AUSTRALIA IN THE WAR OF 1939-194 5

SERIES THRE E AIR

VOLUME I ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE 1939-1942 AUSTRALIA IN THE WAR OF 1939-194 5

SERIES I (ARMY ) I. To Benghazi. By . * II. Greece, Crete and Syria. By Gavin Long.* III. Tobruk and El Alamein. By Barton Maughan. IV. The Japanese Thrust. By Lionel Wigmore.* V. South-West Pacific Area—First Year. By Dudley McCarthy .* VI. The New Guinea Offensives . By David Dexter.* VII. The Final Campaigns. By Gavin Long .

SERIES 2 (NAVY) I. , 1939-42. By G. Hermon Gill.* II. Royal Australian Navy, 1942-45. By G . Hermon Gill.

SERIES 3 (AIR) I. Royal Australian Air Force 1939-42 . By Douglas Gillison.* II. Air War Against Japan, 1943-45 . By .* III. Air War Against Germany and Italy, 1939-43 . By John Herington.* IV. Air Power Over Europe, 1944-45 . By John Herington .

SERIES 4 (CIVIL ) I. The Government and the People, 1939-41 . By Paul Hasluck . * II. The Government and the People, 1942-45 . By Paul Hasluck . III. War Economy, 1939-42. By S. I. Butlin .* IV. War Economy, 1942-45. By S. J. Butlin . V. The Role of Science and Industry. By D . P . Mellor.*

SERIES 5 (MEDICAL ) I. Clinical Problems of War. By Allan S. Walker * II. Middle East and Far East . By Allan S. Walker. * III. The Island Campaigns. By Allan S. Walker .* IV. Medical Services of the R.A.N. and R.A.A.F. By Allan S. Walker and others .* * Published.

The writers of these volumes have been given full access to official documents , but they and the general editor are alone responsible for the statements and opinions which the volumes contain . ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORC E 1939-194 2

by

DOUGLAS GILLISO N

CANBERR A First published in 1962

WHOLLY SET UP, PRINTED AND BOUND IN AUSTRALIA A T THE GRIFFIN PRESS, . REGISTERED AT THE G .P .O . ADELAIDE FOR TRANSMISSION THROUGH THE POST AS A BOOK .

CONTENT S

Page Preface . xi

Chapter 1 FORMATION OF THE ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE 1 2 SALMOND TO ELLINGTON . 3 1 3 DEMAND VERSUS CAPACITY 58 4 THE EMPIRE PLAN : DOCTRINES AND DECISIONS 79 5 THE NEW COMMAND . 90 6 SEA LANE PROTECTION AND AIRCRAFT PRODUCTION 12 1 7 THE MALAY BARRIER . 14 1 8 AMERICAN PREPARATIONS 173 9 DEGREES OF READINESS 190 10 JAPAN 'S SEVEN-POINT ASSAULT 207 11 THE PRICE OF HESITATION . 23 4 12 "HouRS NoT DAYS" . 264 13 THE BARRIER WEAKENS 275 14 AUSTRALIA BECOMES A BASE 29 2 15 TOKEN RESISTANCE . 305 16 MALAYA CONVOYS : JANUARY 1942 32 3 17 WITHDRAWAL FROM 33 3 18 THE FALL OF RABAUL . 353 19 AMBON AND AFTER 369 20 ON SUMATRA 382 21 RETREAT FROM BURMA 40 1 22' Loss OF TIMOR AND JAVA 41 7 23 ASSAULT ON NEW GUINEA . 446 24 COMMAND AND SUPPLY 470 25 THE CHINA-BURMA-INDIA THEATRE 495 26 CORAL SEA AND MIDWAY 51 5 27 "No SECOND FRONT " . 53 6 28 PROBLEMS OF COMMAND 570 29 KOKODA AND MILNE BAY 599 30 ADVANCE TO BUNA 623 31 GONA, BUNA, SANANANDA . 65 3 32 WAU AND THE BISMARCK SE A 679 APPENDIXES : 1 Military Aviation 1909-1914 708 2 The Air Force List—1925 712 3 The R .A.A.F. in the Darwin Raids . 714 4 Australian, British, American and Japanese Aircraft . 717 5 Abbreviations . 75 1 INDEX 755

V

ILLUSTRATIONS

Page The , 1928 . 5 0 S . J. Goble and Flight I . E. McIntyre after th e first round-Australia flight . . 5 0 A formation of Southampton flying-boats of No . 101 Flight . 5 1 ▪ Aircraft of No . 1 Flying Training School at Laverton, May 1937 . 5 1 Scene at a R.A.A.F . Empire Air Training Scheme School for navigators 8 2 A pick-a-back landing by two Avro Ansons near Brocklesby, N .S.W ., 28th 8 2 September 1940 . . • Members of the W.A.A.A .F . at work 8 2 The Air Board, July 1940 11 4 The arrival of Beaufort aircraft in Malaya 11 5 Blenheim bombers and Buffalo fighters in Malaya . 11 5 Sir Robert Brooke-Popham and General Sir Archibald Wavell 14 6 Officers of No. 13 Squadron and of the Royal Netherlands Air Force at R .A.A.F. Station, Darwin, March 1941 . 14 7 Flying Fortresses at Port Moresby, September 1941 . 14 7 Lieut-General George H . Brett . 30 6 J . P. J. McCauley . 30 6 R. Yeowart's reconnaissance of Truk, 9th January 1942 . 307 Burning Blenheims of No . 45 Squadron R.A.F . after a Japanese raid on Magwe 33 8 Vehicles of No . 45 Squadron approaching Mandalay during the retreat fro m Burma 33 8 Damage to R.A.A.F . Station, Darwin, after Japanese air raids of 19th Februar y and 25th June 1942 . . . . 33 9 Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett and Air Vice-Marshal W. D . Bostock . 354 Air Vice-Marshal George Jones, Chief of the Air Staff, with some senio r members of his staff . 354 Japanese shipping under air attack during the battle of the Coral Sea . 354 Hudsons of No. 2 Squadron attacking Japanese shipping at Ambon, May 1942 35 4 Allied bombing of Japanese installations at Lae, May 1942 . . 35 5 The Macdhui on fire in Port Moresby harbour after Japanese air attacks, June 1942 . . 35 5 Pilots of No . 75 Squadron at Port Moresby, August 1942 355 The Minister for Air, Mr A. S . Drakeford, visiting No . 76 Squadron at Strauss, Northern Territory, November 1942 . . 355 Hudsons of No. 2 Squadron attacking Dili, November 1942 . 41 8 Dropping supplies by parachute to an A .I.B. party in Portuguese Timor, March 1943 . 41 8 Hudsons of No . 13 Squadron withdrawing after bombing Mindelo in centra l Portuguese Timor . 41 8 Bombing up a Hudson of No . 2 Squadron at Batchelor . . 41 8 Vii

Pag e Bombs straddling a Japanese cruiser at Ambon, January 1943 41 9 A Japanese transport in Dili Harbour, February 1943 . 41 9 Penfui airfield under strafing attack by No. 31 Squadron Beaufighters , February 1943 . 41 9 Low-level attacks by R .A.F . Blenheim squadrons in Burma . 46 6 A camouflaged radar station in north Queensland . 46 7 Bombing Japanese shipping in Simpson Harbour, Rabaul . 46 7 Generals Douglas MacArthur, Sir Thomas Blarney and George C . Kenney at Port Moresby, October 1942 . 49 8 A salvaged Zero fighter at Port Moresby . . 49 8 The Starr King sinking off Port Macquarie, 10th February 1943 . . 49 9 Catalinas of No . 3 Operational Training Unit on a formation flying exercise 49 9 The bombing of the Seven Mile aerodrome at Port Moresby, 17th August 1942 54 6 A Japanese petrol dump at Milne Bay and a wrecked Japanese landing barge 54 6 Allied air attacks on Lae, 1942 . 54 6 Kokoda, 10th September 1942 . 54 7 Dropping supplies in the Owen Stanleys . . 54 7 A No . 30 Squadron Beaufighter in the Owen Stanleys 54 7 The destruction of the Wairopi Bridge . 547 Aerial photograph of country between Oivi and Myola . 56 2 A Wirraway of No . 4 Squadron strafing the tree-tops for snipers in the Buna-Gona area . . 563 A Boston of No. 22 Squadron disintegrating over Buna . . 56 3 Runa airfield after attacks by Marauders of No . 19 Squadron U.S.A.A.F . . 59 4 Allied air attacks on Japanese positions and barges in the Mambare Rive r mouth area, December 1942 . . 59 5 Papuans clearing a strip of kunai to fly out a salvaged light aircraft fro m Kapari Hula, December 1942 61 0 Flying Officers N . B . S . Hutchison and N. A . Jobson of No . 4 Squadron . 61 0 Lae airfield, 4th January 1943 . . 61 0 A burning Wirraway of No . 4 Squadron at Wau . 61 1 A Hudson aircraft over Dobo in the Aru Islands . 61 1 Air attacks on Salamaua by No . 22 Squadron Bostons . . 61 1 The arrival by air of 25-pounder guns at Wau, January 1943 65 8 Air supply of Wau . . 65 8 Allied air attacks on Japanese ships during the battle of the Bismarck Sea , March 1943 . 65 9 A Beaufighter attack on Malahang airfield, near Lae, during the battle of th e Bismarck Sea . . . . . 690 Ward's Field, Port Moresby, showing the extensive development, April 1943 69 1 Parked Kittyhawks at Milne Bay, April 1943 691

MAP S Page First round-Australia flight . 25 First trans-Pacific flight . 30 The Salmond Plan . . 33 R.A.A.F. on the eve of war . 56 E.A.T.S. schools for aircrew, December 1941 . 11 1 The "Horseshoe" route . 123 Development of advanced operational bases, 1939-1941 . 127 Attacks by surface raiders and mines, June-December 1940 . 13 1 The Far Eastern theatre . 153 Pacific air ferry routes 175 The Malayan theatre 194 Far East Command R.A.F., 7th-8th December 1941 203 Japan's initial assaults . 209 Japan's opening moves on Thailand and Malaya 213 The attack on Pearl Harbour . 227 The Philippine Islands . 231 R.A.A.F. dispositions and areas of responsibility, 12th December 1941 23 7 Loss of Prince of Wales and Repulse . 252 Far East Command R.A.F., 24th December 1941 . 283 ABDA and ANZAC Areas 303 Truk and other reconnaissances, January 1942 316 Southern Malaya and Singapore Island . 334 Rabaul and northern New Britain . 354 Escape routes from New Britain . 361 The Japanese advance through the Netherlands East Indies and to Rabaul 370 Ambon and Buru Islands . 372 Japanese invasion of southern Sumatra, February 1942 383 R.A.A.F. Area boundaries, November 1942 386 Southern Burma . 403 Japanese invasion of Dutch Timor, February 1942 . 41 9 Air attacks on Darwin, 19th February 1942 . 43 2 Japanese invasion of Bali and east Java, February-March 1942 . 440 Japanese invasion of west Java, March 1942 . 441 Eastern New Guinea, New Britain and the Solomons 450 Port Moresby , airfields . 458 The Pacific theatre . 472 North-Western Area 482 Operations in the Bay of Bengal area, April 1942 498 China-Burma-India theatre . 502

1Z

Page Coral Sea Battle, 5th-8th May 1942 . 52 3 Japanese submarine attacks off eastern Australia, May 1942-February 1943 52 8 South-east New Guinea and New Britain . 544 Area of Guadalcanal offensive . 577 Milne Bay 60 6 Kokoda-Buna area . 63 3 North-Western Area : disposition of squadrons, December 1942 644 Portuguese Timor . 647 Gona-Buna-Sanananda area 66 0 Wau and the Bismarck Sea area 68 0 Wau-Mubo areas 68 2

DIAGRA M

E.A.T.S. Australian curriculum . 108

X PREFACE

HILE the greater part of this volume is devoted to forty-two months W of war, the text that introduces this most critical period has a time-span of thirty years . In a work titled Royal Australian Air Force , 1939-1942 this calls for some explanation . Only a few years after the Wright brothers, in 1903, achieved man's first flight in a powered aeroplane, a small group of Australians—men widel y regarded, like their counterparts elsewhere in the world, as merely vision- aries—were striving to advance their concept of the aeroplane as a weapo n of war. Hitherto there has been no concerted record of this fascinatin g period when military aviation in Australia was no more than thoughts in men's minds. The first real application of that early concept of the use of air power was developed, of course, in the war of 1914-1918. The very impressive part then played by the Australian Flying , has been recorded with great fidelity and competence in a volume in the Australian official histor y of that war. But the need to fill the initial gap has remained until now , and so an endeavour has been made to meet it here with a survey coverin g the years 1909-1914. To avoid a sharp break in the continuity of the text this appears as an appendix at the end of this volume instead of a s its prologue . Just before the First World War ended and for three years immediately after it, there occurred another prefatory period. But at this time the actual founders of the R .A.A.F. were at work, and so we find ourselves concerned with names, events and newer concepts that became woven into the fabric of an air force that was to go to war more than eighteen years later. This therefore has been taken as the logical beginning for this volum e even though, in our opening chapter, the final phase of the earlier war wa s still being fought. As with the time-span, so also the geographical scope of this volum e demands some attention. Research for the pre-war period drew on source s from Great Britain, the United States, Germany, Italy, Japan and China . This was necessary to reveal many of the influences prompting, and o n occasion forcing, the decisions of Australian policy-makers ; on the other hand it revealed, too, events which might have but did not influence them . Similarly, with the war period itself, it has been essential to survey event s over the same wide geographical range . There has been a need also to recount and interpret major war operations in which the R .A.A.F. had no direct share, but which exercised profound influences on the course o f events to which, in one way or another, the Service was to be deepl y committed . Examples that come readily to mind are the Japanese attacks on Pearl Harbour, the Philippines and Hong Kong ; some operations of the Japanese aircraft carrier divisions and the battle for Guadalcanal . The endeavour here has been to omit nothing within this scope that contributes xi to clarity in explaining the role of the R.A.A.F'. and at the same time to preserve as faithfully as possible the essential individuality of that forc e as a fighting Service though it was serving or about to serve in variou s theatres and under various commands . It is for this reason, too, that the text ranges from high command policy to the men serving in the air an d on the ground at what we may term "the cutting edge" of the war. Retention of strict chronological sequence has been a most earnest objective. Where judgment is called for, from whatever source, ever y effort has been made to resist the temptation to introduce evidence pro- vided by "hindsight " and subsequent knowledge that was not available to those making decisions at the time. Always the intention has been to revea l such added knowledge as research has provided—often from enemy docu- ments—after judgment has been passed . At times footnotes have been used for this purpose, and in such circumstances these are more extensive than usual . The reader who objects to long footnotes is asked to bear with these in the interests of accuracy and faithful presentation . For the most part the sources used in this volume are freely state d in the text or in the footnotes . Even so I have a responsibility to expres s my indebtedness to researchers and narrators some of whom I have no t known even by name. Foremost among these sources are the briefs an d narratives prepared by the officers and staff of the R.A.A.F. War History Section. Here my special debt is to two of the officers-in-charge, Squadro n Leader J. W. L. Jillett and Wing Commander K. B. Ready, who successively supervised the preparation of such documents relating to the operationa l period with which this volume is concerned . My grateful thanks are due also to Mr Richard Gunter and Miss Mary Ryan of the same staff , for aid unstintingly given at a later stage and during the writing of this volume . No tribute relating to the provision of basic material would b e complete without acknowledgment of the work performed by Mr Charles Finchett who was the forerunner of the War History Section staff an d who, then and later, made available many documents otherwise inaccessibl e and of great value to the War History Section generally and to this write r particularly. I am also indebted to Mr William Thomas and other officers of the Department of Air, , for extracting the biographica l details included in personal footnotes . Mr. Thomas also rendered valuable assistance in answering queries from the Official War Historian's Offic e in , with the help of source material only available at the R.A.A.F. Historical Section. To the General Editor and Official War Historian, Mr Gavin Long , and his staff at Canberra, my debt is indeed great . Mr Long has given me expert historical guidance, direct literary help, and unfailing encourage- ment. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to him . To three of his literary assistants, Messrs William Lyster, Ralph Clark and Jack Seymour , who, at various times, have been directly concerned in the production o f this volume, my sincere thanks are also due for their painstaking labour. Mr Lyster compiled a valuable account of the campaign in Malaya from xii the R.A.A.F. point of view. Mr Clark did invaluable research, notably o n the Japanese order of battle and the Darwin air raids, and in tracing an d interpreting the movements of the Japanese aircraft carrier divisions . Mr Seymour finally prepared the volume for the printer . Mr A. J. Sweeting, Senior Research Officer on the staff of the Official War Historian, compiled the index. I also acknowledge my debt to Mr Hugh Groser and Mis s Elaine Oates for the excellence of the maps and charts in this volume . My earnest appreciation is extended too, to a number of senior officer s of the R.A.A.F., some retired and others still on the active list . My debt to them is for patient and careful reading of draft chapters and wise , skilled and objective opinion . My gratitude for this aid and my respect for those who gave it is deepened by an awareness that, though this volum e contains passages revealing sharp clashes of personality, sometimes bitterl y expressed, there has never at any time been even a hint of self-interes t in suggestions they may have made for amendment of the text. Among those to whom I am thus particularly indebted are Si r Richard Williams, Air Marshal Sir John McCauley, Air Marshal Si r , Air Vice-Marshal F . M. Bladin, and Air Vice-Marsha l A. L. Murdoch. The help of many others is acknowledged in the text of this volume. For reasons that are very obvious it is not unusual among those who undertake such prolonged tasks as this to acknowledge their debt to their wives . Far from being an exception I acknowledge mine, aware that th e extent of the burden so borne cannot be measured. D.N.G. London, 6th August 1960 .