THE PRICE OF LIBERTY IS ETERNAL VIGILANCE The Voice of New South Wales Serving and Ex-Service Men and Women ANZAC DAY Lest We Forget VOL 90 NO 3 MAY-JUNE 2017 SUBSCRIPTION $5.50 PP243459/900095
ANZAC DAY SYDNEY WARM SUNSHINE FOR THE MARCH IN SYDNEY In the light of recent acts of terror overseas, extra security precautions were taken throughout Sydney as the community commemorated the 102nd landing of the ANZAC troops at Gallipoli. Attendances at the Dawn Service and the March in the CBD may have been reduced, but the growing numbers who attended suburban ceremonies more than compensated for that. With the George Street route closed permanently by the light rail construction, the March again progressed along Elizabeth Street, which affords the public better and more spacious viewing, particularly for those taking advantage of the embankment along Hyde Park. Almost 16,000 people marched this year, and it was noticeable that the ranks of WWII veterans are now much thinner. The Governor of NSW, General David Hurley, took part in the Dawn, Commemorative and Sunset Services, and not only led the March but also covered the route again with 1RAR. Gladys Berejiklian attended the Dawn Service for the first time as NSW Premier, while at the Anzac Memorial, the address was given by Rabbi Benjamin Elton, Jewish chaplain to the RSL. Although showers hit Sydney late in the afternoon, the day had been sunny and warm for the 2017 Anzac Day commemorations. Hundreds returned to the Cenotaph in Martin Place to be part of the Sunset Service The choir from Sydney s Te Wairua Tapu church performed a Maori song of sorrow Tama Ngakau Marie during the Dawn Service General David Hurley s first posting after graduating from Duntroon was to 1RAR and as well as fulfilling his ceremonial duties, the NSW Governor also marched with his old unit. REVEILLE 6
ANZAC DAY SYDNEY Representing our colleagues from the RSA in New Zealand was Canterbury district president Stan Hansen A wreath placed on Elizabeth Street in line with the Anzac Memorial was the point for an eyes left Act of Remembrance ANZAC DAY AROUND NSW BELFIELD At Belfield sub-branch we celebrated Anzac Sunday with a service and wreath laying at our own Cenotaph on the corner of Persic and Bazentin Streets. Our last service there in November was thought to have been our final one but happily we managed this too. At the conclusion we adjourned to Belmore Memorial Club where the camaraderie continued over breakfast. Ron Weewan, Hon Sec CAMDEN It was a proud moment watching my son, Joshua, push my husband Garry in his wheelchair during the Camden sub-branch March. Joshua wore his great-grandfather s medals and Garry his own. I love how the town of Camden comes together for moments like this and to commemorate Anzac Day, which started with a Dawn Service attended by thousands. People lined the street for the March, which was followed by a service at 11am. The Camden sub-branch does a great job of hosting all these events. Katrina Robinson REVEILLE 7
ANZAC DAY AROUND NSW CITY OF LITHGOW/RYDAL Alana Black was the guest speaker at the City of Lithgow RSL sub-branch Anzac Day service at Rydal, which is organised by her father, David Alan Black, a 22-year Army veteran who retired as a Warrant Officer after a tour of duty in Somalia. Alana said, in part: For the past 18 years, I ve stood in this crowd and watched proudly as my father conducts the Anzac Day service in Rydal, so it is a real honour to stand beside him today and give this address. The stories of farming communities like ours, and our farmers who went off to war, often go untold. Iconic farming districts, such as Rydal, share a distinct and proud history in both WWI and WWII. In our small community, family names such as Piggott, Doggett, Mays, Featherstone and many others can be seen inscribed on the war memorials around town, acknowledging their service to our country. Pictured are Andrew Gee, MP for Calare, David Black, and Alana. RANDWICK RACECOURSE At Randwick racecourse jockeys on the topweight in each race wore special RSL Anzac Appeal silks. Two were successful! CANDELO Members of the Candelo sub-branch and the community at the 2017 Anzac Day commemoration service. TERRIGAL WAMBERAL More than 5000 people attended this year s Dawn Service. A feature was a flyover by an Iroquois helicopter. The unique throb of the rotor blades as the helicopter flew across the Terrigal foreshore was an emotional experience for the many Vietnam veterans in attendance. Terry Saxby, Vice President KATOOMBA After nearly cancelling the March back in January due to the security restrictions placed on it by police, and after the RSL Club was razed to the ground in February, the Katoomba sub-branch Anzac Day commemorations rose from the ashes to be a huge success. A marquee city was created in the carpark to accommodate eating, drinking and two-up. The Dawn Service was one of the biggest ever, the March to the RSL site was well attended, and the afternoon saw the community and veterans enjoying all the Club had to offer. Pictured are the Dawn Service in front of the demolished RSL Club and the March down Katoomba St. Paul Edmunds, Treasurer REVEILLE 8
FIRST PERSON DARWIN 1942 A PILOT S CLOSE CALL Harold Stuart McDouall, known to all as Jim, was born at Barraba on 3 March 1920 and grew up on the family farm at Upper Horton. When he was 19 Jim joined the Australian Light Horse and in 1940 enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force. Following is a record of Jim s WWII experiences, in his own words. Edited by Sandra Lambkin I commenced my Air Force career in December 1940, after about 12 months in the Bingara Troop of the 24th Light Horse Regiment. I had two months initial training at Bradfield Park, Sydney, including drill and theory pertaining to flying, and was lucky enough to be chosen for pilot training. I was posted to Tamworth for elementary training on Tiger Moths, on Number 8 Course of the Empire Air Training Scheme. On completion I was posted to Amberley for advanced training on twin engine Avro Ansons, and finished with above average and recommended for commission stamped in my log book. This was a four-month course but owing to an injury to my hand I finished on 10 Course with a commission and a promotion to Pilot Officer. I was posted to 6 Squadron at Richmond for six weeks as second pilot on Lockheed Hudsons, then to Laverton, Victoria, for a special three-month navigation course. Near the end of that course, 2nd Squadron (which was based there and also flying Lockheed Hudsons) was posted to the Darwin area and islands north. Volunteers were called for from pilots on the navigation course and I was accepted. We took off for Darwin very early on 8 18 REVEILLE December 1941. When we stopped at Oodnadatta to refuel we heard that Pearl Harbour had just been bombed and that the Japs were in the war. We continued to Darwin and then were based at Kupang in Timor for a short while before moving on to Ambon, a small island to the west of New Guinea. We were there up to February 1942, when the Japs were making their big push southwards with far superior numbers of aircraft, ships and personnel. Their fighter aircraft, the Zero, was very superior to anything that we had. We only had a few Wirraways as fighters and really they were only a training aircraft and completely outclassed. We didn t have much chance of stopping the Japs, so it was decided that Ambon be evacuated and the RAAF and Army personnel return to Darwin. A large fleet of Jap warships and transports were heading for Ambon and not very far north. Two Hudsons and crews were given the job of keeping an eye on the Jap fleet and I was 2nd Pilot/navigator in one of them. Our job was to keep reporting the position of the fleet but keep our distance. The Hudsons, which were only a light bomber/reconnaissance aircraft, wouldn t have had much Flight Lieutenant H.S. McDouall chance against the Jap fleet which had battleships and aircraft carriers bristling with Zeros. We flew around, all that last day, in and out of cloud and returned to Ambon at dusk to refuel and load as many personnel as possible for the flight back to Darwin. The other Hudson was intercepted by Zeros and shot up but managed to get back to Ambon. They had a bullet hole in one of their fuel tanks and were trying to seal it. We took off thinking that they d soon be able to follow us but the Japs got there before they were able to. We heard later that they were taken prisoner and that they all had their heads chopped off. We took off into the darkness, grossly overloaded with bods, and straight into a tropical storm. I was navigating in the nose of the aircraft with my maps. The rain was so heavy it came in all over my maps and then my light went out. After that it was navigation by intuition. God was with us because, after more than
FIRST PERSON four hours, we came out of the cloud and there was Darwin straight ahead. On 19 February 1942 we had just returned to Darwin from a reconnaissance flight and had parked our aircraft in line with other aircraft on the airfield perimeter. We were walking across to the hangar and just as we got to the middle of the field we heard the drone of aircraft. We looked up to see what appeared to be hundreds of planes, high up, approaching from the east. Our first thought was that it was nice to see reinforcements arriving. Then bombs started falling and the air raid alarm sounded. All we had time to do was make a dash to the nearest slit-trench, which was right beside our hangar. We had five P40 American fighter planes there, which were supposed to be en route to Java, and they attempted to take off but were shot down before they were properly airborne. The Japs had it all their own way. We had nil defence; no anti-aircraft guns, no anything. So after the high level bombers dropped their bombs, the dive bombers and the Zeros came down to ground level and finished off our hangars and our aircraft all nicely lined up for the Zeros to strafe. Out of the 100 or so of our aircraft on the field there was only one Hudson left serviceable. We got out of the slit-trench and everything was on fire, with ammunition and anything explosive going off with a bang. A few of us grabbed a fire hose and hung on to it tightly while someone else turned on the tap. However, nothing came out as the water mains had been bombed. That first wave of bombers and fighter not only did the aerodrome over, but also the ships in Darwin harbour. About 50 ships were hit, most of them sunk, and the bombs also wreaked havoc on Darwin township. When we realised there was nothing much that we could do at the field, we made our way to the quarters which, up until that stage, hadn t been touched. We hadn t been there long before the second wave came over and this time they concentrated on the quarters. Once again, we all jumped into the slit-trenches. They made a real mess of the quarters and we were right in the thick of it. With bombs exploding all around the noise was rather damaging to the eardrums, so it s no wonder my hearing hasn t been too good ever since. After the second raid, it was decided that our lone remaining Hudson should be taken up to look for the Jap fleet that they thought all of the bombers had come from. We drew straws to choose a crew and I drew a short straw. We took off, dodging bomb craters on the runway, and got out to sea just past Bathurst Island. We saw smoke on the horizon and thought oh, s t, that must be the Jap fleet. When we got closer we found the smoke was coming from one of our own ships that had been bombed by the Japs. It was sinking and survivors were out in the life-boats. We went on further and found another of our ships in the same condition. Luckily for us, we didn t find Jim and wife Gloria the Jap fleet but found out much later that the bombers had come from Kupang, which had been taken a day or so before. The fighters had taken off from aircraft carriers closer to Timor than we had got. Things were a mess back at the quarters. There was no water to drink but there was beer untouched in the mess so we quenched our thirst and eventually got to bed. I hadn t been asleep very long when I was woken about 1.00am. Our ground crews had managed to get another two Hudsons serviceable and crews were needed to fly the three planes down to Daly Waters. We needed to get them away from Darwin as the Japs were expected to have another go later that morning. Once again, I drew a short straw and we took off into a pitch dark night to try to find Daly Waters. In those days Daly Waters was only a Post Office which had a paddock for an aerodrome. It was hard enough to find in daytime, let alone at night, and no navigation aids. Daly Waters is about 520 kilometres down the track towards Alice Springs and Katherine is about halfway along. It was about 2.00am when we took off. I was navigating and by dead reckoning REVEILLE 19
FIRST PERSON thought that a few lights I saw must have been Katherine. Not long after that a tropical storm front appeared ahead of us and the skipper flew here, there and everywhere trying to get around it while I was trying to keep track of where we were. By the grace of God the track that I gave him brought us back over Katherine about 3.00 or 4.00am. At Katherine there was only a paddock and no flare path. Everyone on the ground was asleep so we flew around in circles trying to wake them up and I went back to a window and started flashing the Aldis lamp down in their direction. Eventually we saw a few lights moving about as vehicles made their way to the paddock and made a sort of flare path. After six attempts we finally landed and just as well because we were almost out of fuel. One of the other aircraft got hopelessly lost and was running out of fuel when they noticed water below. They thought they were over the Gulf of Carpentaria and decided to ditch the aircraft. As they were making the approach the plane hit the water, with the altimeter showing 100ft up. All occupants managed to get out and when they attempted to tread water discovered that they were in only a few feet of water. It turned out that they had ditched in Newcastle Waters which is usually dry but, because it was the wet season, had some water in it. In the next day or so they got another Hudson serviceable. We then started flying all our aircraft in bombing raids against the Japs in Timor and other islands, day and night, to give the impression that we had more aircraft than we actually had. After a few weeks, a squadron of Yanks flying P40s arrived. The Japs had been over every day, bombing Darwin and the vicinity, and having it all their own way, so they got a shock when they were attacked by the P40s and some of their aircraft were shot down. Then some of our ack-ack gunners arrived, after having experience in the Middle East, and they also accounted for some of the Jap aircraft. Our morale went up quite a bit and the Japs weren t so cheeky. Towards the end of May 1942 I was posted to Sale in Victoria to do a Captain s course and hook up with a new crew. I was posted back to the Darwin area, back to 2nd Squadron, which was then at Bachelor. I spent a nine months operational tour there, carrying out a further 30 bombing raids. The Squadron moved from Bachelor to Hughes towards the end of April 1943 and I finished my tour with them at the end of May. I then had 12 months flying DC3s and Lockheed Loadstars, transporting around Australia and New Guinea. After that I did a conversion on to Liberators at Jackson Field, Port Moresby, before returning to Darwin to fly with the Americans in 529 Squadron for a couple of months. Jim McDouall and his Cessna 180 in 1988 Then I went to Amberley to help form 21 Squadron with nice new Liberators. On 2 January 1945 I returned to the Darwin area and operated with 21 Squadron out of Fenton until we moved to Morotai on 2 May. We operated out of there bombing Balikpapan and other targets on Borneo and I finished my operational flying on 6 July 1945. Jim was discharged from the Air Force on 28 February 1946, with the rank of Flight Lieutenant. He returned to the family farm at Upper Horton where he and his first wife, Doris, raised three children. Doris died in 1970 and Jim married Gloria in 1974. In the late 1970s Jim took up flying again and purchased a Cessna 180 in which he and his family flew all over Australia. He even used the plane for weekly shopping trips to Tamworth. Jim and Gloria retired to Tamworth in 1994 and on 26 June 2016, Jim passed away peacefully. He was 96. At his funeral Jim was honoured by the attendance of a contingent of serving RAAF personnel from the ADF Basic Flying Training School at Tamworth. 20 REVEILLE