Australia’s War Diary

The only method of supplying the fortress and the port of Mersa Matrub is by sea. Carrying out this duty are the gallant vessels of the “Scrap Iron Flotilla” which while maintaining this lifeline, the “Tobruk Ferry Service”, often come under heavy air attack. Just two days ago destroyer HMAS Waterhen had been crippled by Stukas. A tow had been attempted but at 1. 50 am the following morning she tipped over and sank to become the first RAN ship to be lost by enemy action in WW2.

July 3 – Egypt. Two DH. 86s of No 1 Air Ambulance Unit RAAF reach Heliopolis after many delays caused by ceaseless maintenance difficulties en route from Australia.

July 4 – Britain. TwelveBlenheim IVs, a mixed force from 105 and 107 Squadrons, led by Fremantle’s W/Cdr Hughie Edwards; co. of 105 Squadron, carry out a resolute low level daylight attack on Bremen in spite of the lack of cloud cover and intense AA fire. Four are shot down and all of the surviving aircraft suffer varying degrees of damage. Lingering over the target to observe results, Edwards is the last to leave and return to base. His Blenheim, V6028/GB-D has lost its port wing tip including the aileron, a cannon shell is in its radio rack, telephone wires are hooked around its tailwheel and the underside of its fuselage is a colander of shell holes. Because of his courageous leadership, Edwards will receive the Victoria Cross, the first awarded to an Australian airman in WW2. Other immediate awards to survivors include a DFC, 4 DFMs, and a Bar to the DFM of Sgt G Quinn, Edwards’ gunner,who has to be extracted wounded from his turret by means of a Coles crane.

July 415 – Britain. F/Lt John Costello and crew in Sunderland P9600/RB-E of 10 Squadron RAAF sight a U-boat in the Bay of Biscay but it crash dives before an attack can be launched.

July 5 – Britain. 452 Squadron RAAF suffers its first casualty when SgtAndrew Costello of Charters Towers, Qld, is shot down and killed by a German intruder while making a night landing. July 6 – Syria. At Damour, while Australian infantry are pinned down by heavy Vichy French machine gun fire, Lt Arthur Roden Cutler of the 215th Australian Field Regiment boldly goes out to bring a telephone line to his outpost but is wounded and stranded. 26 hours will pass before he can be rescued in which time his wound will turn septic and necessitate the amputation of his leg. Because of the courage he has displayed in this and in earlier actions at Merdjayoun in June, Lt Cutler will be awarded the Victoria Cross.

July 7 – North Africa. 250 Squadron RAF, together with several other units, carry out a large scale fighter sweep over Bardia. P/O Clive Caldwell becomes separated from others. Near El Adem he encounters two G. 50s and shoots one down. While returning to base he strafes a variety of targets along the way. Atlantic. F/Lt Bruce Courtney and crew of 10 Squadron RAAF in Sunderland W3979/RB-Q search in vain for survivors of the torpedoed vessel Malverhein until visibility is reduced to just 500 yards (450m).

July 8 – Britain. The RAF raids Wilhelmshaven in daylight using three Fortress Is (B-17C) of 90 Squadron flying at 30,000ft (9,150m). It is the first combat mission of Boeing’s B-17 Flying Fortress.

July 9 – North Africa. Clive Caldwell of 250 Squadron destroys a Bf 109.

Syria. Australian troops take Damour, opening the way to Beirut. Atlantic. F/O F/Lt Gil Thurston and crew in Sunderland T9047/ RB-L of 10 Squadron RAAF locate the crew of a ditched 206 Squadron Hudson in a dinghy. While attempting a rescue the Sunderland is badly damaged landing in the rolling swell and is unable to take off. The occupants of the dinghy are taken on board and Thurston begins trying to taxi towards the British coast. Lockheed Hudsons from 206 Squadron, one flown by the unit’s Australian flight commander F/Lt Keith Hennock, find them, drop supplies and maintain an escort. After nightfall, an alerted RN destroyer, HMS Brocklesby, eventually picks up both crews and sinks the crippled flying boad with gunfire.

July 10- Syria. Five Vichy Dewoitine O. 520s succeed in shooting down 3 Blenheims of 45 Squadron RAF before they are themselves all destroyed by Tomahawks of 3 Squadron RAAF. Scorers are F/O Peter Turnbull (2), F/O John Jackson (1), P/O E Lane (1) and Sgt G Hiller (1).

Meanwhile, on the ground near Jezzine, another Australian wins a Victoria Cross to bring the total for the month to three. On his own initiative, Pte James Heather Gordon of the 2131st Battalion creeps forward across a no-man’s-land swept by machine gun and grenade fire which is coming from a fortified French position. Seizing a fleeting chance, he leaps up and charges, killing the four gunners with his bayonet.

Atlantic. F/Lt “Ginty” Lush and crew in Sunderland W3986/RB-U of 10 Squadron RAAF search in vain for the pilot of a ditched Hurricane.

July 11 – Britain. 452 Squadron RAAF flies in its first “Circus” operation, a single decoy Blenheim escorted by a wing of Spitfires. It draws the attention of only eight Bf 109s, one of which is shot down by 452’s Irish flight commander, F/Lt Paddy Finucane, for the Squadron’s first kill. On the debit side, Sgt Alex Roberts from Lismore, NSW is lost when he has to bail out of his shot up Spitfire over France. (Roberts will evade capture and eventually return to England. )

Syria. 3 Squadron and 260/450 Squadron attack airfields in the Aleppo-Hama area. In aerial combat, F/O Frank Fischer’s Tomahawk is shot up by a Dewoitine D. 520 but he manages to crash land safely. F/O R (Bobby) Gibbs of 450 Squadron destroys the French fighter immediately afterwards. Meanwhile, Fischer evades capture by hiding in an Arab village and later returns to his unit.

The Vichy commander, General Dentz, accepts the armistice terms dictated by the Allies. The cease-fire begins at 2100 hours and ‘all Syrian operations are suspended after midnight. T he campaign has cost the Vichy French 3,500 casualties and the Allies 2,500. Of these, some 1,600 are Australian including 416 killed.

July 12- Eastern Front. Moscow is bombed by the Luftwaffe for the first time.

July 14 – North Africa. A Wellington of 38 Squadron flown by Sgt F Clowry of Canberra fails to return from an experimental minelaying sortie against Benghazi. July 15- Malta. Maryland AR729 of 69 Squadron flown by an all Australian crew, Sgt C F Lee (pilot), fails to return from an afternoon reconnaissance of Tripolitania.

July 18-Atlantic. Fighter Catapult Ship, the SS Map/in, launches its Hurricane to intercept an Fw 200 Condor that has been shadowing the convoy in which it has been travelling. At the controls is 804 Squadron’s Lt R (Bob) Everett from Hothorpe near Tenterfield, NSW. As he is lining the German aircraft up in his sights for what should have been the first “Catafighter” kill of the war, the Condor suddenly loses a wing and crashes into the sea. The Australian has not fired a shot! It had been hit by AA fire from one of the escort ships. Disappointed and robbed of his prey, Everett, rather than lose his own plane by ditching, sets course for Ireland some 300 miles (480km) distant and lands there safely after a two hour flight.

July 21- Britain. No 1451 (Turbinlite) Flight becomes operational working in co-operation with 3 Squadron RAF. During the period of the Battle of Britain, brilliant Australian aeronautical engineer Sidney Cotton OBE, had realised the weakness of British night defences and, in collaboration with W/Cdr W Helmore, who was working along similar lines, developed the idea of using an Al/ searchlight equipped aircraft, a Douglas Boston or Havoc, to intercept and illuminate an enemy bomber so an accompanying single seat fighter could attack and shoot it down. To put the idea into effect, an Air Target Illumination Unit had been first formed at Heston. (This expanded into ten flights by December 1941, each attached to a fighter unit. By September 1942, these became ten separate “Turbinlite” Squadrons, Nos 530-539, each with a flight of Turbinlite aircraft and a flight of Hurricanes. Although numerous contacts were made, by January 1943 only one German could be claimed destroyed plus one probable and two damaged. The idea failed to live up to its earlier promise and rapid advances in Al interception eventually rendered this cumbersome technique outmoded. )

452 Squadron transfers from Kirton-in-Lindsey to Kenley ready to take part in “Circus” operations. 456 Squadron suffers its first casualty when Sgt A F Brooks is killed in a flying accident.

July 21/22 – Eastern Front. The Luftwaffe carries out further heavy raids on Moscow.

July 24- Britain. During a Circus over Cherbourg F/O A H Humphrey of 452 Squadron destroys a Bf 109.

RAF Halifaxes bomb and damage the German battle cruiser Scharnhorst in the port of La Pallice. It later manages to slip back to dock in Brest for repairs.

Atlantic. F/Lt Geoff Havyatt and crew in Sunderland P9605/RB-K of 10 Squadron RAAF escorted by 12 Hurricanes search without success for the crew of a missing Wellington which had transmitted an SOS. A similar search for a ditched aircraft, with the same result, is carried out by F/O ”. l\ttie” Wearne in W3979/RB-Q escorted by 12 Spitfires.

Malta. The second convoy in two days succeeds in reaching the island.

July 26 – Malta. Overnight the Italians attempt an audacious raid by surface craft on a newly arrived British convoy in Valetta harbour. Tipped off to the probability of such an attack through messages intercepted by “Ultra”, the British are ready when the Italian force of explosive motor boats and piloted torpedoes escorted by motor torpedo boats is detected by coastal radar. The Italians are routed and as day breaks RAF Hurricanes strafe the retreating vessels. Covering Macchi MC. 200s of 7° Gruppo shoot down one Hurricane but Sgt Allan Haley from Sydney, flying with 126 Squadron, shoots down two Macchis 10-15 miles (16-24km) off Sicily.

July 28 – Malta. Ten Blenheims of 105 Squadron led by W/Cdr Hughie Edwards VC, DFC arrive to take over from 110 Squadron which departs for Egypt. TwelveBlenheims had left England on the 25th but en route via Gibraltar one had been obliged to land in Portugal where it was interned. The other is delayed and will arrive on the 30th.

July 29- Syria. S/Ldr J G MacDonald, CO of No 1 AirAmbulance Unit RAAF, flies a DH. 86 from Heliopolis to Gaza to open the unit’s first base close to the 1st Australian Field Hospital. Australia. 453 Squadron RAAF is formed for service in Malaya. July 31 – Britain. A U-boat is sighted in the Bay of Biscay by F/O Vic Hodgkinson and crew in Sunderland L2163/RB-P of 10 squadron RAAF but it crash dives before it can be attacked. Only 22 ships totalling 94,200 tons (95,700 tonnes} have been sunk by U-boats this month out of 121,000 tons (122,900 tonnes) from all causes.

During the month RAFBomber Command has dropped a total of 4,380 tons (4,450 tonnes) on targets in the Rhur and Rhineland, French and German ports and on Berlin itself. This will remain the highest monthly total until mid-1942, although the accuracy of night bombing attacks is being seriously questioned. For over 3,800 sorties flown, 188 aircraft have been lost.