90 YEARS OF THE RAAF - A SNAPSHOT HISTORY 90 YEARS RAAF A SNAPSHOTof theHISTORY 90 YEARS RAAF A SNAPSHOTof theHISTORY © Commonwealth of Australia 2011 This work is copyright. Apart from any use as permitted under the Copyright Act 1968, no part may be reproduced by any process without prior written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Disclaimer The views expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Department of Defence, the Royal Australian Air Force or the Government of Australia, or of any other authority referred to in the text. The Commonwealth of Australia will not be legally responsible in contract, tort or otherwise, for any statements made in this document. Release This document is approved for public release. Portions of this document may be quoted or reproduced without permission, provided a standard source credit is included. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry 90 years of the RAAF : a snapshot history / Royal Australian Air Force, Office of Air Force History ; edited by Chris Clark (RAAF Historian). 9781920800567 (pbk.) Australia. Royal Australian Air Force.--History. Air forces--Australia--History. Clark, Chris. Australia. Royal Australian Air Force. Office of Air Force History. Australia. Royal Australian Air Force. Air Power Development Centre. 358.400994 Design and layout by: Owen Gibbons DPSAUG031-11 Published and distributed by: Air Power Development Centre TCC-3, Department of Defence PO Box 7935 CANBERRA BC ACT 2610 AUSTRALIA Telephone: + 61 2 6266 1355 Facsimile: + 61 2 6266 1041 Email: [email protected] Website: www.airforce.gov.au/airpower Chief of Air Force Foreword Throughout 2011, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has been commemorating the 90th anniversary of its establishment on 31 March 1921. In the decades since its formation, the Service has undergone innumerable changes in personnel, organisation and equipment. It also engaged in a World War during which it grew in strength towards 200 000 personnel in uniform, operating thousands of aircraft in hundreds of units across the globe. Involvement in further conflicts have followed—in Korea, Malaya, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan—along with a multitude of peacekeeping and humanitarian operations. All this activity has generated a dazzling and multi- faceted story for a Service which has steadily scaled back to less than 15 000 personnel, though one still with formidable operational capability. In 2009 the Office of Air Force History set about capturing the rich story of the RAAF through an electronic publication called “On this day in RAAF history…”, which aimed at focusing on specific events rather than detailing a comprehensive account. The venture proved hugely popular and has been supplying Air Force members, both serving and retired, along with interested members of the public, with daily snippets from the Service’s history ever since. This material can still be accessed off a Compact Disk or from either the official RAAF or Air Power Development Centre websites, but by repackaging the OAFH database on a yearly rather than a daily basis, an entirely different view of the RAAF’s past emerges. A juxtaposition of events is achieved which can be surprising, amusing and sometimes quite unsettling, but always informative. I am pleased to commend this “snapshot history” of the RAAF to anyone with an interest in the story of air power in Australia. As Air Force steadily edges towards achieving a century of service to the nation, it is entirely fitting that we improve our understanding of what has made the Service what it has become. Dedicated to the nearly 310 000 men and women who have served in the Royal Australian Air Force since 1921, this book captures not just the highlights of the last 90 years, but also its low points and many a quirky moment, along with the ordinary milestone achievements that have been reached along the way. Air Marshal Geoff Brown, AM Chief of Air Force 19 19 19 TWENTIES THIRTIES FORTIES PAGE 07 PAGE 37 PAGE 63 19 19 19 FIFTIES SIXTIES SEVENTIES PAGE 137 PAGE 173 PAGE 201 19 19 21st EIGHTIES NINETIES CENTURY PAGE 233 PAGE 255 PAGE 285 - 1921 - - 1922 - 1923 - 1924 - 1925 - 1926 - 1927 - 1928 - 1929 - 1930 - 1931 - 1932 - 1933 - 1934 - 1935 - 1936 - 1937 - 1938 - 1939 - 1940 - 1941 - 1942 - 1943 - 1944 - 1945 - 1946 - 1947 - 1948 - 1949 - 1950 - 1951 - 1952 - 1953 - 1954 - 1955 - 1956 - 1957 - 1958 - 1959 - 1960 - 1961 - 1962 - 1963 - 1964 - 1965 - 1966 - 1967 - 1968 - 1969 - 1970 - 1971 - 1972 - 1973 - 1974 - 1975 - 1976 - 1977 - 1978 - 1979 - 1980 - 1981 - 1982 - 1983 - 1984 - 1985 - 1986 - 1987 - 1988 - 1989 - 1990 - 1991 - 1992 - 1993 - 1994 - 1995 - 1996 - 1997 - 1998 - 1999 - 2000 - 2001 - 2002 - 2003 - 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - 2007 - 2008 - 2009 - 2010 - 2011 - 19 TWENTIES 90 Years of the RAAF - A Snapshot History 7 1921 31 MARCH The Australian Air Corps (AAC)––a temporary Army unit raised 15 months earlier––was disbanded and replaced by the Australian Air Force (AAF) as a separate new Service. The AAF immediately took possession of existing aircraft and equipment at Point Cook, Victoria, but not all the AAC’s personnel were transferred across. At its formation the new Service had 21 officers and 128 other ranks, and even six months later this strength had barely doubled. The 153 aircraft which initially came into the AAF’s possession were mainly war surplus machines received under an ‘Imperial Gift’ arrangement. Most stayed in storage, and for several years only 50–60 aircraft were actually in use. Economies imposed in 1922 forced the RAAF to cut back on development plans, so that even after five years in existence it had less than 700 personnel. Corporal Whicker Australian Flying Corps Just a week after the Australian Air Force was formed, the new Service suffered its first loss of 06 life in a flying accident. An Avro 504K (H3021) stalled on an afternoon training flight at Point Cook and spun 500 feet nose-first into the ground about a half-mile north of the airfield hangars. April The pilot, Flying Officer (Honorary Flight Lieutenant) James Fryer-Smith, received a fracture to the base of the skull and severe cuts to the face and body. He recovered from these injuries but was classed as medically unfit for further flying. The passenger, Corporal Bertie Whicker, a 23-year- old ex-Australian Flying Corps mechanic, suffered injuries from which he died in Caufield Military Hospital that same evening. 8 90 Years of the RAAF - A Snapshot History 1921 12 August Mrs Hughes, wife of Australia’s Prime Minister, launched the first of six Fairey IIID seaplanes built for Australia at the Fairey Aviation Works at Hamble, Southampton, England. Although Mr Hughes was not present, the occasion was attended by an array of British VIPs including Major General John Seely (former Under-Secretary of State for Air, later Baron Mottistone), Major General Sir Sefton Brancker (Aircraft Manufacturing Company) and Major General Sir Frederick Sykes (Controller-General of Civil Aviation). During preliminary speeches Lieutenant Colonel John Moore- Brabazon (Parliamentary private secretary in the Air Ministry, later Baron Brabazon) proposed a toast to the ‘Australian Air Force’, which was responded to by Australia’s Air Liaison Officer in London. During the actual launch, Mrs Hughes named the aircraft ‘Mary’, after herself. Although ordered by the Naval Board in 1920, the six seaplanes were operated by the RAAF following their delivery to Australia. First Australian Fairey IIID ready for naming at Hamble 13 August When Australia’s air service was officially established, its title was simply the ‘Australian Air Force’. A request had already been made in February, however, for the ‘Royal’ prefix to be added to the name, and on 11 May the Governor-General, Lord Forster, was advised in a dispatch from London that the King had given his approval. This advice was not relayed to the Defence Department until 20 June. Although the news appeared in the press three days later, it was not until 13 August that the necessary order signed by the Governor- General was published in the Commonwealth Gazette (No. 65, 1921, p. 1207), making this the start date for use of the RAAF name. 90 Years of the RAAF - A Snapshot History 9 1922 10 January About 240 officers and airmen of the RAAF–– almost its entire strength––returned to the Point Cook air base after completing more than three months of non-technical training The Governor-General with RAAF officers at Holsworthy, 24 October 1921 at the Army’s Central Training Depot (CTD) at Holsworthy, outside the Sydney suburb of Liverpool. The first detachment of 22 officers and 145 airmen began a course of drill and other infantry training at the CTD on 12 September 1921, six months after the RAAF was officially formed. This group was joined on 7 November by another 10 officers and 74 airmen who trained concurrently with the first arrivals. While in camp, the ‘No 1 Course’ members were visited by the Governor- General on 24 October. At least a dozen men decided that Service life was not for them and took their discharge during the period of training. Until the ‘RAAF Details, Liverpool’ returned, the Point Cook base stood largely deserted. 10 90 Years of the RAAF - A Snapshot History 1922 Vickers Vimy leaving Point Cook for flight to Adelaide, 23 March 1920 The Vickers FB-27A Vimy IV twin-engined aircraft in which the Smith brothers made their historic 14 flight from England to Australia in 1919 was approved for transfer to the Australian War Museum (later Memorial). The machine had been stored at Point Cook since March 1920, originally in the March custody of the Australian Air Corps and then, from April 1921, of the new Air Force.