No. 1 Wing RAAF
The wing provided air defence to Darwin and several other key Allied bases in northern Australia until the end of the war, and was again disbanded in October 1945.Although the wing was hampered by mechanical problems with its Spitfires and suffered heavy losses in some engagements, it eventually downed more Japanese aircraft than it lost in combat.[15] Watt placed a strong emphasis on safety, but the 1st Training Wing's trainee pilots inevitably suffered flying accidents, resulting in at least 17 fatalities between 1917 and 1919.This plan proved short-lived as on 20 October the Government announced that the formation of the Expeditionary Force would not proceed, with the Empire Air Training Scheme instead being the RAAF's main contribution to overseas campaigns.Following the Bombing of Darwin on 19 February 1942, which caused heavy damage to the military installations at the town and ships in its harbour, the Australian Government began to urgently look for fighter aircraft.As the Australian aviation industry was not capable of producing fighter aircraft at the time, the government sought assistance from Britain and the United States.The P-40 equipped United States Army Air Forces' (USAAF) 49th Fighter Group was deployed to Darwin following the 19 February raid, and its first squadron became operational there in mid-March.[24] As well as bombing targets near Darwin, Japanese air units also occasionally struck other small Australian towns, attacked shipping sailing off the north coast and flew reconnaissance sorties over Allied bases.In this meeting, Evatt requested that Britain provide an aircraft carrier to serve with the Royal Australian Navy, and an allocation of Spitfire fighters for the RAAF.While Britain could not spare an aircraft carrier, after several days of discussions Churchill agreed on 28 May to send three fully equipped Spitfire squadrons to Australia.[34][35] The deployment of Spitfires to Australia was kept secret so that the Japanese were not alerted to their presence, and the Australian Government directed that the aircraft be referred to as Capstans (after the brand of cigarettes) and their Merlin engines as Marvels.[32][36] General Douglas MacArthur, the commander of Allied forces in the South West Pacific Area, agreed that the Australian Government could choose when to announce the presence of the Spitfires, but warned against exaggerating the impact they were likely to have.Its performance during these exercises was hindered by a lack of previous contact between the Australian and British pilots which was exacerbated by the three squadrons being based at different airstrips in the Sydney region.Richmond's base commander, Group Captain Paddy Heffernan, found that the veterans of the European theatre of operations "tended to consider themselves invincible", and reacted with disdain when he warned them that the Japanese A6M Zero could outmanoeuvre the Spitfire.[53] The entire wing intercepted a force of over 40 Japanese bombers and fighters that attacked Darwin on 15 March, shooting down eight raiders but losing four Spitfires and three pilots.1 Wing in the Australian media and the Advisory War Council requested that Air Vice Marshal Jones provide it with a report explaining the losses caused by mechanical problems and fuel shortage.In the subsequent engagement four Japanese fighters and two bombers were shot down; Allied losses were limited to a single Spitfire destroyed during a forced landing.In response, RAAF Headquarters stated that it would dispatch 17 Spitfires to Darwin during the next week and was preparing an additional 33 aircraft which had recently arrived in Australia.The wing scrambled 33 aircraft to meet this force, and shot down nine of the raiders, losing seven Spitfires due to air combat or mechanical problems; a B-24 was also destroyed on the ground.[70] The wing's high losses in this engagement were partially attributed to the worn state of the Spitfires' engines, and Bladin again signalled RAAF Headquarters to seek the immediate delivery of new aircraft.[71] The attack on 6 July was the last major raid on the Darwin area, and the Spitfires saw little action during the remainder of the month and early August with flying operations limited to exercises and false alerts.This change also aimed to end the confusion which existed at the time between whether the wing leader or senior ground controller in the fighter sector headquarters was responsible for directing the Spitfires during battle.[83] No attacks took place during October, and the wing did not make contact with the Japanese until 6 November when a flight of six Spitfires which been deployed to Drysdale River Mission, Western Australia on the 3rd of the month failed in an attempt to intercept a reconnaissance aircraft near the settlement.Spitfires were scrambled in response to several false alerts during the last months of the year, but flying was heavily curtailed by the monsoon from November.Both squadrons arrived at RAAF Station Guildford on 12 March after a long flight in severe weather conditions during which one Spitfire crashed at Carnarvon and another made a forced landing at Gingin.57 and 457 Squadrons were deployed to Exmouth Gulf in Western Australia to protect the facilities which had been established to refuel the British Eastern Fleet before Operation Transom, during which it attacked Surabaya in Java.They were formed from British pilots and Australian ground crew at Lawnton, Queensland on 15 December 1943 but did not receive their Mark VIII Spitfires until April the next year.548 Squadron was initially stationed at Livingstone Airfield, and its air echelon arrived there on 10 June after a flight in which four Spitfires made forced landings when they ran low on fuel.Caldwell believed that the danger of flying Spitfires to the edge of their range in such operations outweighed the benefits which could be gained, and did not allow his pilots to participate in them.[94] Frustrations caused by a lack of opportunities for air combat were a common problem across the RAAF's fighter squadrons in the SWPA, and contributed to the "Morotai Mutiny" of April 1945 when Caldwell and seven other officers attempted to resign in protest against their units being primarily tasked with attacking isolated Japanese garrisons.
Australian Flying CorpsRoyal Australian Air ForceWorld War IWorld War IINorth Western Area CampaignOswald WattAllan WaltersClive CaldwellPeter JeffreysquadronsSupermarine SpitfireDarwinAlliednorthern Australiaair raids conducted against Northern AustraliaImperial Japanese Army Air ForceImperial Japanese NavyLeightertonAustralian Comforts FundMinchinhamptonNo. 5No. 6No. 8 SquadronsNo.1 SquadronNo. 2 SquadronNo. 3 SquadronNo. 4 SquadronTetburyMinchinhampton AirfieldLondonAnzac DayAustralian Air CorpsAustralian Air BoardLaverton, VictoriaNo. 1 Aircraft DepotNo. 15 SquadronsEmpire Air Training SchemePacific WarBombing of DarwinNorth African CampaignP-40 KittyhawkUnited States Army Air Forces49th Fighter GroupNo. 77 SquadronNo. 76 SquadronH.V. "Doc" EvattWinston Churchillaircraft carrierRoyal Australian NavyNo. 452 Squadron RAAFNo. 457 Squadron RAAFNo. 54 Squadron RAFLuftwaffeBattle of GazalaNo. 92 Squadron RAFLiverpoolMV Stirling CastleMelbournebrand of cigarettesMerlinDouglas MacArthurSouth West Pacific AreaRAAF Station Richmondwing leaderflying aceA6M ZeroArthur DrakefordGeorge JonesRAAF Station DarwinBatchelor AirfieldLivingstone AirfieldStrauss AirfieldMilne BayMitsubishi Ki-46Coomalie Creek AirfieldJohn CurtinHouse of RepresentativesR.E. Thorold-Smithdogfightingnext battleNorth Western AreaAdvisory War Councildrop tanksMilingimbi Islandairfield thereWinnellieNo. 5 Service Flying Training SchoolscrambledMitsubishi G4Mheavy bomberFenton airstripB-24 LiberatorsFrank Bladinofficial historyAdrian ColeP-38 LightningNo. 5 Fighter Sector HeadquartersNo. 2 Operational Training Unit'sflightDrysdale River MissionWestern AustraliaBilly HughesNetherlands East IndiesDick Cresswellwould raid the areaRAAF Station GuildfordCarnarvonGinginFremantleCAC BoomerangNo. 85 Squadron RAAFNo. 84 SquadronHorn IslandstrafingBabar IslandsExmouth GulfEastern FleetOperation TransomSurabayaNo. 81 WingNo. 80 Wing RAAFNo. 548No. 549 Squadrons RAFLawnton, QueenslandTruscott AirstripSelaroe