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Secret Action of 305 Smith &Coghlan k y ra /.. HERITAGE SERIES SECRET ACTION OF 305 SMITH &COGHLAN am V Mi':- 11, SECRET ACTION OF 305 An occasion al series N um ber 1 ' f t 0-00 flPsQf' MWM SECRET ACTION OF 305 TH E STORY OF RAAF RADAR STATION NO. 305 IN TH E WAR WITH JAPAN by Norm Smith and Frank Coghlan DEFENCE INFORMATION SERVICES Defence Library Service CALL No. 9*0 Simpson Barracks MACLEOD Vic. 3085 CONTROL No. ........... — CRN DEFENCE INFORMATION SERVICES Q09671183 Royal Australian Air Force Museum First published in 1989 by Royal Australian Air Force Museum RAAF Base Point Cook Vic 3029 Australia Secret Action of 305. Written in Australia by W.N. Smith 93 Pacific Highway MURWILLUMBAH 2484 and Ron Ackerley Bruce Aldrich Doug Bottger Ernie Brennan F.P.J. Coghlan 5 Laurie Road MANLY VALE 2093 both of whom served with 305 Radar Station during 1942/1943 Copyright © W.N. Smith and F.P.J. Coghlan 1987 Printed in Australia by Impact Printing (Vic) Pty Ltd National Library of Australia ISBN 1 86252 594 3 George Campbell Tom Connor John Freeman Ray Kelly All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher Alan McLeod Les Martin ‘Mick’ Sheehy Norm Smith 7 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We sincerely thank the Australian War Memorial and the RAAF Historical Section for access to their records; former personnel of No. 305 Radar Station for their memories and diary extracts; and our wives, Merle and Penny, for their patience and understanding in the years we have spent on this project. Willing assistance and encouragement was also given by:- Keith Bishop, Charles Hammer, Dr William A. Land, Noel McCormack, Rev. Dr Gordon Powell, M.C.W. (‘M ac’) Rich, Max Sutherland, John J. White (Qantas). Graphic artwork and proof-reading were carried out by Birgit, Lynda and Carolyn Smith and to them we express our gratitude. Norm Smith and Frank Coghlan CONTENTS PART ONE 11 FOREWORD 13 INTRODUCTION 15 1 MOBILIZATION 22 2 OUTWARD BOUND 31 3 NO. 305 RADAR STATION PERSONNEL JANUARY 1943 38 4 INSTALLATION ON GOODENOUGH 39 5 OPERATION ON GOODENOUGH 51 6 LIFE ON GOODENOUGH 60 7 MAINTENANCE 71 8 STATION DEFENCE 73 9 EMERGENCY 74 10 HANDOVER — TAKEOVER 84 PART TWO FOREWORD 93 11 ABOARD ‘WILL WATCH’ 95 12 INSTALLATION ON KIRIWINA 102 13 KIRIWINA CAMP 105 14 LAND AND PEOPLE 108 15 THE GREAT FIRE 114 16 SECOND EMERGENCY 117 17 VISITORS 120 18 OPERATIONS ON KIRIWINA 124 19 TECHNICAL MATTERS 127 20 HEALTH AND RECREATION 129 MISCELLANY 135 ROLL OF PERSONNEL WHO SERVED ON 305 IN PNG 143 APPENDIX No. 305 RADAR STATION IN JAPAN WITH BCOF147 PART ONE his is an account of the life of a small Australian Radar Station during World War II. It has brought back to me Tvivid memories of an important period of my life, and I am grateful to the authors for inviting me to write a Foreword. For me, acceptance by the R.A.A.F. and enlistment as a Radar Officer marked a very important transition, from the status of an ex-refugee who had escaped from Hitler’s Germany and been received with great hospitality, first in England, then in Australia, to a full member of his adopted country. When the war started I felt I had several kinds of debt to settle, and I tried — at first unsuccessfully — to join the Australian forces. But after I had obtained my naturalization papers in 1941, this became easier. My great teacher, the English physiologist A.V. Hill had written to me about ‘radiolocation’ the new method of detecting and locat­ ing aircraft by reflexion of radio pulses. Professor Hill had himself been one of the three members of the Tizard Com­ mittee which had initiated the whole development of radar as early as January 1935. My teacher probably thought that I might find employment in radar research, but this did not seem practical nor did it appeal to me, and I felt happy when I was allowed to join the R.A.A.F. and to be trained as a Radar Officer. I was, and I still am, grateful to the team of young Aus­ tralians, assembled as No. 305 RDF Station, for accepting me with ease, in spite of my obvious foreign antecedents, and for making our collaboration so successful, in spite of sometimes rather trying circumstances. Of course, we had our periods of frustration — this was unavoidable in an advanced and isolated position, but over all there was an excellent spirit of companionship, an awareness that we were all doing something useful, indeed something of vital importance in an active theatre of war. After I left the unit, I visited many other Radar Stations, and I found the same happy team spirit at almost all of them. And I was most impressed and glad to see how very well that spirit had been recaptured in this splendid London, July 1986 Authors’ Note Bernard Katz was the first Commanding Officer of No. 305 Radar Station. He is now Sir Bernard Katz and Professor Emeritus at the Department of Biophysics, University College London. In 1970 he was co-winner of the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine. INTRODUCTION y 1940 Britain had a highly developed radio location system in­ Bstalled along its coastline. A chain of early warning stations was able to detect aircraft or surface vessels approaching its shores by day or night, irrespective of weather conditions. Limited resources of fighter aircraft could thus be deployed to best advantage. Radar (radio detection and ranging) as it became known had far reaching implications in the prosecution of the war and conse­ quently its circuitry, performance and very existence were closely guarded secrets. The British made the new technology available to selected Allied scientists and armed services personnel of whom they demanded the most stringent security requirements. The surging southward thrust of the Japanese war machine in December, 1941, created a great sense of urgency in upgrading the defences of Australia and one consequence of this was that, by the end of 1942, radar technology had become a vital factor in the Aus­ tralian war effort. Manufactured equipment had been procured from England, the United States of America and Canada while Australian scientists and engineers had devised and produced a very satisfac­ tory early warning radar device. Radar was used in the following ways in the defence of Australia:- 1. Early warning of the approach of hostile aircraft or surface vessels. 2. Control of aircraft for the interception of the enemy. 3. Gun laying as applied to shore, anti-aircraft and ships’ guns. 4. Searching for ships and submarines using airborne equipment. 5. Navigation. In the beginning the men who installed and maintained the ra­ dar units were qualified engineers and other skilled persons drawn from the electronic and allied industries. Since the number of such persons available was limited, an imaginative programme for the training of suitable recruits was formulated. Towards the end of 1941 the Chiefs of Staff of the Armed Serv­ ices recognised the need for early warning radar equipment that could be dismantled and packaged in such a way that it could be manhandled and transported on land or by aircraft (especially the 16 17 Douglas DC3) or small landing barge. Additionally, it needed to be capable of reliable operation in conditions of high temperature and humidity in tropical areas. It was to be operated by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) to meet the particular requirements of that service. In Sydney the research scientists of the Radio Physics Laboratory, an adjunct of the Commonwealth Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (later CSIRO), were charged with the development of the electronic equipment and manufacturers were engaged to produce it. The lightweight manually rotatable aerial array was constructed in the workshop of the special radar annexe of the New South Wales Government Railways. The framework was fabricated from light metal tubing and could be readily assembled using a minimum number of bolts. The end result was a lightweight air warning apparatus designated LW/AW Mark 1 which proved to be the most successful of its kind to be operated in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during World War II. Simultaneously with the development of the LW/AW radar, select­ ed recruits were trained in basic fitting, electrical technology and radio transmitter and receiver servicing at the RAAF No. 1 School of Technical Training (No. 1STT] based at the old Exhibition Building and using the facilities of the Melbourne Technical College. Similar courses of training were commenced at other places such as Ultimo, Sydney. The intensive training of these men was completed at the Radar School in a high security compound at the Richmond RAAF Base west of Sydney. This final programme of training included the circuitry and operation of the various types of radar already in use in Australia as well as that of the new LW/AW not yet in service. Radar operators were also trained at Richmond. These were recruits or remustered personnel such as wireless operators and wireless air gunners whose aptitude tests had shown them to have the superior skills required for this work. They had been told that they would be engaged in highly secret operations, the details of which were restricted by most stringent security provisions. A number of these radar mechanics and operators were sent via embarkation depots to No. 1 RAAF Personnel Pool (No.
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