Source: RedditSource: The West Australian 14 September 1943
On the 12th of September 1943 a US Navy Vought Kingfisher (NO.2283) of Navy Scouting Squadron 61 (VS-61) crashed into Perth’s Swan River close to the Sandringham Hotel in Belmont.
The role of VS-61 was to provide reconnaissance and anti-submarine patrols in the Indian ocean and the South West Pacific theatre of operations. The Vought Kingfisher was widely used as a catapult-launched scout plane on US Navy warships and played a major role in artillery spotting and air-sea rescue. Aircraft 2283 was on a training flight from Maylands airfield and nose-dived into the river and exploded underwater. Two crew members were killed, Pilot William Burt Beck and radio operator Robert Le Roy Carrier. William had married a local Perth girl and both he and Robert are buried in the USAF cemetery at Rookwood near Sydney. Maylands was a hub of military activity during the war being requisitioned by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and extensively used by the US military from February 1942 onwards.
The town of Harvey in Western Australia was the wartime location of Internment Camp Number 11. It was established in 1940 and was the first purpose built camp of this kind in WA. Its purpose was for the detention of ‘enemy aliens’ and Prisoners of War (POWs) The camp held approximately 900 Italian men, some of whom were naturalised Australian citizens and about one hundred German internees. The camp was closed in 1942 when all prisoners were transferred to the Eastern states.
3RD AUSTRALIAN CORPS TRAINING SCHOOL
After 1942 the location was repurposed as the 3rd Australian Corps Training School. The curriculum there focused on leadership, weapons handling, field works and tactics for soldiers and members of the Australian Women’s Army Service (AWAS). The images here show the ‘Blitz Course’ around October 1942. This was an obstacle and simulation intended to mimic the conditions of combat.
In Phuoc Tuy province South Vietnam, a Fordson Major tractor was stolen from the French Courtenay rubber plantation. Intelligence reported that it was being used by Viet Cong guerillas to transport weapons and ammunition across the Australian area of operations (AO). A patrol from 2 Squadron, Special Air Service Regiment (SASR) led by Sergeant Frank Cashmore was tasked with its destruction. This episode of Backyard Battlefields features excerpts from an interview with SAS veteran Anthony Bowden, recorded by the Australians At War Film Archive.
Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Audible and Spotify.
The Courtenay rubber plantation circa 1971 (Image: AWM PO5389.011)A British Fordson Major E1A tractor, the model likely used by the Viet Cong. (Image: Our Warwickshire)SGT. Frank Cashmore SAS (Image: AWM POO966.085)SAS weapons and equipment at the Australian War Memorial (Image: Authors collection)
With the Fall of the Philippines in 1942, Fremantle, Western Australia became a defacto home of the United States Navy. As a consequence, it became the largest submarine base in the Southern hemisphere supporting US war patrols, personnel, infrastructure and ships. Now where would you expect the US Navy to keep one of their largest ammunition depots filled with explosives, mines, torpedoes. Fremantle? Cottlesloe? Swanbourne? How about Northam.
Northam is about 100km from the coast and a 90 minutes drive from the Port of Fremantle. It was the site of a large Australian Army camp for the training and mobilisation of troops and was the birthplace of three Western Australian Imperial Force battalions 2/11th, 2/16th, and 2/28th. It also housed interned persons and nearly 4000 Italian Prisoners of War prior to their repatriation to Italy. There were plans to use Northam as an evacuation point in the event of an invasion of Perth, it was well suited with its distance from the coast, proximity to rail and logistical infrastructure such as storage tanks for aviation fuel were installed with this in mind.
During WW2 as mentioned the US Navy also had a presence there. They needed a secure and remote location to store weapons and explosives with good road and rail access. Springhill about 8km outside of Northam was deemed suitable because the Australian military already had fuel and weapons storage in the area. Previously 202 hectares of farmland was compulsorily acquired and developed as the ‘Australian Army Central Ammunition Depot’ (CAD) designated ‘6 CAD’ for Western Australia. Near there land was allocated for what was to become the 7 Naval Ammunition Depot (7 NAD) one of three Naval Ammunition Depots developed across Australia to support operations in the South West Pacific. the other two at Mount Coot-tha, near Brisbane designated Navy 134 and at Newington, Sydney (Navy 135). At Springhill, storage was constructed to supply ammunition to warships and in particular MKXIV torpedoes for submarines of the US 7th Fleet conducting their war patrols from Fremantle…..
Listen to the episode at Apple Podcasts, Audible and Spotify.
(Images courtesy of History Online, The Us Naval Institute & the Naval History Magazine)
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Cunderdin is a town in Western Australia’s wheatbelt, about 150km East of Perth. It has been inhabited for thousands of years, but the first European visitor was Charles Cooke Hunt, who explored the area in 1864. The name is thought to derive from a Noongar word meaning either ‘place of the bandicoot’ or ‘place of flowers’.
It’s a nice little town, there’s about 600 people that live there, there’s an AG College, a golf course and an airstrip. A once strategic airstrip that used to carry US and Australian bombers during World War 2.
Construction started on the airfield in 1940 and it was operational by 1941. Cunderdin was home to the ‘No. 9 Elementary Flying Training School’. Part of the Empire Air Training Scheme (EATS) which was designed to produce Commonwealt pilots for eventual transfer to the British RAF. No.9 EFTS was one of 12 throughout Australia and the only one in WA. Pilot candidates would move from about 12 weeks initial training at Pearce Air force base near Perth and then onto Tiger Moth biplanes at Cunderdin. In some cases they would then join ‘No. 4 Service Flying Training School’ in Geraldton for advanced twin engine training on the Avro Anson.
The RAAF assembled a number of Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawk fighters at Cunderdin in March 1942, these were allocated to No.77 Squadron (Their motto: “Swift to Destroy”) to provide air defence for Perth. Like most RAAF installations there was a significant female contribution, from the Women’s Australian Auxiliary Air Force or WAAAF.
Between March and June 1942, two Liberator heavy bombers of the US Army Air Forces, 28th Bombardment Squadron of the19th Bombardment Group were based at Cunderdin and carried out long-range ocean patrols in the defence of Western Australia. In March 1944, a Japanese fleet broke out into the Indian ocean and it was thought Fremantle and Perth would be its target. Plans were made for Cunderdin Airfield to be the temporary base for Darwin based Liberators of the USAAF’s 380th Bombardment Group. In anticipation of the raid and the rush of reinforcements coming into WA, bombs, ordnance and supplies were stockpiled in Cunderdin.
The RAAF No.25 City of Perth Squadron was based at Cunderdin from early 1945, also flying B-24 Liberators. Almost immediately the squadron started flying search missions over the Indian Ocean looking for survivors of the American Liberty ship ‘Peter Sylvester’ which had been torpedoed South West of Fremantle by a German U-Boat. ‘Peter Sylvester’ had been carrying war supplies including a load of mules bound for Colombo when it was struck 1400km West of Cape Leeuwin. It was on one of these search missions, that Liberator A72-124 crashed on take-off at Cunderdin on the 14th of February, killing five crew.
As the direct threat to WA diminished and the Japanese were being pushed back, No. 25 Squadron began to stage some of its bombers out of Truscott on the Anjo Peninsula in far North WA. This was an ideal location for bombing missions against Japanese targets in Java and Borneo. Over the next five months, they also flew missions from the ‘invisible airbase’ Corunna Downs and Potshot near Exmouth. From there they flew sorties against Japanese targets across South East Asia and diverted attention away from allied landings in Borneo. Their last strike against the Dutch East Indies was just 10 days before the Japanese surrender.
Cunderdin-based Liberators made a formation flight over Perth as part of the Victory in the Pacific celebrations on 16 August 1945 and in the immediate post-war months evacuated Australian Prisoners of War from Borneo. The Squadron remained at Cunderdin until about July 46 when it was disbanded.
You can learn more about the German Monsoon Group U-boats in Australian waters by downloading Episode 9 and the Japanese Indian Ocean Raid of 1944 Episode 14 at Apple Podcasts, Spotify or Audible.
I came to Greenwich to see the magnificent National Maritime Museum. In their collection is a five barrelled Nordenfelt gun. This is a hand-cranked ‘machine gun’ designed by Helge Palmcrantz and named for Swedish steel magnate Thorsten Nordenfelt who funded its development. It was produced in several different calibres with up to twelve barrels. The version pictured here could fire up to 600 rounds per minute and was chambered in .45 calibre (11mm).
Patented in 1873 it was adopted by the British Navy in 1881 as a close range defence against fast (for the time) torpedo boats. They were used to arm Australian colonial warships and you can see an example (Image 6) one of four carried aboard HMVS Cerebus, built in the Chatham dockyards for the Victorian government in 1870.
Nordenfelt guns were superseded in the late 1880’s by the introduction of the superior fully automatic, Maxim gun.
Greenwich is an excellent place to visit, great museums (including the Cutty Sark) beautiful ye olde pubs and if you’re game, pies and stewed eels.
Pilot Officer W.H (Bill) Simmonds was from the small town of Bunbury, Western Australia. He was a pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force’s 77 Squadron flying the newly acquired Meteor jet in Korea.
On 8th of May 1952 he was a part of a RAAF flight escorting US bombers attacking a North Korean supply depot near Pyongyang. They were attacked by (likely) Chinese MIG 15s and in the ensuing dogfight Simmonds was able to get onto the tail of one and gave it a burst with his four 20mm Hispano MKV cannon and shot it down. The ‘kill’ was confirmed by other squadron members who saw the enemy pilot eject his stricken aircraft.
The jet-powered Meteor replaced the WW2 era Mustang after the entry into the conflict of the excellent Soviet MIG 15, often operated by experienced Russian pilots. Unfortunately the conversion process was extremely short for the RAAF pilots and lacked dedicated air combat training, leading to claims the Meteor was ‘outclassed’ by the Soviet fighters and it was withdrawn from the interceptor role and relegated to ground attack.
Bill Simmonds went on to have a distinguished career with the Air Force becoming commanding officer of 77 Squadron and later Air Vice Marshal. He was seconded to both the British RAF and the US Air Force (USAF) and was a member of the ‘Deltas’ the 77 Squadron aerobatic team flying the French Mirage at the Golden Jubilee of the Royal Australian Air Force.
(Image source: Australian War Memorial P00660.002 / P00660.021 / Trove / Migman.com)
The circumstances surrounding the British atomic tests which took place in 1952 on the Monte Bello Islands, 130km off Western Australia’s Pilbara coast remain extraordinary, even with the passage of more than 60 years. This episode of the podcast is an interview with the fantastic Paul Grace, author of ‘Operation Hurricane: The Story of Britain’s First Atomic Test in Australia and the legacy that remains’. Paul has a unique connection to the tests, his Grandfather was a RAAF pilot who flew ‘coastal monitoring sorties’ in the radioactive aftermath of the tests searching for fallout on the Australian mainland.
Listen to the story and my discussion with Paul Grace here at Apple Podcasts also available at Spotify and Audible:
Kingstown Barracks and Parade Ground Circa 1939 (RIA Collection: 1995.11)Troops drilling with SMLE .303 Rifles on the parade ground (RIA Collection 2016.266)Gun Barrel No. 2309 (Authors Collection) Authors Collection
Bickley Point on Western Australia’s Rottnest Island was the location of two 6 inch coastal defence guns. Its role was as a close defence battery to prevent enemy ships passing through the strategic ‘South Passage’ between Rottnest and Carnac Island to attack Fremantle. It had a secondary role as an ‘Examination Battery’ for the challenging and identification of ships entering Gage Roads. It became operational in 1939 and was an important part of the Fremantle Coastal Defence Fortress.
A remnant of the battery sits today at nearby Kingstown Barracks. The barrel of gun Number 2309, manufacted at the Royal Ordnance Factory, Leeds, which was once part of the armament of the Chatham Class Cruiser HMAS Melbourne.
There is more to come on the Bickley Point Battery, to know more about the ‘Rotto Guns’ you can listen to the story here:
