Australia’s War Diary

Pacific The 26th Brigade of the 9th Australian Division, supported by one company of the Royal Netherlands East Indies Army, land at Tarakan. Allied air superiority by now is such that a Mitchell of the 13th Air Force can safely fly up and down the assault area spraying it with DDT as an anti-malarial precaution.

Burma Preceded by air attacks, Gurkhas march towards Rangoon from the south west and an RN flotilla steams up the Rangoon river, while two arms of the 14th British Army close in from the north. 159 and 355 (Liberator) Sqns attack gun positions at Elephant Point. S/Ldr R May leads 12 P-47s of 79 Sqn in missions over the capital. An RAF pilot flying low over Rangoon jail spots a notice which reads: JAPS GONE: BRITISH HERE. A figure, still wielding a whitewash brush, is seen on another barrack rooftop putting the finishing touches to an additional message: EXTRACT DIGIT. Although the advancing forces do not know it, the Japanese had vacated Rangoon by April 25, leaving it to RAF prisoners. The senior POW, W/Cdr L Hudson RAAF, formerly of 82 (Mosquito) Sqn, who had been captured on December 19, had ordered placement of the messages.

May 2

Western Front Europe The air over northern Germany is suddenly full of Luftwaffe aircraft of all types as many members of the German forces try to flee to Norway. 122 Wing, patrolling the area regularly, attacks all airfields within range. 3 (Tempest) Sqn RAF carries out a strafing attack, F/O Bay Adams destroying a Ju 88 on the ground and damaging an Me 262 in the air before it can accelerate out of range.

Pacific Tarakan — Four Austers of 16 AOP Flight have been taken ashore to spot for artillery fire and reconnaissance. Army engineers prepare a rough airstrip but it proves unsafe. F/O J McIntyre, with observer Captain S Ket, crashes into an obstruction at the end of the runway while taking off. Both men are critically injured, Ket dying shortly afterwards. The Austers will transfer to Tarakan airfield after its capture, commencing operations from there on the 6th.

Burma Eight Liberators of 355 Squadron attack gun positions near Rangoon. Battling poor weather, one Liberator, on board are F/Sgts M Pullen and D Nicolson, ditches in the sea. Pullen and an RAF air gunner are the only survivors. In the afternoon, W/Cdr A Saunders RAF, piloting a Mosquito observes a large white marking like a cloth of surrender on Mingaladon airfield. He lands, bursting a tyre in the touchdown. Finding no Japanese, he makes his way into Rangoon and meets W/Cdr Hudson and the Allied POWs housed in the jail. Without a suitable radio to transmit to the approaching forces, Saunders goes down-river by sampan to meet the oncoming flotilla while Hudson and a party of airmen organise local labour into preparing Mingaladon airfield to receive supply aircraft which must soon come.

May 2/3

Western Front Europe In 464 Sqn’s last wartime operation, 13 Mosquitoes join forces with 21 and 487 Sqns to attack targets in the Emden-Westerland-Flensburg area.

May 3

Western Front Europe 3 Squadron RAF scores 14 destroyed and 11 damaged for the loss of one Tempest. French ace S/Ldr Pierre Clostermann claims an Fw 190 and a Bf 109, both shared with F/O Bay Adams.

Britain The last days of the War are quiet for 453 (Spitfire) Sqn. Its last mission is led by F/Lt Bob Clemesha, escorting a Dakota to Gilze Rijen in Holland. On board is Queen Wilhelmina of the Netherlands. 455 Sqn moves from Scotland to RAF Thornaby, England, for attacks on shipping trying to escape from Germany. In fact, only one mission from Thornaby results in action. Led by W/Cdr C Milson, 26 Beaufighters (nine from 455) with escorting Mustangs make an anti-shipping patrol to Kiel Bay. Over 70 enemy ships are sighted. A tanker is sunk and two minesweepers and a smaller boat are damaged by 455 Sqn aircraft. Three Australian Beaufighters are badly damaged by AA fire but all return safely. This is 455’s last anti shipping strike.

May 4

Western Front Europe Doenitz orders all U-boats to cease hostilities and return to base. Some do not respond so RAF Sunderland sorties are doubled. Strafing operations continue and again 3 (Tempest) Squadron, including F/O Bay Adams and P/O J Torpy, is most successful.

May 4/5

Western Front Europe 464 Squadron is briefed for operations but at 2040 hours news comes through that the enemy in north west Germany, Denmark and Holland has surrendered. The operation is scrubbed and, along with the rest of the Wing, the Australians celebrate.

May 5

Western Front Europe Hostilities end on the British Army front at 8am.

Pacific On Tarakan, A/Cdr Harry Cobby’s advanced HQ ashore begins operations but, as the airstrip cannot be made ready to receive 1st TAF squadrons, it remains necessary for the 13th US Air Force to continue air patrols over the area. Cobby himself leaves for Morotai. Because of a crisis within the 1st TAF, he is to be relieved of his command.

The Crisis By January 1945, Japan had whole armies cut off in New Guinea, Rabaul, the Solomons, the Moluccas and the Philippines. The Allies had bypassed their strong points and rolled on towards Japan. Japanese Army and Navy air forces had been reduced to home defence against the increasingly heavy B-29 raids and to carry out Kamikaze suicide missions; the navy was all-but incapacitated; and merchant shipping virtually wiped out. Nevertheless, to leave such large and powerful enemy forces to just “wither on the vine” carried potential danger, so air power was used to contain them and keep them off balance while army garrisons maintained a constant vigil. The 1st TAF, now well to the rear of the main fighting, continued a large scale flying effort against what many considered to be seemingly worthless targets. Eager to get into “real combat”, RAAF pilots believed that they were being assigned to unspectacular drudgery and their lives were being endangered in tasks that made no real contribution towards winning the war.

G/Capt W Arthur, commanding No 81 Wing at Noemfoor, took this up with Cobby, arguing that the poor results achieved did not match the losses incurred. Against the backdrop of nagging inbuilt problems generated by divided control in the RAAF’s high command structure, and the ignominious involvement of members of the RAAF in an illegal liquor trade in the islands, this smouldering situation erupted at Morotai in April. Eight senior officers, most of them decorated fighter pilots, applied to resign their commissions. Besides Arthur, the men were G/Capt C Caldwell, W/Cdr R Gibbes, W/Cdr K Ranger, S/Ldr J Waddy, S/Ldr B Grace, S/Ldr R Vanderfield, and S/Ldr S Harpham. AVM W Bostock met with the officers and concluded that morale in the 1st TAF was dangerously low. General G Kenney, Commander Allied Air Forces SWPA, also urged the eight men not to resign but they refused. RAAF Headquarters ordered the transfer of A/Cdr Cobby, and two other senior officers. It was a sad ending to the career of one of Australia’s leading aces of WWI. The Government ordered an inquiry.

May 7

Western Front Europe Unconditional surrender of all German forces. Since April 26, RAF Bomber Command has been flying to Brussels and other airfields to collect liberated POWs, including many Australians. During Operation Exodus, approximately 75,000 men are brought back to England by the fastest means possible. Another mission, Operation Manna, has been going on since April 29. When the population of a large pocket of German held Western Holland faced starvation, a truce had been arranged with the local German commander and Lancasters had started dropping food supplies for the civilians. 2835 Lancaster and 124 Mosquito flights are made, delivering 6672 tons of food, before the German surrender.

May 8

Pacific The airfield at Tarakan, badly damaged and waterlogged, had been abandoned by the Japanese months earlier. In two days, the RAAF’s 61 Airfield Construction Wing has located and defused 114 mines on the airstrip and in the dispersal bays. Because of its unsuitability, all of 77 Beaufighter Wing will never actually move in.

May 10

Britain Surrendering U-boats are required to surface immediately, broadcast their number and position and proceed to allocated areas flying a black flag. Some do not heed the order and it seems that fears of Atlantic piracy may have some substance. Sunderlands, Halifaxes, Wellingtons, Liberators and Catalinas continue anti-submarine patrols and escorting convoys. They hunt with depth-charges ready. F/O R Allardice & crew of 461 Sqn in Sunderland N/461 accept the surrender of U-516. Two British destroyers are homed in to the position. Allardice circles until the submarine is boarded.

Pacific Dakota VH-CIG of 36 Squadron crashes into the side of a mountain near Housecapp while dropping supplies in the Aitape area. F/Lt S Akers (Captain), F/Sgt Lawson (Copilot), Sgt McInroy (Navigator) and the AIF supply droppers are all killed. Meanwhile, A/Cdr F Scherger, Cobby’s successor as air officer commanding 1st TAF, arrives at Morotai.

May 11

Britain F/Lt R Alexander & crew of 461 (Sunderland) Squadron accept the surrender of U-1010 and direct it to a naval escort group.

May 12

Italy 450 “Desert Harassers” Squadron suffers its last aircrew casualty when F/Sgt R Scharf is killed in a flying accident, five days after VE Day.

May 15

Pacific With Tarakan’s airstrip unusable, AVM Bostock orders the Beaufighters of 77 Wing and Kittyhawks of 76 Sqn to move to Sanga Sanga airfield in the Sulu Archipelago and take over the patrols of the 13th USAAF. As No 6 Airfield Construction Sqn works around the clock reconstructing Sanga Sanga, more aircraft fly in as space becomes available. Four USAAF P-61 Black Widows arrive for night defence.

May 16

Pacific S/Ldr P Jones and F/O W Keritz of 76 Squadron fly the first Kittyhawk air cover patrol over Tarakan from Sanga Sanga. 76 Squadron will cover Tarakan in the mornings and the Beaufighters in the afternoons until the end of May, without incident. Several searches are made for Japanese suicide craft but none are sighted.

May 17

Australia Liberator A72-159 of 200 Flight, with F/O Archibald Clark DFM & crew and five Army personnel is reported missing from a special operation over Timor. 200 Flight RAAF had been formed on February 20 1945 at Leyburn, Queensland, as a Special Duties (SD) unit for the purpose of delivering agents and supplies of the Australian Army’s Z Special Unit into enemy territory by parachute.

May 20

Australia Liberator A72-160 of 12 Squadron crashes taking off from Truscott Strip. F/O Francis Sismey & crew have no chance of survival when the depth charges on board blow up.

May 21

Australia Liberator A72-177 of 200 Flight, with F/Lt Keith Emmett & crew and Z Special personnel, is lost either in the sea east of Marudu Bay or Labuk Bay, north Borneo, or on land, striking a tree and killing all on board.

May 22

Pacific The advance ground party of 95 Sqn arrives at Morotai, having left Brisbane by ship on the 11th. “The Green Ghost Squadron”, had been formed at Kingaroy on 22 January 1945 and it will be the RAAF’s last operational Beaufighter unit. It has been carrying out “Victory Loan” duties, raising over $8000 towards this fund and on April 6, nine Beaufighters had participated in a display over Brisbane in company with Lancaster ‘G for George’, six Liberators, nine Mustangs, three Kittyhawks and a Boston.

May 25

Britain 455 Squadron is officially disbanded. Squadron statistics show that 455 has flown 2,070,576 operational miles (3,332,173km) in a total of 11,814 hours. Confirmed successes include one enemy aircraft destroyed and 18 ships, including a submarine, sunk; 5 enemy aircraft and 158 ships damaged. These claims are conservative. Postwar investigations will show that many ships reported damaged actually sank after the aircraft had left and others had simply been abandoned.

May 26/27

Pacific Japanese aircraft begin raiding Tarakan at night. Three or four Jakes drop bombs but cause no damage. AA gunners claim a hit on one aircraft.

May 28/29

Pacific On Tarakan, a small formation of Jakes drop four bombs but cause no damage.

May 30

Pacific Sanga Sanga. During a reconnaissance, two 30 Sqn Beaufighters, F/O W Madigan & F/Sgt Bond in A8-145, F/Lt H Hewlett & P/O W Stocker in A8-147, sight and attack two Dinahs. Hits are scored before both Beaufighters suffer cannon failure and the Dinahs escape.

Bougainville An offensive is launched south along the Buin road. Before the first attack, S/Ldr R Glassop of 5 (Boomerang) Sqn leads in 40 RNZAF Corsairs to bomb and strafe. In addition to leading in Corsair strikes, the Australian pilots also carry out artillery spotting. Beauforts of No 10 Local Air Supply Unit, and Dakotas of 36 Squadron are used for supply dropping.