Terry Sullivan's RAAF Oboe 4 DAP Hurribomber
DAP Hurricane XXV, 4 Squadron, RAAF, Taman Baru, Java, Netherlands East Indies, January 1946
pilot: Terry Sullivan
This aircraft was the personal mount of then Flight Seargent Terry Sullivan, who later became famous as one of The Fighting Sullivans in a popular 1967 book (written by Terry) and 1976 movie. During his first combat tour, with 4 Squadron flying Boomerangs in New Guinea, Sullivan was forced to bail out over northern New Guinea and made an epic 3 week walk back to Allied lines. When he finally made contact with Australian troops, he was wearing the remains of his uniform as a loin cloth, rags on his feet, and a Japanese Army hat; he was carrying an Japanese machine gun and a packet of Japanese cigarettes (souvenired from an encounter with a Japanese soldiers). After recovering his health, he served as an instructor pilot before returning to combat with 4 Sqd in late 1945 as they re-equipped with DAP Hurricane XXVs and moved north to participate in Oboe 4, the Allied invasion of Japanese-occupied Java. He was given a medical discharge in April 1945 (he was said to have gone troppo). Sullivan was restless in civilian life and became involved in criminal black-marketeering and spent several years behind bars at her majesty’s pleasure.
Other members of the Sullivan family featured in The Fighting Sullivans included Terry’s parents, two brothers and sister. His father Dave (a WW1 veteran and played in the movie by Rod Taylor) was a foreman for at the CUB brewery in Melbourne and the movie features several product placements of Victoria Bitter (VB). The family matriarch Grace (played by Lorraine Bayly) by was killed in London by a V1 in June 1944 whilst on a mission to identify her long-lost son, John; he had joined the medical corps and been thought lost at sea in the Mediterranean during 1942. Actually, John (played by John Howard) had been rescued by locals and ended up fighting with Yugoslavian Partisans before being repatriated to England, injured and suffering trauma related amnesia. Tom Sullivan (played by Graeme Blundell) was more gun-ho than his elder brother John and served with the Australian Army in Greece, North Africa, New Guinea and Borneo, where he was killed by a surrendering Japanese soldier in October 1945 who was holding a hand-grenade behind his back. Youngest sibling, Kitty (played by Anne-Louise Lambert), became a nurse during the war and married a war correspondent (played by Jack Thompson) who committed suicide in September 1945, upset at the horror of the atomic bombings of Japan. The film ends with Dave’s death as he is run over by Terry during a failed attempt to deter him from driving away in a stolen car and evading police capture. Darkly melodramatic but closely biographical, the movie version was box-office poison, but despite popular rejection it was critically acclaimed and has become a cult classic. The film was directed by Bruce Beresford and Terry Sullivan was played by John Jarratt.
Oboe 4 was one of a series of Allied invasion operations planned for the Indonesian archipelago. The Americans were not in favour of invading Java, but the Dutch and their British colonial allies saw the necessity of invading Java as intelligence of collaboration between Indonesian nationalists and the Japanese became available. In late December, 1945, Tokyo instructed the Japanese occupation forces in the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) to accept Indonesian independence should the Japanese home islands be invaded. They were then to fight alongside the Indonesians against the Allies. This message was intercepted and decoded by the Allies, who were also aware that the nationalists were planning to declare Indonesian independence before the arrival of the Allies. Oboe 4 was thus brought forward to enforce Dutch colonial rule before the nationalists could establish control. The January 14 invasion of Java precipitated the Indonesian declaration of nationhood the next day and the Japanese and the Indonesians fought alongside in Java for the next month before full Allied control was established.
The Department of Aircraft Production (DAP) manufactured 801 Hurricanes between March 1940 and January 1945. The original model, similar to the Hurricane I, was the Hurricane XX. The Hurricane XXI was a one-off prototype replacing the Rolls-Royce Merlin with a CAC-built Twin Wasp as an insurance against a shortage of Merlins. The XXII was similar to the Hurricane II and featured a pair of 20mm cannon. The XXIII was similar, but used Packard-built Merlins and replaced the .303 cal machine guns with .50 cal Brownings. The XXIV was a long-ranged version of the XXIII with extra internal fuel. The final version, the XXV, was built specifically for the attack role and used the Merlin 27 powerplant, featured four 20mm cannon and could carry RP3 rockets.
4 Squadron was equipped with new Hurricane XXVs (taken from storage at Laverton) at a time when other RAAF front-line squadrons had moved on to more modern types and by February 1946 was the only RAAF combat unit still flying Hurricanes. 4 Sqd remained on the type until the Japanese surrender in May, 1946, operating against enemy forces in the NEI and disbanded in July. Sullivan’s aircraft is depicted here as photographed at Taman Baru, near Serang on Java, during the Battle of Jakarta.
Miss Virginia on the Eastern Front
Hawker Typhoon 1B
Miss Virginia, 469th Fighter Squadron, Joint Anglo-American Fighter Wing, Pyriatyn Socialist Republic, Socialist Union, 22 June, 1944
469th Squadron was one of three squadrons formed in late 1941 to train pilots and ground crew from the Socialist Union (S.U.) in the operation of American Lead-Lease fighters. The 469 trained Reds on the P-39, while sister squadrons 467 trained with the P-40 and 468 on the P-50. By the end of 1943 this training was no longer required, but instead of leaving the Reds to their own devices on the Eastern Front, the USAAF applied President Roosevelt’s “war on all fronts” strategy to form Eastern Command and send two squadrons of fighters to join the RAF’s 153 Wing in Russia.
During the winter of 1943-44, 153 Wing laid-up in British occupied Iran to regroup and re-equip. Their Hurricane IIC and D fighter-bombers were replaced with Typhoon 1B and their Spitfire Vs with Spitfire IXs. Re-organised into the Joint Anglo-American Fighter Wing (JAAFW), the RAF reduced their commitment to the Eastern Front by two squadrons, their place being taken up by 468th (flying Spitfires) and 469th (flying Typhoons). In March, 1944, JAAFW entered combat against the Axis on the Eastern Front. By then, the Spitfire squadrons were receiving P-50Js, which were American built long-range Spitfires.
The existence of Eastern Command and the establishment of JAWF was a prelude to Operation Frantic, an USAAF shuttle bombing campaign. Several Frantic mission were flown between June and August, 1944, ending as secret negotiations between the British and Americans and the German anti-Nazi coup leaders began. JAAWF’s primary role was to “gather intelligence through combat” on Axis Eastern Europe, overflying and photographing key landmarks, potential targets and routes. To disguise this, a deception campaign was waged that saw JAAWF attack targets not associated with Frantic and used as a propaganda tool eulogising East-West co-operation in American and British newspapers and newsreels.
Miss Virginia was the personal mount of Captain James Elliott, the plane being named after his sister, Rose Marie Elliott, who was Miss Virginia in 1939 and fourth runner-up in the Miss America pageant that year. Captain Elliott had previous flown F-6A Mustangs with the 111th Tactical Reconnaissance Squadron in the Mediterranean. Like the Typhoon, the F-6A was armed with four 20mm cannon and this, along with his experience at flying armed reconnaissance missions, probably contributed to his selection for the JAAWF. Indeed, several pilots with reconnaissance and intelligence experience were recruited to the 469th for its JAAWFassignment.
The two kill markings on Miss Virginia are both Captain Elliot’s. The first was a Luftwaffe Ju-52 shot down whilst returning from an armed reconnaissance mission near Sicily in 1943. The second was a Luftwaffe Bf109G shot down over Ukraine in May, 1944.
Miss Viginia is depicted here as photographed on 22 June, 1944. The night before, Luftwaffe bombers had destroyed 47 USAAF Operation Frantic B-17s at Poltava. In reply, JAAWF conducted an attacked on airfields around Minsks where many of the Luftwaffe bombers had massed for the attack. 43 Lufwaffe aircraft were destroyed. As was usual wing JAAWF’s long-range missions, drop tanks were used (limiting the rocket load to two per wing).
JAAWF remained in the field until 17 August, 1944, when it was recalled and Eastern Command disbanded. Its men were flown back to Iran, although the fighters were flew across Axis occupied Europe to Italy without incident. By then, peace negotiations were drawing to a conclusion and relations with the Reds had completely broken down. The Americans and the British publicly stated that, as the German’s were rapidly withdrawing, shuttle bombing was no longer necessary. Therefore, JAAWF and Eastern Command, as supporting elements to Operation Frantic, were no longer needed. On 21 August, 1944, the guns fell silent across Western Europe as the Germans and the Western Allies announced their Separate Peace, what is known to the Reds as the Great Betrayal. The Reds finally defated the Germans and those nations in Eastern Europe alligned with them in May, 1946.
Yugoslavian Buffalo
Link:
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Brewster B-339F Buffalo, Royal Yugoslavian Air Force, Belgrade, 8 May 1940
Under pressure from Italy and Germany and urgently requiring new fighters, in 1939 the Yugoslavian government ordered 60 Brewster Buffaloes to supplement local manufacture of the Hawker Hurricane and the indigenous Ikarus Ik-3. 48 were shipped to Ireland and delivered across Europe in a series of ferry flights from March to early May, 1940, the last of these arriving via France and Italy on the 8th of May. Later examples were delivered directly by ship, arriving in August. The example seen, fresh from its ferry flight, is still fitted with the life raft behind the pilot that was usually removed for service.
When Germany invaded Yugoslavia on 6 April 1941, the Buffalo was the most numerous Yugoslavian fighter, but was found somewhat lacking in performance and armament. Unfortunately,a round a third were destroyed on the ground on the first day. Netherless, Kapetan 1. Razreda Todor Gojic managed to shoot down 3 Ju-87s, a Bf 109 and a Hs 126, becoming the nation's only Buffalo ace before being injured during a Luftwaffe air raid 12 April. By then, only a handful of the stubby little fighters were still airworthy and most of these were destroyed before the 17 April surrender to prevent their capture.