from air tight and freezing during flight! However with plenty of blankets and pillows, the ones who needed a bed, were somehow made comfortable with their precious pack of food and comforts that had been issued to them by the ever present Red Cross. The loading complete, we were in the air at 6 AM on the 11th facing the 22 hours plus flight home with night time stopovers at Darwin and Brisbane before finally arriving at Essendon, Victoria. I cannot remember details, but the flight to Darwin was quite a harrowing experience for all concerned but the returnees were well cared for in hospitals there and at Brisbane overnight. They would be ready for each stage of the flight the next morning – no-one wanting to be left behind this close to home – and somehow they all made it! Their names had been forwarded to Australia, and their relatives were waiting on the tarmac when we touched down.

Even now 60 odd years later, I find tears in my eyes as I remember the welcome, as they somehow walked, helped by their mates across to the arms of their loved ones, and a little later, whisked off to hospital in ambulances. This has remained one of the most emotional experiences of my life, completely overpowering as these people threw their arms around family, that most of them had never expected to see again! Every person on the tarmac had tears in their eyes – or were weeping openly.

The next day saw us back at Tocumwal after 10 days away, and flying on 9 days. One week later on the 21st September we were in the air again about to retrace our route, this time 7 flying days ending at Mascot in Sydney. The organisation had swung into gear by this time, and so there was no lost time awaiting orders. I only did the two mercy flights, and there are no more entries in my log book – from then on it seemed pointless to record flying hours, although I did still fly quite a bit. The war was over and regulations were mostly forgotten.

I spent the next 5 months awaiting discharge, flying odd flights to the capital cities, ferrying officers and men and sometimes WAAFS, back and forth on leave, or to their discharge postings – on flights that were little more than taxi journeys at times.