Heroes of the Skies

While building a career as one of Australia’s best comic performers in such seminal shows as The D Generation, Fast Forward and Full Frontal, Veitch has all the while retained an undiminished passion for aviation. This passion has culminated in three indispensable works of Australian military aviationoral history: Flak, Fly and his newly published work, Heroes of the Sky.

Each book features interviews with surviving aircrew of the Second World War from whom Veitch has deftly coaxed innumerable spellbinding tales. Throughout, three themes recur: quotidian courage, sacrifice and the cruelty of chance.

Australian Aviation spoke with Veitch on the occasion of the release of Heroes of the Skies to reflect on his longstanding interest in aviation history and the remarkable journey upon which it has taken him.

Borderlines

It was on an iconic British aircraft – in this case, a TAA Viscount – where the aviation bug first bit Michael Veitch.

“I remember my mother taking me [to Canberra] on a Vickers Viscount. On this particular, beautiful turboprop aeroplane – and it’s something they’ve never replicated on modern aeroplanes – there was a communal lounge room at the back, horseshoe-shaped, where you could sit. I remember sitting down there, grown-ups were chatting around me and I was thinking ‘this is fun’. There I was in an aeroplane, looking at propellers and control surfaces and something about that really got me. That was the start of it. ” There followed the inevitable embrace of the eminently sensible hobby of scale model-building that was combined with hours spent devouring books on aviation history. “Many boys of that age go through a similar stage but then grow out of it. I just never did. ” As his career blossomed, Veitch continued to nurture his passion for a very specific era in aviation, bounded by the years 1917 to 1944.

‘I’m actually very narrow in my field. I love pre-war aircraft, and I know virtually nothing about jets, my interest in aircraft starts to peter out at the latter part of the war. I’m not sure what was the Tempest 2 and what was the Sea Fury. With the latter marks of the Spitfire I’m ok with the Mk IX, but Mk XIV and XX I’m not as sure. So, my knowledge is deep and specific, but not that broad. ” It was this deep but narrow knowledge that was called upon by Veitch’s friend, journalist Peter Wilmoth, as the latter wrote the biography of renowned actor andwartime airman ‘Bud’ Tingwell. As Veitch steered Wilmoth through the technical points of WW2 aviation, the thought occurred that a book or two might lay in the idea of speaking to combat aircrew about their wartime experiences.

A call to Wilmoth’s publisher followed, during which Veitch made his pitch. “I said, ‘What if I track down guys who haven’t told their stories from the Second World War?’. He said give us 400 words so I can see your writing. So I did and he emailed me back and said I’ll take it to the pitch meeting and the next day he said ‘we’ve got a contract for you’. It was – I’m almost ashamed to say – embarrassingly easy. ” There began the task of locating veterans of the WW2 air war, an endeavour aided mightily by an offhand comment to a TV show producer. As Veitch explained: “My initial go at it was appearing on Bert Newton’s Good Morning Australia. I was supposed to be advertising a play I was in. The producer rang me and said ‘So, you’re flogging a play, that’s interesting. Are you doing anything else?’. I said ‘As it happens, I’ve just been commissioned to write a book where I have to track down old fellas who flew planes during WW2’. She said, ‘Bert would love to talk about that!’. I said ‘I do have to talk about the play’ to which she said, ‘we will, but at the last minute of the interview, we can flash an email address up and people can contact you about your book’. “I did the show, it was all live to air. The producer of the play is standing in the wings, excited. I sit on the couch and the first thing Bert says ‘Now, tell us about this wonderful air force project’. So we talked about the book for most of my allotted time. At the end, Bert said ‘here’s the times of the play’. By the end of the day, I had about 100 people to contact. ”

To be remembered

The RAAF’s strength in WW2 peaked at 217,000, with its personnel serving in almost every theatre of action of a truly global war. Veitch explained the continuing pull exerted by the world’s largest armed conflict.

“I realised growing up, World War 2 seemed like such a huge historic conflict and there were still people around who’d seen it and participated in it. And one of the things lost in all the centenary of WW1 celebrations was that the Second World War had arguably more ramifications that we’re still feeling. And to think that there were still people around who are lucid and interesting and participated in it and had stories from it – to me it’s like being able to talk to someone who was alive during the Roman Empire.

“That’s how different the events of WW2 seem because they’re so unimaginable now – but it’s not that long ago. There are survivors from it and they haven’t actually told their stories. Not everything’s been learned from it. And you combine that I’m someone who loves hearing stories about flying and aeroplanes and loves the era – I still get a thrill to meet a bloke who flew actual Mustangs and Mosquitos. ”After sifting through the list of 100 potential interview subjects, Veitch began the process of initiating contact with the WW2 airmen and arranging meetings – a process that took him across the country. What followed was the joy and privilege of whiling away hours with men who, between them, flew every major (and the odd minor) type of WW2 aircraft: Lancasters, Liberators, Mustangs, Stirlings, Sunderlands, Boomerangs, Spitfires, Kittyhawks, Typhoons, Bostons, Beaufighters, Hellcats and Fireflys.

Asked to nominate which of the over 50 interview subjects are particularly memorable, Veitch mentions three. Heinz Hempel, who emigrated to Australia in the 1950s from Germany, flew the Me 110 and Ju 88 during the Battle of Britain, and later flew relief flights to the beleaguered Sixth Army at Stalingrad in the Winter of 1943. “He was seared by the experience. ” Next were the pilots of the legendary Typhoon, who flew close air support missions over Normandy in 1944 and whose memories of the carnage they witnessed remained undimmed despite the years.

Lastly, Lancaster pilot George Clissold stands out for his remarkable escape from his aircraft – and the bombs of his comrades during a raid over Heligoland in 1945. “He was captured and subjected to that great cliché from WW2. His captors actually said ‘for you the war is over!’. ” Despite Heroes of the Skies having some remarkable chapters with the pilots of the Boomerang and 76 Squadron Kittyhawks, what’s noticeable amongst the surviving pilots, navigators and gunners that Veitch has interviewed is how few served in the Pacific.

“That reflects the disposition of the RAAF during WW2. Only a fraction actually went to the Pacific. The bulk went to Europe. Then later, there were far more blokes flying BomberCommand than in the South-West Pacific. We didn’t have anything here.

The administration of the RAAF between the war was so diabolically dreadful. At the end of WW1, Australian aviation was absolutely world class. It was pioneering, we had the Hinklers, and Kingsford Smith et al doing amazing things.

And yet by the time the second war came we had nothing because the Australian Air Force was deliberately downgraded to be a training ground for the British, to be an adjunct to the Empire Air Training Scheme.

“This is why Dick Williams, who was founder of the RAAF, was basically sacked because hewas in charge of the Air Force and he was agitating publicly for more resources. He said ‘we’re under threat, why aren’t we actually preparing for a conflict ourselves?’.

So, he was sacked, overruled and sent to England as an attaché.

When Pearl Harbour came and the Japanese came down through New Guinea we had nothing – a few old Wirraways, which got shot down in 20 seconds over Rabaul. It was totally scandalous. ”

Theatre of war

Michael Veitch has, to his surprise and delight, discovered that interest in WW2 aviation history is as strong as ever. He has parlayed the success of his books into a traveling schools education program and a stage show, Flak, that is due to tour nationally next year.

Veitch describes the self-penned solo show as, “Just me telling a series of stories while playing the old guys I’ve met. Some of the most memorable and salient blokes I remember with some of myself weaved into it as well. There’s a Powerpoint presentation where I show some of the really crappy aircraft we flew during World War Two – for comic effect. ” Many of the surviving aircrewinterviewed by Veitch profess bemusement at the sudden interest in their wartime experience, while at the same time being gratified that their stories are being told and that they will be remembered.

Veitch is more than happy to have obliged them. And, as with so many aviation nuts, he’s found a way of indulging his passion while being contentedly constrained by the surly bonds of earth.

“The irony is I’m a shocking pilot – I actually tried to learn to fly, but I was so hopeless. I actually get airsick too easily. And then the aviation school I was learning with went bankrupt and my instructor crashed. It wasn’t meant to be. ”

It was – I’m almost ashamed to say – embarrassingly easy.