The Bristol Beaufighter nicknamed the Whispering Death. British Multi Role Aircraft | Upscaled video

[Music] thank you [Music] thank you Australians became acquainted of the bowfata very early on in the war flying in the UK Malta and North Africa and RAF squadrons and RWS squirrels such as 455 and 456 quadrants four five six Squadron Knight Fighters were formed in June 1941 by winkamander Olive an Australian pilot who shot down six enemy aircraft during the Battle of Britain while 455 Squadron who flew with English Coastal command were accredited one of the last operational Saudis of the war in Europe one of those young Australians flying with 89 Squadron Aria was Mervyn shippard a country LED from the Snowy Mountains region of New South Wales he had two tours UK Malta North Africa included 13 confirmed any of the aircraft shot down you knew a little bit about the bowfire after two years and approximately a thousand hours of which I'd say five to six hundred would have been at night 13 confirmed enemy aircraft I think I did know a little bit about a bow towards the end of my career I originally originally flew the bow one that was my first aircraft in which I had a victim which only had the 420 mils no machine guns 67 shells to blow the airplane out of the sky I went on the Fly later models including the final one in May 1943 which is a above six I think is something at very big engines a dihedral tail magnificent airplane I also flew about two which was fitted with Merlin's never I don't think it was ever used operationally it was a training aircraft a nice airplane but nothing compared to the hurt bows what about a five pound level the old bow I think was the most magnificent airplane design for the job in which I asked her to do a night fighter I had 10 guns 420 mil 6303s I had perfect vision out the front no nose to get in the road I also had two very powerful engines and I could stay in the air if necessary for five or six hours the Firepower I think was the most important part of the night fighter you only had one go at night time because if you missed the first time that was it on top of that the bow carried was fitted out to carry a crew of two including Dougie oxby who was my radar operator he was a little Welshman he finished up at the end of the war as the most highly decorated night fighter radar operator of the hull of the Allies 23 confirmed a DSO DFC dfm and Burr the durability of the old boat amazing as a matter of fact I wouldn't be here today if it wasn't for the durability is it I remember one night I'd been up for oh about three quarters of an hour I'd had both engines at full bore at the end of the episode I was called back because I was getting over enemy territories as I returned to base the ground station called me up and said we've got another victim's wheel I said no way I'm On One engine oxby had his radar on he said should be this one coming straight for us about 3 000 feet below us I said okay tell me when to go healed it now I rolled the bow on a spec dived I knew I was traveling far too fast I put the wheels and flaps down as I leveled off I was within about 300 feet of the enemy aircraft going like a bat out of Hill I opened fire I suppose it wouldn't be more than 100 feet behind the thing it blew to Pieces it sounded as though I was going through a hail storm I had the wheels down I looked out and underneath the wheels in the wheel wells there was nothing but flame Oxo yelled he asked me we're on fire I'm going to jump I said hang on hang on I said stay put the thing is still flyable in within a few moments it all blew off I think it must have been the other airplanes petrol anyhow we got back on one engine landed we'd lost most of the fabric off the elevators Murray the Leading Edge which looked as though somebody had got to it with a sledgehammer but the old girl stayed together and got us home safest pie another episode I had in relation to this was in the middle of an air raid and I have a feeling the starboard wheel was punctured with shrapnel on the runway then he had when I came back into the land as I touched down the old girl just swung violently for the lift we hit the runway I must be doing I suppose 70 or 80 miles an hour we hit the runway sideways the port Wing fell off the starboard Wing fell off the tail fell off and Dougie and I was strapped inside the thing rolling down the runway just the body of the of a bow and all the only damage that was done was I broke the left hand goggles grass in my goggles when I hit my head as he gets the side the cockpit be in half an hour we were back in the air again another one yeah if it hadn't been for this airplane here behind me I wouldn't be here today that's for sure I once flew one in the in the desert it was a prototype sort of thing they had two bofus guns in it supposedly to be to be a tank buster when I fired that thing in terms though I was going backwards the recalls from those guns the poor old European super pieces he felt as though I was going to shake the pieces but I didn't uh I don't think it was ever used on operations but it was a bit exciting just to fire the thing in regards to the handling of the aircraft Melvin what did you think of that once you got the ballot in here it was a beautiful airplane but unless you're a little bit careful on takeoff it would turn around and bite you it had a tendency to swing because of the talk from these monstrous engines if you weren't careful you'd develop a swing on takeoff and you couldn't stop it once you got it in the air it was a magnificent thing my Aviation career finished in 1973 I had flown dozens and dozens of different types of aircraft including the old dc2 DC3 DC4 dc5 then the super Connie with Qantas and the 707. with about 23 000 hours at the end of my flying career I still consider the Thousand that I did in this old girl is the most memorable part of my life with the majority of Australian pilots flying in the European theater this proved to be a double-edged sword on the negative side Australia was devoid of aircraft and Pilots while on the positive side some of these Pilots were serving with distinction and gaining valuable combat experience that would soon be put into action in the defense of their Homeland Australia was confronted with the situation of a possible Japanese invasion they were bombing our cities and had sunk 40 ships off our Coast with the blitzkrigue entry of the Japanese into the war and their territorial push to the South for the first time in our history the Australian continent was under attack one man who would play a major role in the strategic planning and counter-attacked the Japanese invasion was Bill gearing Bill gearing had already won the DFC flying sunderlands in 10 Squadron English Coastal command at about nine o'clock in the morning we suddenly saw two junkers 88s approaching the ship the intention to sink it we immediately went straight for it and although we didn't know the words in those days the Sunderland was turned into a gunship it had so many guns firing upwards eventually 16 machine guns firing upwards and the Lord who was the traitor in Berlin he said Berlin calling Germany calling and then he went on to describe an action where the Sunderland had shot down some of the ju-88s and he said we call it the flagandise took us fine the flying porcupine and that name stuck and we had seven all of us the top Sunderland Pilots that went to England to bring them back we all had over seven years working with the Royal Australian Navy and we knew the Navy how they operated and so forth and so when we went to England we took over the Sunderland flying boats as though there were just another ordinary airplane in fact uh in fact that uh Hoot Gibson and I went up with a royal Air Force quadrant leader and we went solar after 58 minutes instruction on a Sunday never been heard of that obviously helped too with the arrival back in Australia you're facing a new enemy well when uh Charles Pierce and myself came back to Australia in 1941. we were both sent to the north uh Charles Pierce to command the Catalina wing of 11 and 20 squadrons and myself to construct the first war room in Australia we from there we for the first time we could control the ships and airplanes and so forth in an orderly manner I did flew all over the Southwest Pacific and got to know all of the bases I got to know the coast watches who were so marvelous really our great intelligence arm because without them we would have lost a lot more airplanes and Pilots and then I went to Pearl Harbor uh about three or four weeks before it was hit by the Japanese the Japanese were it was a tremendous force of airplanes of the most highly skilled Japanese pilots and they were looking for the American Pacific Fleet particularly the carriers and and they weren't there Admiral Halsey was some 60 miles south of his carrier and he'd debriefed me for five days about the European War and uh the uh a carrier force that that really wrote off Pearl Harbor was the same carrier force that came to Rebel and then it went on to Port Darwin and from there to trinkumili but we had 24 Squadron in Darwin in in uh Rebel which was Hudson's and we're always we're away behind me and the Japanese came in and they wrote that Squadron off in about 15 minutes I think uh very brave Pilots that took them on but imagine they had over a hundred fighters on their carriers here against two flights of wear aways and one of Hudson's so that was the first Contact by the way of Australians except for Malaya laroose comment when he was told to attack the fleet the next day after losing most of his flight he only had two wear aways and a Hudson service of all that was NOS muritiri Tay salute yes we who are about to die salute you and I'll tell you what he was right even to the battle hardened Pilots returning from the European theater the Japanese were a brutal new enemy at rabal along with nuns and a priest 150 soldiers were bionetted to death by the Conquering Japanese in what became known as the toll Plantation Massacre stem the Southward push of the invading Japanese 75 Squadron were rushed North to Papua New Guinea in a valiant last-ditch effort to hold the island when they got to New Guinea John Jackson was a commanding officer and they serviced them very quickly and on the same afternoon as they arrived a Japanese reconnaissance airport flew over and they got up and they shot him down and he didn't get the message to Rebel and and that we had fighters in New Guinea he didn't get the message so the following day Jackson went over them over the mountains with these 75 Squadron Kitty Hawks and they were the Japanese that lay all lined up one eight and two rows and one each side of the runway and they set fire to 12 of them and they shot down a couple more and back to New Guinea back to Port Moresby now that 75 squawken was alone against the might of the Japanese Air Force and they lasted for 44 days until John Jackson himself was the last man to be shot down and he climbed up against the formation of Japanese bombers and in the climb of course he was a great disadvantage and a Japanese zero shot him down well the one airplane to get come back to Australia at the 44th day was the last Kitty Hawk flown into Horn Island now that then caused Great concern because we had to rapidly rebuild 75 Squadron and 76 Squadron and we took them off to New Guinea and down to Milan day where we had built a strip we had the two squadrons there and the the two Australian brigades won a citizen's Force One and the other one that had come back from from North Africa so we had one professional Brigade and one that was a not so professional but were Brave blokes and as they turned out to be now 70 was the Japs then landed at Mill Bay but unhappily for them they landed at the wrong place a New Guinea as it was then Seaman gave them the wrong place he was they'd captured him and they made him a navigator well they landed six miles to the east of where they intended and they put their tanks ashore and so on now and that's six miles so it was like a hell of a lot of jungle and rivers and so forth and the Australians uh soldiers then took them on now they had they landed uh nearer the strip they could have captured the strip and caught both of our squadrons but they didn't now that's a bit like jalipoli you know they landed in the wrong place but it was it was one of the Divine interventions I believe that caused them to land in the wrong place and at that extra time that allowed our soldiers to get the feeling of them and to eventually destroy them along with the kitty Hawks now the kitty Hawks they used to take off and climb up to 500 feet and they'd look for the Japanese on the edge of the beaches and so on and then fire at them from the air Milne Bay was strategic and between Milne Bay and the kokoda trail we stopped the Japanese from getting to Port Moresby they desperately wanted Port Moresby and the reason for that was that Port Moresby controlled all shipping straight across a Due West from Port Moresby that means right across under Indonesia and right down the East Coast of Australia so no American ships could have got into the North or the East Coast of Australia they had air superiority sufficient to prevent it so Moon Bay then was so so it vastly important and so was the kokoda the Japanese was so close to the strip they thought that that night they might overrun the whole operation and we would lose all our aircraft pilots and ground crew Blue Cross trustcut here was the CEO of 76 Squadron he volunteered to remain with his troops there and if anything fight to the death if they did overrun the these strips fortunately the cookie crumbled in the right direction and the the outcome was success next day we flew back in with the aircraft and continued the operation until such times as the Japanese force was evacuated every night we used to get shelled by a Japanese Cruiser every night and the I think the whole effort of everybody involved down there was the secret of the success of the operation with the amount of firing that all the kitty Hawks did obviously five and 76 quarter there uh it took toll on the Armament of the Browning guns that the rifling on the brownings which was kept the bullish going straight became worn and so much so so that the the bowels in turn were useless so there was no accuracy in the Flight of the bullets when paying from lid on it was just a matter of getting supplies we ran out of ammunition it was supplied by a liberator on the heussaff and to keep us going and the toilet that departed when they weren't flying was building up ammunition to use on the aircraft as quick as they could we couldn't keep the ammunition up to the the pilots or to the aircraft in that period of time they we did lose some good men there 76 Squad lost the co uh Squad a leader Turnbull and uh we're blue trash kit became the commanding officer and he was a wonderful man in himself a very respected person and pilot and he had come back from England like lots of our replacement pilots from the UK after 75 lost the Machado their part of seeing their tour at Port Moresby was the first place in the whole of the Southwest Pacific or in the world in fact that the Japanese were defeated on land they withdrew and went back to Rebel and general slim as he was then later Phil Marshall Slim in Burma said the Australians have beaten them in New Guinea they have proven that they are not Invincible now you officers and soldiers in Burma get out there now and beat them in Burma it was to this scenario that 30 Squadron arrived at Port Moresby and with them the both fighter the weather was bad for starters but of course the the strip the the metal strips that they had there at Milne Bay Forest to land on used to move up and down when you when you touched down and moved on they'd move about or at least a foot into the ground with water all over them they weren't terribly good apart from the conditions of the of the weather and the strip there was that air of uh problems about us and we didn't know what to expect really when we first landed at Milne Bay which was the 6th of September about six or seven days after the uh the major part of the Kitty Hawk offensive had had started our first thought he was that at Milan Bay when we were asked to Strath the Japanese destroyers on a cruise that were up in Mumbai Harbor which were causing a problem to the Army during those early days of Norman Bay but that was our very first thought here at Milne Bay on the 6th of September whilst the rest of the crowd were coming up from Townsville Brian why was it both part of chosen it was chosen because it was a raggadira plane with awesome Firepower in fact with it was designed as a night fighter and with four Cannon and six machine guns we thought that it would make an excellent ground strafe and that's exactly what it did because if you hit anything with a bow fighter it was hit and it was hit for good the worst place to be is in front of an angry Beau fighter because you're likely to get a dose of lead poisoning and the result was that there were many airplanes left sitting burnt out wrecks in New Guinea as a result of the efforts of the bow fighter that was the reason it was chosen and that was how it was used in fact I understand that the nips didn't like it very much and they used to call it whispering death because not only was it a ruggedy airplane and then but it had two sleeve valve engines which made it very very quiet the Japs don't like those they call them Whispering dead the engines are silent they don't hear them till they're overhead his head fairly ginormous horsepower and the result was that we would hit a Target and go through it and built it before the nips even knew that we were there of course we would take advantage of all the natural coverage we could get from terrain as well but that doesn't take anything away from the bowfighters quiet approach and what about the fact that it was manufactured here as well that's that's an interesting point too as well they it it had a great degree of commonality with the Beaufort and the Beaufort was made in Australia eventually and the result was that they went on and made the bow fighter which was a remarkable achievement when you consider that we're only a nation of with seven million people at the most at that time 365 boat Fighters were built in Australia at a rate of one per day plus spares conditions were pretty ragged we had the bow Fighters scattered around the strip in revetments to give them some protection but that didn't stop the odd one getting clobbered by Japanese raids wood was a real Enigma to me when we first came into Wars I thought it was um uh well it wasn't even like a football field it was just a a strip wasn't even tired it was just been um made by the five ACS who did a great job these these Airfield construction people were were wonderful people they did a great job under terrible conditions and with limited amount amount of of Machinery but Ward strip was very narrow very short and it wasn't until probably a month or two we've been operating out awards that we we got a strip that you felt it was a bit more like a strip that you could use flying in New Guinea was very very uh difficult those days not only did we only have one or two aerodromes to land on and they were only around Port Moresby was the fact that the maps we were using were all laboratory charts stated in the turn of the century and they weren't very well charted the the mountains around the heights could be disputed so it was very difficult to operate fly operationally in New Guinea at that time the um there were no met reports that you could rely on we didn't have people who could tell us what the weather was going to be like except to say that it'd be damned awful all the time uh and on top of that we just didn't have anywhere else to uh to land uh other than the two or three strips that were around Port Moresby the Americans were wonderful people we certainly uh enjoyed some of the things that they could give us like they were fed very well and they'd occasionally give us some good food or what what have you but as far as their understanding of the conditions up in New Guinea uh I hated to say but I really believed a lot of the Americans were quite naive they were very brave and they certainly pushed home their attacks but I can recall one occasion when moss and I were flying back from a an operation up the other side of my dang and we're coming past finchafen which brought us back past lay and of course lay was the the headquarters of uh of the Japanese military and was very heavily defended in one place you kept away from but so we were just creeping past salamoa and I I looked out there and and there was these two Lightnings with wheels and flaps down and obviously headed towards lay and there so I quickly looked up these frequencies they were operating on and I called them up in plain language which I shouldn't have done of course but I thought of these two aircraft and explained to them that look if you were looking for somewhere to land I wouldn't land there and they came up in the American draw and said well thanks bud we thought this was somewhere to land we were running out of gas so they tacked him behind us and we brought them back to Mosby but the Americans were very very casual with their navigation nonetheless they were great people to fly with and we had a lot of rapport with them and I've made some very good friends in the Americans but I think in the in hindsight and I've spoken to them over the years their navigation left a lot to be desired some of the authorities and particularly some of the airport might have felt that uh the atmosphere around 30 Squadron was a bit laissez-faire because the CEO was quite a flamboyant character you know wore a big German logo instead of the the Smith and Wesson 38 the rest of it did but this gave the Squadron some character we were still disciplined very disciplined in the air the maintenance Crews did a wonderful job against all sorts of problems of the heat the cow the wet the dust and mosquitoes the lack of air conditioning to do to fix up delicate instruments for the aircraft to fly with all of this was brought together by in my view um a complete understanding of what a squadron was supposed to do and and Brian Walker did that I I was only disappointed that later on he didn't come back and see how when I went back the second time because I believe in my view as a just um an ordinary air crew black in the Squadron that it was his his figure his impression uh is it his um experience not only the experience but the symbol of uh of a great flyer and we always felt that our CEO being a great a great Aviator he dragged us up along with him and we weren't going to let him down with the arrival Brian of the beaufighter at wards Port Moresby what changes did it bring about with your arrival at 30 Squadron well it brought about an Australian composition which was appreciated by the army and the Army at that stage we're sending up a lot of Reserve people if you were not aif and who hadn't actually been to war and so it was a very very great thing to have an Australian Squadron operating in close Conformity with the Australian Army and that was very much appreciated by the army the militia did a marvelous job didn't they and following that the joining of the aif with them and oh well the militia did a wonderful job in so far as that they helped push the nip right from their position for only about 30 miles from Moresby right back to gona they pushed them back definitely over the Owen Stanley and got stuck into them and they got a lot of help from us because we're operating in fairly close support and they would give us a briefing and we would get a lime of where to to strife and where not to strive and that would be fairly accurate I only ever found one person later who claimed that he'd been strafed by a Beau fighter and I said well you couldn't have been and he said why I said well because you're still alive what were the attacks on places like laylike when you went over to Leia or medang we didn't like that lay because it was very heavily defended and you wouldn't help that yet clobbered in fact I lost an airplane overlay myself I can always remember feeling a loud clump and feeling the airplane shadow but I felt the controls and they were still seem to be functioning all right and I can remember my Observer saying we've been hit and I said you're not Whistling Dixie and then he said we're on fire and I said go and piss on it and he said it's God out and I said Thank Christmas for that anyhow we got that airplane back to to base but we couldn't get the wheels down because they've got one of the hydraulic lines and it had a hole through the tail end where this obviously something about the size of 40 mil had hit it and it didn't do much good oh I had a problem I mean so far as I was always told that in the bow fighter that the gauges were pretty chronic and that if the oil pressure gauge went suddenly off the clock forget it anyhow on this occasion I I couldn't forget it because the shortly after the engine seized and you'll always learn after the event and I was told later on by a fellow who had a lot of experience in Beau fighters in Malta that the thing to do with the bow fighter if your oil pressure goes is to open the throttle fully and he said then when the engine seizes the prop comes off and he said you go like buggery on the other engine that I wasn't game to do that because that's self-feathering isn't there so I wasn't game to do it it was a rugged airplane took an awful amount of punishment and the result was that it was a good airplane to go to warring in fact when I look at it now and I think of how little respect I showed for that airplane I now feel very humble there would be many other memorable close shaves for 30 and 31 Squadron however considering the terrain and the Saudis flown damage to aircraft was relatively light you made some friends up in New Guinea too with the Americans Ed Lana in particular Brian oh Atlanta character and he operated a B-25 Squadron he started off with a Boston Squadron but he finished up with a B-25 Squadron and we worked together when it comes to a scrap we Aussies don't want any better covers the new Yanks we're tickled to death to know that you're right behind us oh yeah blackjack with you boy not behind you I've got a letter from an American named Jack Taylor and it was heated what do we do with the drunken pilot and I'd never forget that letter it was really funny Jack get up we have a mission in about half an hour my head pounded furiously I pried one eye open God damn it Ed we're stood down I whimp it hopefully don't give me that he shot back get down to the operation Shack in five minutes for briefing then he was gone we had been stood down and celebrated gloriously in club lakinuki until three or four in the morning this morning I didn't remember much between that rude awakening and starting engines in my assigned a 20. I had a very hazy recollection about the briefing I was number three or four ships no lights except the blue formation lights for joining up our bomb load was 20 pound paraphrags taxing out I cursed a crew chief for leaving a red light on in the cockpit his fault not mine I took the runway after checking the mags and pushed both throttles open thank God I remembered takeoff flaps and to close the upper cows the bird seems strangely sluggish but finally broke ground simultaneously I heard a felt an explosion in a split second it dawned on me what the red light was all about I had left my Bombay doors open my God had I Dropped a Bomb on the runway with much relief I realized that I wouldn't be alive to think anything if that were the case I must have blown a tire this later proved to be the case I closed the Bombay doors solving the red light problem sorry Crew Chief and climbed in a right turn searching for the blue lights of number two in the formation so I could join up blue lights but lately I turned mine on minutes later I thought I saw them perhaps I was finally starting to sober up yes I had them spotted two had joined on lead and number four is spread wider was there another set of Lights close to four oh well I had plenty of room to join to my assigned spot as I slid into number three spot Echelon to the right I found myself fighting with number four for the same spot I held tight and he finally gave up and took position on my right wing we climbed in a Northerly direction to clear the Owen Stanley range Darkness had started to pale I was beginning to see a faint outline of the other airplanes my eyes jumped to the right fuselage of number two had I joined a Japanese formation no no wait a minute those birds look like Australian bullfighters as the concentric circles of the RAF took form I was reassured I was sobering up peeking sheepishly to my right I saw two bow fighters on my own Wing I had indeed joined up with a bunch of Aussies assuring the position of the Assi leading the last element maybe it was my imagination but that pilot seemed a little disgusted we started out Ascent I saw that our Target must have been the Japanese air drama lay since we're over Markham Valley following a river toward the ocean then I spotted lay Dead Ahead the boat Fighters broke formation and their attack patent was one of the most amazing sites I had ever seen they hit the target from all directions looking like a bunch of bloodthirsty Bandits their mission was strafing and strafe they did when they finally tired of the sport they pulled out to sea and rejoined seeing that they were finished I don't feel a lower altitude and initiated my own attack strafing and dropping my parachute fragmentation bombs alongside the side of the runway which seemed to have some aircraft on it as I pulled away I heard my Gunner kick in his own guns apparently he wasn't too bothered by the whole mysterious string of events having lost sight of the bull fighters I returned to Port Moresby myself I decided to land at Four Mile Strip as it was wider and longer than Killa Killa on my own strip and I might have had a blown tire to consider I made a pass got confirmation that it was my left tire and set up my Approach completely sober by now I made one of the lightest touchdowns of my life Lerner came back in a Jeep and chewed my ass most of the way back to Killa Killa Mike Gunner stayed quiet and listened to this interesting lecture loner finally grinned and commented that I must have been astute as he had been sometime after debriefing we got a call from Black Jack Walker the Aussie commander of 30 Squadron rwaf wanting to know who the yank was who didn't know a bull fighter from a Boston following the bombing of Darwin 31 Squadron were rushed to the northern city number 31 Squadron was uh the second Bay Fighter Squadron that was formed in 1942 in the dark days during the Japanese advance Darwin area was still receiving Japanese attacks at the time number 31 Squadron arrived there the worst attack I think we had while I was there was a an attack just after we had this successful ride on pemfury when the Japanese came in and attacked at low level and managed to destroy an airplane on the ground and do a little bit damaged with bombs anyhow to go back to the formation of the Squadron we weren't sure at the beginning where we were going destined to finish up but eventually the word came through that we were destined to be based in the Darwin area at this stage of course people were fearful of the Japs Landing somewhere in Australia and I think the powers that be I wanted to strengthen the Darwin area a little more anyhow eventually we moved to Darwin I remember the flight up there quite vividly because it was the only time in my bowfighter career that had let me down I lost a ninja neighbor Catherine I have a Catherine and had to Forest land there anyhow the Squadron eventually uh was based at Kamali Creek where I irreverently became known as Kamali Charlie we were then planning to undertake flights into the islands around the Darwin area into timoa the arrow islands and the tannenbar islands which was just about at the extreme range of the bay fighter the flights had to be undertaken at very low level to avoid any radar the Japanese might possess and because they were undertaken at lower living it was important that navigation was very carefully planned the bowfighter also had a rather bad characteristic in that once you fired the Cannons on the bowfighter the campuses went haywire and uh The Navigators had to be very cautious about using the compass after a firing of the cannons fights were undertaken into various airfields I remember one particular flight into pen phui on the south west coast of timoa which I always regarded as the most successful operation in my days in the Squadron where we were credited with destroying 18 airplanes on the ground we caught the Japs uh asleep that day I think and that was all because we managed to get in at very low level without any warning after that uh attack on panfui uh I was separated somehow from the rest of the flight and uh much to my horror I found I was being attacked by a Japanese area that must have been Airborne at the time we made the attack and uh the bow fighter could just outrun a zero but it was hopeless really to mix it with a zero because the bow Fighter the faster you went the heavier it got and the less maneuverable it was of course uh basically designed to be a night fighter in England and uh although uh one or two of our Pilots managed to mix it with uh zeros and other type of airplanes it wasn't really designed for that uh anyhow on this particular flight he made several passes at me before I managed to escape into a bank of clouds and when we got home there were quite a number of holes in the airplane 31 Squadron had an impressive record flying over 2 600 Saudis destroying 75 aircraft nine ships and important infrastructure operating initially from Australian soil south of Darwin at Kamali Creek 31 Squadron conducted low range attacks into the surrounding Japanese occupied Islands resulting in engagements of Japanese Fighters several of 31 squadrons Pilots took on the Japanese a role that the Beau fighter was not designed for one of those Pilots noted for his daring was Eric Basha Barnett we were making an attack on an airstrip a few Laura on the plateau of team or I myself would just made a made an attack on a tent situated at the end of the runway and I've became conscious of an aircraft at around 11 o'clock high and so I pulled around in the Steep 10 Farmington and went up straight up towards him he came straight down at me and we opened fire on each other and uh hey I got heaps yeah I've got no hits actually but uh I managed to uh you know he was hitting the engine to sell a large part of the engine the cell flew off and then the next one was with a smoke and he was just under his bed under my wing and as I turned in to see where where he was crashing and the Navigator yelled out that there was another aircraft coming in on the other side and the the trace was uh just visible and so I just put my nose down and then when we went there you know fast as it we could because we had an advantage to add you know zero altitude the uh we had about 20 miles an hour speeds advantage over zero at that particular time but so that way out running and then represent the next day they one of our aircraft confirmed the wreck on the end of the strip and so for Christmas Eve I received a bottle of whiskey from area headquarters and their most unusual gift at that particular time Barnett sought into pen phui is still a talking point for the Squadron today it was a comedy of errors that followed on a most successful one when it's over 18 aircraft were destroyed and in fact they just flew straight down the runway and used up all their ammunition just firing at the aircraft which we dipped a wing tip whereas our one started badly as soon as we hit the coast we ran into bad weather as we started to fly up the valley we we found that the clouds were closed in so we had to pull up above the clouds and in doing so we become separated I came out of the cloud and then looked down through a cap and saw that dear friend didn't blow me so I put her into a steep dive and dived under a group of buildings both winds windows and both sides of the aircraft disappeared the whole cockpit filled up with the with all the accumulator dust and that's there and I finished up in an inverted position and rolled out and continued then right down over the towards the the sound now on the Northern side of the team or that was an ammunition done that was the ammunition dump that actually I I picked on it it was uh it was no no conscious effort in that respect and uh because I assured a an aircraft examiner it was up and questioning about the best ways of attacking it the thing was that I promise that I'd never do it again and it it is it's not the the best of experiences that uh so what happened then after you well and I said I circled down and went there looked back I could see if I could see coping Harbor the ships there had opened up and they had aircraft fire was there and to the north then was there well the clouds were right down on the on the hill so I decided to come back through the through the end the deers room and about three or four bombers and uh Betty bomber's situated one side of the runway I attacked those and then banked over to look back to see how I was going the next minute and run into a collection of radio towers and the flagpole the uh blood Paul becoming embedded into the Leading Edge of the aircraft and I'd and for a while then it looked like we had a flag with us the Navigator seemed to be more interested in that but don't pulled out of that and then then they said no straightened down I became aware of a aircraft and aircraft position over there so I haven't found a thousands then they're quite successful there to continue going up the valley and then as I pulled out of the valley I could see an aircraft just above me and I came right up underneath it and I thought it looked peculiar uh for about Friday but then being in a position I was I'd never been in that position with another bow so I just ease to the side just as I did didn't it opened fire the trash went fast and so I slipped and slid down down and then down to the right and then you know turned back in towards the aircraft boy then he was around about going flat out he was about 800 yards away I tried a long shot at him but uh couldn't uh no no hits and Josie for about 10 minutes this hour and then he he dived into a cloud and then so then I turned around and headed back to Australia complaining about the fact that I'd nothing in the cockpit the cigarettes and matches are going with the whole thing and of course one of the first things I got back was a reprimand from area headquarters with lift our transmitter on and the hull of Northern Australia was aware of the fact that I'd like there's no cigarettes and matches and because when we landed there it drives our mission there they they were still remnants of the uh the mayor the flag by us that is that it was stuck in in the Leading Edge with the wheel the where the cord goes through but and nearly yeah quite a lot of other holes and then in there on the main planes and so on from debris there was some more music stories about it some some other one I've reported a door going past and of course then has had a hand attached to the door and so on you've got all these particular stories there but as I said it was just a series of uh of accidents not there but just being in the wrong place at the wrong time conditions up north Jack weren't particularly good for plain or Personnel it was tough and stuff but the aircraft maintenance was probably worse the heat of the day to sit on an aircraft you know in shorts that burned the old bottom off you know and then if you work at night the mozzies and the moths drive your bonkers but the parts parts was terrible if we had one if we had to get six aircraft ready for the next morning we would probably go and cannibalize one of the others we had 24 aircraft when we started and uh we'd cannibalize one of those aircraft and to get one going so it was a continuous thing of peace from here a piece from there to make perhaps get six ready for the next morning we were lucky in some ways the Yanks were down there and if we were near the Americans at all they had a plan that was U.S as we called we would always be able to scavenge off that plane and we thank the Yanks very much for for all that supply that they gave us unbeknowns so once again I suppose the Allies worked together in in a funny fashion the United States Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force were now working together one of the most successful operations was the Battle of Bismarck sea Bill gearing played an important role in the strategic planning of this operation described by macapa as one of the most important aerial engagements of the war in the Southwest Pacific we got some information to Breaking code that a convoy was going to be formed Up In Rebel and they had 170 ships in Bal Harbor was going to be formed and then to go around somewhere and land in Papua New Guinea we didn't know quite where for the first bit but we decided it was going to be lay now having got that information then I went to uh General uh General Whitehead who was General Kenny's deputy and forward Echelon Commander New Guinea and I said sir we better look out how we do this we know that they're coming now it's no good unless fighting them unless we rehearse the battle and he said what a brilliant idea and they adopted it and so they got all the American commanders of the squadrons including our number 30 Squadron and 22 Squadron and the fighters at uh down at Milne Bay and the commanders of theirs were gathered around Cape Ward hunt which is halfway between Port Moresby and Milan Bay but it was 90 nautical miles almost exactly and that would be where would he worked out from Cape Ward hunt on the north side of New Guinea to where the Convoy would be if it came that way it so happened that we're within a nautical mile the first rehearsal down to Cape Ward a caper Rodney was a disaster some of the airplanes were 20 minutes late General Whitehead and I were standing on a point at uh at Port Moresby overlooking the old ship on the Rocks they're called the proof and they're all supposed to be over that ship at the same time now they were starting from about ten thousand feet down to water level the object of all of that was that knowing the Navy as I did they they had difficulty if you concentrated on them from different heights and different directions and finding out which was the main enemy which for instance might have been say the A-bomb carrier well we didn't have any Avon so it didn't matter but uh the second we do the second rehearsal and that was nearly perfect on the day the day before the the Convoy had left uh Rebel and was heading to lay the day before it got delay we intercepted that Convoy that's what we wanted having got that then the Catalina Australian Catalina shepherded all night long and we attacked them with Australian bow Fighters and the bow fighter under my instruction and I'll say it was meant to kill the commanding officer and the officers on the bridge and did they ever when they fired their their guns and Cannon they actually blew the bridge apart or set it on fire and certainly they killed the anti-aircraft Gunners on the deck well the the end result was that we shot down about 50 Fighters that morning we uh we destroyed as I say these 16 ships and we lost six airplanes and 13 men killed we lost some wounded of course I think those odds were pretty great the battle of the Bismarck sea was the last time that the Japanese made any attempt to get to Port Moresby and it was General MacArthur who we'd convinced that air power meant something said it was the greatest air battle in the Southwest Pacific throughout the Bismarck sea Battle was concerned this was something different we'd never strafed big ships like cruises and destroyers so it was something different we were well briefed on how to handle it but when we did get there all I could see was lots of Japanese naval ships and lots of the of transports there were plenty of air activity there was I could see liberators upstairs about ten thousand feet and certainly some Lightnings and there were some zeros sitting around but moss and I picked up a transport and staffed it straight away we went straight in but one of the things that when I looked back as to how we ever survived that was the fact that the liberators were dropping bongs from ten thousand feet and we were flying through the water spouts that these bombs made in the water and a couple with that we had the problem of uh of the Mitchells the b-25s or the Americans who'd been practicing this skip bombing with 500 pound bombs and they were very effective in practice and but when it came to the day uh to see a 500 pound bomb flying 50 feet off your starboard Wing at the same speed as you doing was a bit disconcerting it was quite an energetic sort of an exercise you'd hit one whip around and do another and then come underneath a bowfighter going the other way I guess it only lasted about 10 minutes but in that time we would have strafed about four of these vessels one destroyer and three transports and I think it was an amazing thing that we lost so few we only lost one bow fighter who I understand from talking one of the Americans um uh this bowfighter flying by Ron Downing and and Danny box uh were being attacked by zero and this Mitchell came in to take the zero off his tail and the other zero got Browning and another one coming in behind got this other B-25 so that was the sort of um cooperation we had on the Bismarck sea Battle which incidentally was considered to be one of the major uh turning points of the war against the Japanese and the Bismarck say battle I flew number two on the right wing of Ed Lerner the squadron commander and so it was very much involved in the overall action I started to make my run on about a six or seven thousand ton Japanese transport and then I saw that another plane was coming in from the stern so I broke off and pulled up to the right a bullfighter had been strifing a cruiser just as I was coming in of course shells was bursting all around and one of the shells caught me I was a very terrific exploded filling the cabin full of smoke so I quickly opened my bomb base in case I had to get rid of the bombs but this plane was still flying satisfactly so I made a run on about a 7 000 ton Japanese ship hopped over it dropped another couple of bombs on a smaller ship and tied in with the bus riders for protection to fly back to New Guinea and then I flew on my own onto Port Moresby and we got to Port barsby we tried this the airplane to see just exactly what damage it was done the main Wheels would not come down there was no flaps no radio or anything so I decided we'd try a crash landing a Seven Mile Strip we tested the plane as far as its flight characteristics were concerned it was very unstable at about 140 miles an hour so we decided that we'd bring her in at that speed and try a crash landing hoping we could knock off the nose wheel which had come down and locked the nose wheel didn't collapse on Landing but it ran down the runway with the tail going down bouncing up running down like a kangaroo hopping we were doing probably about 25 or 30 miles an hour when we came to a ditch at the end of the runway the nose wheel dropped into the niche and the plane rolled over on its side all got out of the wreck all right except the rear Gunner who stuck a gun butt through his head he'd failed to obey instructions getting in the clear and to Pat himself the other two the co-pilot and the Australian Gunner were fact-flying within just a very short period of time I spent three months in the hospital and then God which was returned to Flying to join the famous Colonel Pappy Gunn in the experimental work at Eagle Farm of course was still a lot of work to be done in Bismarck city battle in the in the day following um 22 Squadron Boston's also had to go out and they found some some of the ships that were stationary of course they'd been put out of action but they um they bombed those and got rid of the two of them as I understand whereas we had to do two things in 30 Squadron we um we came back along past lay and and staff at melang strip some zeros that are landed there because malahan was used as sort of a satellite strip-off lay but on top of that we had that awful experience of Staffing Japanese Landing barges it would have been a nuisance a very great nuisance to the military up there the Australian forces if we hadn't done so I had a message to say that one of our bowfighters who had been somewhere in the vicinity um was missing and didn't know where he was so we searched for about three hours and I remember if we came back to numfer and we'd done six hours and 10 minutes in a bowfighter and that's a fair length of time and I don't think we had more than a few points of petrol left in the airplane but that from that came this very interesting story of Mick Smith and Jack Gleason who who got lost and eventually landed on a little island about a couple of hundred miles north of numfer and it's well documented this particular event but no one knew where they were and and although Mick had landed the airplane on a little strip of Beach um he managed to get the uh the starboard engine going and they got a bit of uh of power into the radio set and and Johnny Gleason got a message back to Norfolk um to say that they're on this little island but didn't know where they were uh there was another Island just about 50 yards across a little spit of water and they got onto that and they found a little house and then that house or a Hut I guess it was was a a medicine bottle um in the name of a Mrs Brown and they got that detail back to some chemist in Brisbane who was able to tell them that the island Mrs Brown was on it was mapier Island and from then from then on we got a couple of PT boats with the Americans uh eventually the aircraft was flowing off um and I just like to make a comment about my views on the Americans I've never seen such bravery as half a dozen Americans hopping over the side of a PT boat with rifles above their heads wading into a Shore to rescue one of their mates who I saw was shot on the beach moss and I came over and was Staffing this beach to keep the Japanese there was something like two or three hundred zaps on this island who who didn't like the Americans coming ashore and who wanted to disable the bow fighter but it was a wonderful story Mick then with the aid of our engineer officer and petrolip was um uh siphoned out and transported in in Gallant tins to a bow fighter and Mick waiter for low tide and flew the airplane off and around about the middle of 1944 when things start to get a bit better for us and we were able to push the Japanese out of New Guinea round about it and these places it was a great day for the Australians but we still had a lot more to do after after we defeated the the Japanese at wewack from then on of course we went up to noon fertility or moratori label and and did a lot of work around tarakan and balak papin and over in the celebes in in saram um the Japanese were still although they're on the back foot in the Americans were going north we still had a lot more to do to con contain the situation and make it safe the Beau Fighters were selected as an escort plan for the Mustangs to go to to Japan has to be the occupation Force aircraft and the Beaufort having an observer in it and the Mustangs they were single crew so they both owners went to a lab you went and met the Mustangs there and took them on the trip to Japan we had six on either Wing we landed the first day at the Philippines that part of the trip went very very well but after the Philippines we left for Okinawa and that been their closest point to Japan at that stage where the Americans operated from now we reached Okinawa that was okay as well but from there we had terrific trouble in in finding clear weather to make off to Japan I think we had three efforts to get out and each time we had to turn back however in the final day when we went out we got past the point of no return and so I had just had to keep going the weather was so bad that looking through the window we could neither see nor hear the Mustangs on either side though for some strange reason they seem to be able to stay with us we were flying at about 10 000 feet and uh trying to get above the storm and decide it was just as bad up there so found an opening and went down through it to the water's level and we were flying just above the waves and I really mean practically touching the waves and the weather there was just the same anyhow we're flying along and Dave The Observer was Dave Beasley and the pilot was Ron cockcroft and Dave we were too allowed to get a drift for navigation so it was dead reckoning and I thought we're on on course and it's turned out we weren't but suddenly when we neared Japan an island loomed up that wasn't Heavenly and not on the charts at that time and the pilot threw it straight back up in the air and I was thrown about and day was thrown about but we took the trees on the top and there was trees and sand leaves and things flying everywhere so the old bird was really tough and when we landed in Japan the boys looked in themselves and it was full of Timber and it's a wonder that the particularly the back cylinders were able to operate because had been an air cooled motor and the boy said no doubt about the old Beaufort she's one of the toughest aircraft we've ever seen and looking in they said you've got enough timber in there Jack there for fire wood for a for another month the unfortunate part about the troop is the three Mustangs they did not make that that particular Island and plowed into the island and there was a mosquito about half an hour behind us and it disappeared also whether it went in there or not nobody knows so it was rather a tragic trip that poor old pilots in the Mustangs not having navigation odds and relying on I don't know how they could see us relying on just dead reckoning also but it was tragic to lose three of the Mustangs but the bowfighter it came through a hundred percent slight things in the curling but nothing much to show and it was certainly a tough old heavy aircraft [Music] [Music]

Channel: DroneScapes

Views: 367,255

Keywords: bristol beaufighter, beaufighter whispering death, bristol beaufighter documentary, beaufighter, beaufighter documentary, bristol beaufighter whispering death, raaf beaufighter squadrons, australian beaufighter, raaf beaufighter, whispering death, beaufighter flying, veteran, veterans, veteran stories, veteran stories ww2, australia ww2, australia wwii, australia ww2 pacific, beaufighter raid, adKey:3-Xg6wP8wBnrop, night fighter, rAAF, ww2 aircraft, Bristol fighter

Id: ZdQKFDLo3iI

Length: 72min 3sec (4323 seconds)

Published: Sun Aug 28 2022