Wallaby Airlines

Each month transport aircraft under the 834th Air Division’s operational control, including the RAAF’s No. 35 Squadron, flew more than 32,000 sorties into some 170 airfields, delivering over 100,000 tons including more than 300,000 passengers. The total number of passengers carried by the airlift services in the year 1968 reached an enormous total of four million. ‘Wallaby Airlines’ as No. 35 Squadron was popularly known in Vietnam, carrying 112,000 of these. Thus with only seven Caribou aircraft available, the Australian squadron achieved a passenger-carrying result exceeding 2½ per cent of the total. A senior RAAF officer suggested reasons for the superior performance of the Caribou Squadron: ‘We flew the hell out of our aircraft. This is a war zone, so you have to be more flexible than when you are at home. We have crew rest regulations, but the crew is going to try to get the job done before they take their break. ‘

By mid-1970 ‘Wallaby Airlines’ had carried a total of more than 500,000 passengers and 78 million pounds of freight. In spite of the fact that the RAAF flew their Caribou aircraft harder and carried a greater tonnage with them than comparable United States aircraft, they were able to maintain their aircraft in excellent shape. Moreover, the RAAF achieved these results in spite of the fact that they frequently operated from remote, primitive strips where overruns were short and rough; where navigational aids were few and there was constant danger from ground fire.

The airlift operation in Vietnam was not a behind-the-scenes activity simply moving supplies from depots to forward supply areas. The airlift operation was an extension of the battle itself and as such vitally important to the ground commander. United States aircraft engaged in airlift were subjected to more hostile ground fire and suffered more battle damage than in all other wars combined. The RAAF Caribou aircraft also were frequently under attack. Although many were hit and a number were destroyed by enemy fire, no crew member was killed or died as a result of the airlift operations, though a number were wounded in action.

Over the years little changed in the tasks performed in Vietnam by the RAAF Caribou aircraft. These tasks included airlift of cargo, mail and passengers; the dropping of paratroops (including Australian Army Special Air Service troops); evacuation and resettling of Vietnamese families – often with their household goods; dropping flares for night combat operations; medical evacuation of battle casualties and even the parachuting of cows into villages. On a typical day a crew would land at as many as nine or ten airstrips ranging from heavily defended air bases to temporary dirt strips.

The airlift system in Vietnam was an integrated one and RAAF aircraft regularly carried United States and Vietnamese cargo and passengers while United States aircraft regularly carried loads for the Australians. In 1968 during a typical month, the RAAF aircraft flew 99 hours in support of Australian forces and 221 hours for United States units. It was always understood that priority for the use of No. 35 Squadron Caribou aircraft would be made available to the Australian Task Force to the maximum extent practicable. At the same time, it was fully recognised that the tactical war situation would ultimately determine the air requirement. The percentage of missions in support of the Australian army did, however, show a steady increase. At the same time it became more and more difficult to find useful employment for the common service missions. Drums of fuel were frequently the main cargo carried by these missions. Commenting on the fuel transport assignment the squadron’s monthly report for July 1969 said: ‘It is rather monotonous work, shuttling over the same 20-mile leg all day and there has been rivalry among crews to see who can move the most. The peak was reached one day this month when one crew flew 23 sorties and moved 152 drums – 35 tons of cargo! However, this record did not last. The following year RAAF Caribou flew 28 sorties spanning an 11½ hour flying period during which it airlifted a total of 207 drums. Piloted by Flying Officer Joe Wilson and Flying Officer Bob Meares, with LAC Howard Greig as Loadmaster and LAC Brandon Corkhill as assistant loadmaster, the Caribou took off from Vung Tau at 6. 45 a. m. with 5330 lb of aviation fuel in its hold, the first of 14 loads to be carried during the day and headed for Cao Lanh, a base in the Delta region on the banks of the Mekong. For the remainder of the day the aircraft shuttled between Cao Lanh and the centre for Vietnamese Air Force operations in the Delta, Binh Thuy, 22 miles further south. The only time the engines were stopped during the day was when refuelling was necessary, an operation which was carried out by the pilots themselves while the loadmasters manhandled aboard a new load of freight.

On 1 August 1966 soon after the arrival of the Australian Task Force in Phuoc Tuy Province, No. 35 Squadron began a daily courier service between Vung Tau and Saigon with Bien Hoa as an additional port of call on an ‘as required’ basis. This courier, which operated a scheduled service twice daily carried 2527 passengers and 150,000 lb of freight during September 1966. When Luscombe airfield at Nui Dal opened for operations on 5 December 1966, the daily ‘Wallaby’ courier schedule included this airfield in each of its daily flights. Special Wallaby flights were arranged in early 1966 to move RAAF Airfield Construction Squadron personnel from Saigon to Phan Rang where work was in progress in preparation for the arrival of No. 2 Squadron, and later to support No. 2 Squadron when it began bombing operations in April 1967.

In the more remote areas of South Vietnam, Special Forces camps were established to train Montagnard tribesmen to fight the Viet Cong and North Vietnamese. Caribou aircraft had the task of supplying these outposts deep in the heart of enemy territory because they were the only transport capable of landing on the primitive airstrips built close to but outside the defensive perimeter of the camps. The airstrip was usually short and with rough surface subject to damage by torrential rains and flooding. The camps faced a constant threat of attack and a strong bond grew between the ‘Green Berets’ as the United States Special Forces were known and the ‘Wallabies’ who supplied them.

In the north of South Vietnam No. 35 Squadron sent special Caribou detachments specially for the resupply of the Special Forces camps. They operated out of Da Nang and Nha Trang.

The Caribou aircraft at first dropped supplies to the troops and then when a strip had been built supplies were airlanded.

It was difficult flying with approaches to runways through cloud-shrouded mountains. When the Wallaby arrived with a load of rice and sometimes cows and pigs for fresh meat not only the few Americans but the entire camp would turn out to meet them.

The Viet Cong made the flying more hazardous by setting up firing positions in the jungle at the end of the airstrips. Wallaby aircraft were frequently holed by this ground fire.

A vivid report of the operations of the Nha Trang Detachment was written by a young RAAF officer, Pilot Officer Stuart Cooper, the copilot of a Wallaby in the period 1 February to 6 February 1968. This was at the height of the 1968 Tel offensive.

Pilot Officer Cooper wrote: ‘The detachment was carried out by Squadron Leader N. J. Watling (later awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross), Pilot Officer S. Cooper (co-pilot); Corporal R. Davis (loadmaster) and LAC R. Carpenter (assistant loadmaster).

‘The first sortie of the detachment on 1 February was to Ban Me Thuot airfield with a load of ammunition and propane gas. The city was under heavy enemy attack and over one-third was burning fiercely from air strikes. There was also a considerable amount of street and house-to-house fighting.

All pilots were briefed to land towards and take off away from the city itself because early in the day a C-123 had been hit many times by ground fire when attempting to gain height over the city.

‘The main airfield at Ban Me Thuot is some miles from the city itself but was closed to all aircraft operations because the road to the strip had been cut by the enemy and it was reported that a North Vietnamese regiment was three “clicks” (kilometres) from the airfield itself.

A Special Forces colonel approached Squadron Leader Watling and asked him if he was prepared to fly to Due Lap (some 30 miles from Ban Me Thuot and close to the Cambodian border). He wanted the aircraft to ferry some 140 Montagnards of “Mike Force” to the insecure airfield. There was a very important supply point at the field, isolated by the enemy and guarded by only five Americans and about 50 Montagnards.

‘The colonel was extremely concerned about losing the dump which contained 100-odd tons of ammunition and an enormous supply of allied uniforms. Squadron Leader Watling agreed and flew their sorties between Due Lap and Ban Me Thuot, managing to move in 90 Montagnards before darkness prevented any further flying.

‘On 2 February the Wallaby ran supplies of ammunition to Bao (one sortie), Song Meo (three sorties) and Phan Thiet (one sortie). Like Ban Me Thuot, the city of Phan Thiet had been overrun and street fighting and air strikes were in progress with many building a blaze.

‘On 3 February the Wallaby was sent to Pleiku to operate in surrounding airfields carrying combat essential or emergency resupply loads, mainly rations and ammunition.

‘Two sorties were made to Kontum, one to Ban Me Thuot and one to Dalat/Camly. The fighting had eased in Pleiku, but the situation at Kontum was not known. The town of Dalat/Camly was in enemy hands. On the first sortie into Kontum the enemy attempted to mortar the Wallaby aircraft. One shell landed about 70 yards from the nose of the aircraft, showering it with dirt and possibly metal fragments, but no damage was discovered later when the aircraft was back at Pleiku. It took an estimated 1 minute 45 seconds for the crew to climb back into the aircraft along with six passengers and a guard dog, start both engines and get the aircraft airborne.

‘The crew flew back to Nha Trang that night and the next day (4 February) returned to Pleiku to continue the airlift operation. Sorties were flown to Dalat/Camly, Kontum and Ben Het before the aircraft returned and stayed overnight at Pleiku. Ben Het was a recently completed 1500 ft long airfield in the Central Highlands. USAF Caribou pilots were not allowed to land at the airfield because it had not been surveyed. For this reason, Squadron Leader Watling was asked if he would land on the unsurveyed strip to get a load on the ground undamaged and also to take passengers in and out. He agreed and the Wallaby flew four sorties to Ben Het. The first three were carried out without incident, although each time the nearby camp was under heavy mortar attack. On the fourth sortie, the Wallaby landed during an air strike just north-west of the strip. No sooner had the aircraft come to rest when a recoilless rifle was fired at it from a point west of the airstrip. The shell narrowly missed the aircraft and exploded about forty feet away. The shell penetrated the pierced steel planking of the taxiway and this luckily prevented any shrapnel damage to the Wallaby. The aircraft immediately took off again and the load was free dropped from about 100 ft into the camp. ‘

‘Between midday on 1 February and midday of 6 February, the Wallaby crew flew 32 hours 15 minutes for 46 sorties and carried 110,456 lb of freight and 116 passengers’

Commenting on the actions of the Nha Trang detachment the Commander, RAAF Vietnam (Air Commodore Lush) wrote: The aircraft was commanded by Squadron Leader N. J. Watling. Who together with his crew acted in the best traditions of the RAAF and earned high praise from the forces being supported. ‘

The squadron did not escape its share of injury and loss. On 16 August 1966 a Wallaby was extensively damaged when landing at Ba To, a special forces camp. Later ground crews were under constant threat of Viet Cong fire as they worked to recover the aircraft.

In On 4 September 1967, a Wallaby was lost when it ditched in shallow water near the island of Phuoc Quoc about 200 miles south-west of Saigon. As the aircraft settled into about 10 ft of water the passengers and crew escaped and were rescued several minutes later by American naval patrol boats. Only one of the 18 passengers and crew aboard was injured. He was Corporal Allen Radford Hudson of Windsor, N. S. W.

On 24 May 1968 the captain of a Wallaby, Flying Officer Max Goodsell, was wounded in the face by enemy ground fire three miles north-east of Camau in the Delta region. Driving rain had forced Flying Officer Goodsell and his co-pilot, Flying Officer Ian Cooper, to fly low in an attempt to find the Camau airfield. Suddenly four bullets ripped into the plane. One entered the cockpit, hit the nose-wheel steering wheel, ricocheted off the wheel and lodged high in Flying Officer Goodsell’s cheek. The co-pilot at once took control of the aircraft, helped remove the injured pilot, radioed the airfield for medical aid and then landed the Caribou in a torrential downpour.

Describing the incident Flying Officer Cooper said:

‘Max was flying fairly low trying to find the airfield when they opened fire. I called out “gunfire” and we both went for full power to clear out of the place. Then I saw the blood coming from Max’s face and I knew he had been hit. I yelled that I was taking control and headed for the clouds. As soon as we realised what had happened the loadmaster LAC Bob Dexter and two American pressmen who were passengers came forward and dragged the pilot clear. ‘ While Flying Officer Cooper was circling the area prior to landing one of the pressmen, Jim de Silva of the American Broadcasting Company, applied a field dressing to the pilot’s wound.

A few months later another member of the squadron, Corporal Doug Angus of South Windsor, N. SW, a loadmaster, was struck by enemy ground fire. Coincidentally, because of bad weather, this aircraft was also flying low and making for the same airfield – Camau. The bullet creased the left side of Corporal Angus’s head and he received cuts on the neck from glass fragments.

The crew of another RAAF Caribou had a lucky escape on 19 January 1969 when it was subjected to mortar fire while taxi-ing to a parking slot at Katum, a small Special Forces outpost northwest of Saigon and close to the Cambodian border. The Caribou was hit in more than 100 places by shrapnel from the mortars. But there were no direct hits and none of the four-man crew was seriously wounded. The captain of the aircraft, Flight Lieutenant Tommy Thompson of Richmond, N. S. W. , received a shrapnel wound to the right leg and his co-pilot Flying Officer Rod McGregor, 27 of Ipswich, superficial cuts to the face from flying glass.

Flight Lieutenant Thompson was on a resupply mission to Katum. He described what happened when the mortars were exploding:

‘The first one landed about 25 ft in front of the port wing, shattering the windscreen,’ he said. ‘Two more followed in quick succession and then the rest. I didn’t bother trying to count them but there were at least eight. Most of the hits were in the nose area. Besides the damaged windscreen, two tyres had burst and the hydraulics used to operate the undercarriage and flaps had been knocked out. ‘

Flight Lieutenant Thompson decided to turn the aircraft round and get out of the area as fast as possible. To stay would almost certainly have meant the destruction of the aircraft. ‘Either way there was some risk,’ he said. ‘If we had stayed we might have taken a direct hit. On the other hand, we made a quick decision to fly the aircraft without being to assess the full extent of the damage already caused by the shrapnel hits. ‘

Before the hasty departure the loadmasters, Corporal Barry Gracie of Lidcombe, N. SW and Corporal Bill Barnes of Brisbane, very quickly unstrapped and discharged the cargo. Corporal Gracie was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal. The citation read (in part): ‘His actions made a substantial contribution to the captain’s effort in recovering the damaged aircraft from the airfield during a lull in the attack. ‘ (Corporal Gracie was at the time nearing the end of his second tour of duty with the RAAF in Vietnam. He had first served as an airframe fitter with the Transport Flight at Vung Tau in 1964).

When the aircraft was back in the air the crew found the undercarriage would not retract so it had to be pumped up. The Caribou was landed at Bien Hoa where the emergency system was used to land. Flight Lieutenant Thompson was later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions in preserving both the aircraft and the crew from further damage and for other service in his tour in Vietnam.

Another RAAF Caribou was mortared at That Son, a South Vietnamese army training base some 12 kilometres from the Cambodian border on 29 March 1970. On this occasion, the Caribou did not escape. It received a direct hit and was destroyed by fire.

The Caribou was carrying out the first of five scheduled missions ferrying helicopter aviation fuel from Binh Thuy to That Son. Crew members were Pilot Officer Bert Milne, 22, of East Geelong. Victoria; (captain) Pilot Officer Mick Calvert of Swanview. W. A. ; Corporal Melville Church of Springwood, N. S. W. and LAC Robert Laing. 21, of Shortland, N. S. W.

The aircraft had landed safely and had reached the OH-loading ramp when a mortar round hit the wing, peppering the fuselage and starting a fire in one of the fuel cells. The mortar blast blew Pilot OHicer Milne’s flying helmet from his head. The crew took only seconds to evacuate the aircraft and as they left it another mortar round landed only 20 yards away. They took cover in a nearby ditch and then raced to a bunker about 30 yards away while another six rounds landed around the aircraft. A few minutes later they were picked up by a jeep which drove them to the Command Post bunker where they remained for the next three hours while mortars continued to explode around the base. The RAAF crew learned that the base had been under attack since one o’clock in the morning including a ground attack during which the enemy penetrated the perimeter losing about 35 killed in action. Half an hour later, before the Caribou landed, an American C-123 on final approach had come under heavy ground fire and was forced to abort its landing. The RAAF Caribou was subsequently mortared again and burned fiercely into a jumbled mass of metal.

The activities of the squadron continued through 1970 and halfway through 1971 on much the same pattern as before. There was a minor vibration in August 1970 when the squadron flew radio equipment donated by the Australian Government to the Cambodian Government from Vung Tau to Phnom Penh, the Cambodian capital.

Then, on 30 March 1971 the Prime Minister (Mr McMahon) announced further cuts in Australian forces in Vietnam reducing the total strength to 6,000 men. Included in his statement was the decision to reduce the strength of No. 35 Squadron. With effect from 1 June 1971 the aircraft establishment of the squadron was reduced from seven to four. Squadron aircrew strength was reduced to nine pilots, four loadmasters and two assistant loadmasters while ground crew were cut from 66 to 47 However the squadron with its four remaining aircraft continued as No. 35 Squadron and operations on a reduced scale were continued although the volume of work available from the 834th Air Division steadily decreased.

The three aircraft to go home were extensively cleaned to comply with Australian quarantine requirements and early on 1 June left Vung Tau for RAAF Base Richmond, arriving on 7 June after a ferry operation in which no problems or delays were encountered.

Air Movement Control

The greatest airlift in the history of war required an efficient air movements organisation on the ground to control it. The USAF controlled the airlift operations through its aerial port system. However the major task of handling and processing passengers and cargo carried by RAAF C130 aircraft and charter flights from Australia an a big percentage of the RAAF Caribou movements in Vietnam was the responsibility of three RAAF Movement Control sections established at Vung Tau, Tan Son Nhut and Phan Rang. The movements of RAAF Caribou aircraft at other airfields in South Vietnam were handled by the USAF.

The RAAF Movements sections at Vung Tau and Phan Rang handled military aircraft only and came under the operational control of the section at Tan Son Nhut where a six-man RAAF team coordinated the majority of Australian air movements, together with movements of non-Australian personnel and equipment carried by ‘Wallaby Airlines’ within Vietnam. While the efficient United States Air Force aerial port system in Vietnam could have handled the Australian air movements it was generally agreed that the RAA movements sections were justified because people were needed who could work smoothly with Australian methods, people and aircraft Movements personnel frequently worked long hours especially on ‘Charter days’ when service passengers arrived from Australia and soldiers and airmen proceeding to Australia by the same aircraft were processed through the section.

In a typical month (May 1969) the three RAAF movements section in South Vietnam handled the following aircraft, passengers an freight: