TRANSCRIPT OF ORAL HISTORY RECORDING Accession number S00923 Title (404604) Doyle, Jack Carlisle (Squadron Leader) Interviewer Stokes, Edward Place made Not stated Date made 5 May 1990 Description Jack Carlisle Doyle as a squadron leader, 3 Squadron RAAF, interviewed by Edward Stokes for The Keith Murdoch Sound Archive of Australia in the War of 1939- 1945 JACK DOYLE 2 of 38 Disclaimer The Australian War Memorial is not responsible either for the accuracy of matters discussed or opinions expressed by speakers, which are for the reader to judge. Transcript methodology Please note that the printed word can never fully convey all the meaning of speech, and may lead to misinterpretation. Readers concerned with the expressive elements of speech should refer to the audio record. It is strongly recommended that readers listen to the sound recording whilst reading the transcript, at least in part, or for critical sections. Readers of this transcript of interview should bear in mind that it is a verbatim transcript of the spoken word and reflects the informal conversational style that is inherent in oral records. Unless indicated, the names of places and people are as spoken, regardless of whether this is formally correct or not – e.g. ‘world war two’ (as spoken) would not be changed in transcription to ‘second world war’ (the official conflict term). A few changes or additions may be made by the transcriber or proof-reader. Such changes are usually indicated by square brackets, thus: [ ] to clearly indicate a difference between the sound record and the transcript. Three dots (…) or a double dash (- -) indicate an unfinished sentence. Copyright Copyright in this transcript, and the sound recording from which it was made, is usually owned by the Australian War Memorial, often jointly with the donors. Any request to use of the transcript, outside the purposes of research and study, should be addressed to: Australian War Memorial GPO Box 345 CANBERRA ACT 2601 JACK DOYLE 3 of 38 BEGIN TAPE 1, SIDE A. Identification: This is Edward Stokes recording with Jack Doyle, No. 3 Squadron, tape 1, side 1. Jack, we've got a good summary here of the story, let's go back to the beginning; I think you were born in Queensland? Yes, I was born on Kamilaroi Station[?] which is halfway between Cloncurry and the Gulf area - 120 miles from the nearest doctor - and I was born on 21st May 1918. Right, that's good. And I understand schooling was in a number of places, and there was even a journey from New South Wales to avoid a polio epidemic, but I think you finished your schooling at Toowoomba Grammar? Yes, we left New South Wales at one stage, not necessarily wholly because of a polio epidemic but that did have a bearing on why we left. Went back to Queensland and I did my education at Toowoomba Grammar School and then did a one year's course after that at Queensland Agricultural High School and College at Gatton. I think you were saying during your school period you had a real interest - much more than just a passing interest - in model aeroplanes? Yes, I'd always been interested in aircraft. I was in a model aircraft club in Toowoomba. We made and flew rubber-powered aircraft which was really the only means of propulsion for model aircraft in those days. Right. Were you conscious of the general developments in aviation during the late 1920s, 1930s? No, not really because I was away from main areas of civilisation I suppose you could say and when I left school I went out jackarooing at Cunnamulla. And after that I was overseer on Darr River Downs at Longreach which was 92 000 acres and 22 000 sheep and from Longreach I joined the air force. Right. Well, let's just move on to one other thing. During your childhood and your teenage years perhaps, were you at all conscious of the general tradition of Australians in the first war; the story of the ANZACs and so on. Was that a major part of your childhood, or not? No, it wouldn't be a major part of my childhood because as I say I'd been out in the country and you're limited with the information that you get, and up in the Gulf country we only got mail every six weeks. And although we did get daily papers you realise that you didn't read them with any great detail. And your radio reception in those early days outback in Cunnamulla and Longreach was mainly shortwave from England - BBC. Sure. I think you were saying before though that you had some inkling of the approach of the war. JACK DOYLE 4 of 38 Oh yes, we were well aware of that. I was speaking more of a general thing between wars, but oh no, we were quite aware of the imminence of war, very strongly. Did you personally greet that as a good thing, that it might involve some journeying overseas? Or was it regretted? Oh, I think any war is regretted, and I think everyone realises this but in my day and age we felt, as I still do now, that that war had to be fought whether you liked it or not because the consequences could have been quite drastic for everyone in Australia and everyone in the Commonwealth as it was in those days. Yes, certainly. Well, moving on a little bit. Of course war was declared, you enlisted, and I think it was October 1940 when you finally were called up and you went to Brisbane, and then later to Lindfield where you did your first service training. What's your very first recollection of being in the air force, of the general discipline, I suppose, of the services after being off in the bush? That didn't strike me as very unusual because I suppose perhaps I was a moderately disciplined person; I was overseer on Darr River Downs before I was old enough to vote, and so I have always been reasonably self-disciplined, but it was also .... It was quite interesting because I'd never been much in large towns for any length of time and then - well, I had been to Sydney before I joined the air force - but that was quite interesting. But we were worked very hard. We were kept very busy from daylight till dark in physical activities and studies of various types of things needed in the air force. (5.00) Well, let's move on to your first flying training, as such, EFTS Archerfield, Brisbane. Were you flying Tiger Moths? Yes, we flew Tiger Moths and Gypsy Moths and we had a great lot of instructors there; they were all old-time pilots. And I can remember flying over the cemetery at Petrie, I think it was - a suburb in Brisbane - and my instructor sort of turned back to me and pointed downwards and I sort of looked downwards and there was quite a long pause and he said, 'That area down there is filled by pilots who fly low and slow' - that's the sort of thing that lives in your memory. That's rather a good comment. I understand facilities at Archerfield were very good but when you went on to Amberley - this was flying Wirraways - advanced training, life was somewhat simpler? Yes, Archerfield was very good because it was a peace-time air force base and we were billeted in rooms; one to a room with proper beds and cupboards. Whereas Amberley, the so- called billets there were just open, large buildings with a palliasse of straw on the floors for a bed. The training in Wirraways at Amberley, what do you recall of that? Well, it was all interesting as being a pilot is, of course, particularly when I had never even been in an aircraft before I joined the air force. But we just did the normal flying, cross- country flying up to Toowoomba and around that area and three-three, triangular, cross- countries, and bombing exercises and all that type of thing. JACK DOYLE 5 of 38 How much of your work was practical flying aircraft and how much was theoretical? Can't give the exact proportion but it was considerably more in flying, because by that time you'd done your initial training in which there was no flying - down at Lindfield, Bradfield - and the elementary flying in Tiger Moths, there's a lot of paperwork done then. So as the training advanced it became less book-based and more plane-based. Yes, less paper and more wings. If you had to assess your overall training - I'm not looking at particular moments or individual instructors but in the broad spectrum of your training - how would you rank it? Good? Average? Poor? Very good? I would say excellent because the type of instructor we had, they were invariably older people who had an enormous wealth of experience and were in fact qualified instructors, and I think that that stood us in great stead afterwards, because I think I admired most of them, and in fact you quite often knew of them just by their normal, civilian exploits. Do you have any other significant recollections of the training period? No, I don't think anything else. We got through it without losing anyone, although I think of the subsequent, the thirty-two people on my training course, I think only seven of them came back from the war but I'm not exactly ...