More of the Comrade (last for several days)
Douglas PBD-1 Invader B.1, 453 Sqd, RAAF, Kangnung, southern Korea, 1 March 1946
Douglas PBD-1 Invader B.1
The PBD-1 was the USMC version of the Douglas A-26 Invader. It featured numerous changes from the USAAF's A-26, including wing-tip fuel tanks, more powerful engines driving 4 bladed propellers and wing-mounted radar. In USMC service, the Invader was a direct replacement for the North American PBJ-1 Mitchell.
435 Sqd was the only RAAF unit to operate the PBD-1. Although a RAAF unit, 435 Sqd was one of several Australian manned squadrons to serve under RAF command for the duration of the war. Equipped with Hudsons, 453 Sqd's first campaign was the ill-fated defence of Malaya and Singapore. Forced to disband with the fall of Singapore, it was reformed in India, initially on Blenheims before more Hudsons became available. In 1943 it flew Beauforts before progressing to Beaufighters in 1944.
The Invader was taken on in mid-1945 when the squadron was ear-marked for use in the invasion of Japan, flying both maritime patrol and land attack missions. Because these misions were to be undertaken exclusively at night, the USMC midnight blue finish was retained and roundels similar to a type used by the Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific on midnight blue camouflaged aircraft was adopted. Unlike other tactical aircraft involved in Operation Downfall, these nocturnal RAAF and USMC Invaders were exempted from applying the yellow and orange invasion stripes. Like the late-war PBJs, the USMC and RAAF removed the PBD's rear turrets to save weight, drag and a crew member, as the threat from Japanese night fighters was minimal.
The Mission
With Flight Lieutenant George Barrington at the controls and Warrant Officer Ronald Barassi serving as the navigator-bombardier, Sweet Miss Lillian (named after Barassi's wife) went to war on their sixth and final mission together just after midnight on 1 March, 1946. That night, the invasion of Japan was underway, as American troops stormed beachheads on the Kanto Plains and British Commonwealth forces went ashore at Wakasa Bay. Their mission was code-named Pomegranate, being a coastal armed-reconnaissance seeking targets of opportunity. If, after a certain interval and completion of search patterns and no targets being found, and fuel and weather permitting, Pomegranate crews were instructed to attack land targets from a selection presented to the crew at their briefing. In Marine Corps terms, these lone night attacks against land targets were known as "hecklers".
After being relieved on station and finding no targets at sea as they patrolled to the south of the Wakasa Bay invasion fleet, Barrington and Barassi mounted a heckler against the airfrield at Matsugaoka. This site has been attacked in hecklers before with no retaliation, but with the invasion clearly underway the Japanese fought back this time. Using standard heckler tactics, the crew first made a bomb run on the airfiled and followed this up with a rocket attack. It was during the rocket approach that the nose of the aircraft was struck by flak, critically injuring Barassi and injuring Barrington's legs and feet. Barrington brought the damaged aircraft back to an emergency landing without a nose wheel, but it was too late for Barassi, who was found dead in the crumpled and holed nose.
The crew
Warrant Officer Ronald Barassi flew in RAF Mitchells and RAAF Beauforts before being transferred to 453 Sqd for service as a bombardier/navigator/radar operator in the unit’s PBD-1 Invaders. Before the war, he was a well-known and liked player for the Melbourne Australian rules football club. His was survived by his wife and son, Ronald Dale Barassi Jnr.
The young Barassi Jnr spent his latter teenage years living with Norm Smith, coach of the Melbourne Football Club and a former teammate of his father. He showed potential as a player and was recruited to Melbourne under the father-son rule. After compulsory military service (in the Australian Army), Barassi Jnr went on to become a football legend, playing for Melbourne before moving to Carlton as captain-coach. He later coached Melbourne, North Melbourne and Sydney, earning several VFL Premierships as player and coach and initiating tactics that were seen as revolutionary. In 1988 Barassi Jnr was listed as one of Australia’s Living Treasures.
George Barrington joined the RAAF in 1943 and, like Barassi, was trained as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. He stayed with the RAAF post-war as an intelligence officer in Japan and Southeast Asia, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader, before joining the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) 1956. For cover he worked as a journalist and writer as G.B. Barringston, becoming the Southeast Asia correspondent for The Argus newspaper from his base in Thailand. By 1960, his writing exploits extended to the first in a series of Bruce “Bluey” Howard books, which have been described as an ocker cross between Biggles and James Bond. Bluey Howard was franchised into a series of popular Australian movies, a long-running comic strip published in Australasian Post and has recently been revived into the graphic novel format. He also wrote several travel books during the 1960s and early ‘70s as part of his cover, but used a variety of pseudonyms for these titles.
In 1985, Barrington published the first of what he promised to be three autobiographies. Wings Above the Earth dealt with his early years and RAAF service. Having retired from his ASIS duties in 1975, he felt free to publish his espionage memoirs, Spy Catcher, in 1987, but the Australian Government tried to suppress the work. After a lengthy and suppressed court battle, the book was released and became an instant best seller, but has since been criticised as fraudulent. In 1990, Max Harris, literary critic for The Age newspaper, revealed the Spy Catcher trial to be the result of “a hoax". After reading a redacted version of the manuscript that lead to the trail, Harris noted that the Australian Government had been given “a fake draft of photocopied documents, photographs and notes” that was “a crude paste-up job” from which to judge the book and had been set up for “a calculated publicity stunt.” Barrington died in 1989 before this criticism came to light and the manuscript for the third instalment of his autobiography remains unpublished. David Marr's 1992 biography of Barrington, [iG.B. Barringston: A Fraudulent Life[/i], went further. Marr noted that Barrington's ASIS worked really only amounted to attending parties and bars and passing on gossip, that his travel books were full of errors and that Spy Catcher was "a work of fiction featuring a significant amount of plagiarism.” He also revealed that Barrington was behind the fake Tojo Diaries published in the Murdoch newspapers in 1979.
Curtiss SBF-4 Helldiver II
"He'll be back" C3-M, 800 NAS, HMS Emperor
South China Sea, October 1945
When HMS Emperor began its voyage to the Pacific from Britain, it and 2 other aircraft carriers were part of an experiment. With the growing power, range and load-carrying ability of Leand-Lease Hellcats and Corsairs, the Fleet Arm Arm wanted to test if carrier air groups could successfully operate in combat without the need to include two-seat combatants (such as the Barracuda, Firefly and Avenger). As the result of exercises in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, the commanders of the three carriers (HMS Emperor, HMS Shah and HMS Ruler – together dubbed the “Triple Crown Fleet”) identified the need for a “combat support” two-seater to conduct a variety of missions, including air-sea rescue, navigation lead-ship and strike-force pathfinder roles.
The requirement was evaluated at high levels whilst docked in Ceylon. During these discussions, a Canadian naval officer commented that his Navy had similar ambitions but had concluded it was prudent to add Helldivers to its carrier air wing to perform a similar range of specialist missions. It was subsequently arranged for a force of 8 SBF-4 Helldivers, built by Fairchild-Canada, to be transferred from Royal Canadian Navy stocks for service aboard the Triple Crown Fleet. The aircraft were picked up from Australia in July, 1945, along with several seconded Canadian personnel who were familiar with the Helldiver. No new unit was created; instead, a Helldiver Flight was added to the lead fighter squadron of each of the 3 carriers.
Together with the Hellcats and Corsairs of the Triple Crown Fleet, the Helldivers were active over IndoChina and Hong Kong during August and September, 1945. To replace attrition, more Helldivers were added from Canadian stocks and subsequently took part in 2 campaigns against the Japanese Home Islands, during December 1945 and again during the invasion of Honshu, in March and April 1946. Following the end of the war in May, 1946, the Hellldivers returned with their carriers to Britain, where they were retired in October, 1946.
This Helldiver is seen with a typical air-sea rescue load, including two inflatable life rafts and 8 flares underwing, with a 150 US gal fuel tank mounted in the bomb bay.
Noorduyn Norseman VI
724 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm,
HMS Speaker, British Pacific Fleet
Operation Unsaid, South China Sea off Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina, August 1945
724 NAS was a specialist unit, establsihed in February 1945 at Mascot, New South Wales, Australia, but soon moving to Nowra. Outwardly a light transport squadron tasked with establishing the carrier on-board delivery (COD) mission for the British Pacific Fleet, this acted as a cover for a more clandestine range of roles. Initially equipped with standard Beech Expediter, Noorduyn Norseman and Taylorcraft Auster aicraft for training, these aircraft were supplemented by carrier capable models during April and May, the Beech JRB-7 Expediter IV (with tailhook and folding wings), Noorduyn JA-2 Norseman VI (with tailhook) and Auster Vb (also with tailhook). Of the 27 JA-2s delivered to the Fleet Air Arm, 14 were to JA-2N standard with AI Mk XV (APS-6) radar.
724 Norsemans and Expediters began aircraft carrier operations and deployments from July, 1945. Their first major mission came during Operation Unsaid, the seizure of Binh Ba Island land the Cam Linh peninsula on the western side of Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina. This operation was a necessary step in preparation for the re-taking of Hong Kong by British Commonwealth forces, the timeline for which had been hastened by the Red Army's 9th August invasion of Manshuria and China and the rapid retreat of the Japanese Army. Wanting to beat both everyone else to Hong Kong (the Chinese Nationalists, the Chinese Communists and the Red Army), and having to do so without direct American support, British commanders saw the need for an airfield and a deep-water naval base in Indochina to provide the necessary logistic support. As the main force of the British Pacific Fleet steamed north from Australia in from 15 August, 725 NAS were already flying several Expediter IVs and Norseman VI's northward.
On 16 August, they landed aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Speaker, steaming in the South China Sea. HMS Speaker had been serving as an “logistics carrier” in support of Operation Oboe off North Borneo before being ordered north in response to the Red Army's actions. In fact, the ship was a “commando carrier”, with special forces on board from the South-East Asia Command's Small Operations Group, including Royal Marines, the No.2 Special Boast Section, the Special Air Service and the Australian Z Special Unit. Up top were Royal Marine Auster Vbs. This was the kind of carrier force that 724 NAS had always been intended to join.
From 18 August, 724 NAS aircraft flew missions over Indochina, delivering special forces personnel and their supplies via parachute in preparation for Operation Unsaid, which was successfully launched on 25 August. During the first two days and nights of the invasion, the Norseman VI depicted here and two others flew several missions under fire into the airstrip on the Cam Linh peninsula to deliver troops and supplies and perform medical evacuations.
724 NAS went on to support the British liberations of Hong Kong and Singapore, additional Allied operations in Indochina, further Operation Oboe actions in the Dutch East Indies and missions against the Japanese home islands before, during and after the Y-Day invasion of Honshu. With their highly trained crews, radar, dark sea blue all-over camouflage and carrier capability, the aircraft of 724 NAS were especially appreciated for their night infiltration work.
Hawker Tempest V(FE)
Phoebe, 83 Sqdn, RAAF, Parachup Khiri Khan, Siam, February 1946
Personal mount of F/L Peter Boyd
The plane
With the end of hostilities between the European Axis nations and the western Allies in August 1944, the RAAF was able to disband several fighter squadrons operating in Europe and re-deploy forces against Japan. Taking the opportunity to re-equip, an order was placed for a Far East version of the Tempest V, the Tempest V(FE) featuring modifications to make it suitable for long-range missions. The aircraft were sent to Ceylon where the RAAF was preparing to participate in Operation Zipper, the Allied invasion of Japanese occupied Malaya.
One of the squadrons to receive the Tempest V(FE) in Ceylon was 83 Sqdn. This unit had previously flown Boomerangs in the Northern Territory and Queensland, but in early 1945 it was briefly disbanded before standing up again in Ceylon. As part of the Zipper plan, training included simulated take-offs from aircraft carriers, as they were to fly directly from carriers to an airstrip near the invasion beach. 83 Sqdn was to fly from HMS Begum, but this was damaged by a submerged object just before going abound and was replaced by the USN escort carrier, USS Block Island. USS Block Island had just come off supporting operations in the Dutch East Indies and was porting in Ceylon at the time; her aircraft were removed and replaced with the RAAF Tempests.
In transit to Malaya, the squadron received orders to camouflage their aircraft, which up to then wore a polished metal finish. The only suitable paint available on Block Island was the US Navy standard midnight blue, so this was applied to the upper and side surfaces and the squadron codes changed from black to white. The departure from the carrier was delayed due to the slow expansion of the beachhead at Port Sweetenham. During this time, the squadron’s resident artist, Flight Lieutenant Peter Boyd, adorned the Tempests with large girlie images. This combination of midnight blue and Peter Boyd’s “blue” artwork earned the squadron the “Blue Peter” nickname; also, their Squadron Leader was S/L George Peters.
Once ashore on 2 September, 1945, 83 Sqn performed air defence and close air support missions. As the front line moved away and other airfields became available, the unit moved forward, initially in the direction of Singapore but in early November they deployed to Butterworth in northern Malaya. Here they performed long-range mission into Siam, including fighter sweeps and escorting bombers and transports supporting armed Thai resistance fighters against the Japanese. From February, 1946, until the end of the war in May, they were based at Parachup Khiri Khan in Siam and mounted operations in Siam and across the Gulf of Siam into Japanese occupied French Indo China.
The pilot
Peter Boyd had served with 78 Sqdn flying Kittyhawks in New Guinea before transfer to 83 Sqdn in Ceylon. By the end of the war, Boyd was credited with 7 aerial kills (2 Oscars, 1 Zero, 1 Edna, 1 Emily, 1 Lorna, 1 Tabby), plus a share in the sinking of 3 Japanese ships.~
After the war, Peter Boyd (described by critic Robert Hughes as “the least talented of the Boyd family artistic dynasty”) made a name for himself as a painter and photographer of nudes. In 1954, one of Boyd’s exhibitions was closed down by Queensland police on the grounds of “obscenity”; a similar run-in with Victoria’s Vice Squad saw several pieces of art removed from an exhibition in 1956. Along with former S/L George Peters (often described as a “colourful racing identity and night club owner”), Boyd pioneered erotic entertainment (including nude body painting and drag queen shows) in Sydney’s Kings Cross during the 1960s. Both men were mentioned in royal commissions into police and political corruption in Qeensland and New South Wales during the 1980s and 90s; Boyd for his parties and orgies and Peters for his black market activities and encouragement of the “slab economy”.
The publication of Peter Boyd’s autobiography, Blue Peter, in 1979 caused a stir. He outed himself as bi-sexual and commented favourably on “the many” Australian homosexual servicemen he had met during the WW2. This saw him forced to resign his membership from the RSL (Returned Services League of Australia), whose policy on such matters at the time where best summed up by outspoken Victorian RSL President, Bruce Ruxton: “There are no poofters in fox holes.” In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald following his “expulsion” from the RSL, he commented that “what really makes the likes of Ruxton mad is that I’m an ace. I’m a bona-fide war hero. Ruxton was a cook who never saw combat, never had to kill a man and never rose about the rank of Private.” He drew more ire when, in 1980, he became a patron of the RSL (Rainbow Services League), an advocacy and support organisation for gay and lesbian current and past service personnel. He repeatedly wore his RAAF dress uniform and campaign medals (plus a fictional Rainbow Campaign ribbon of his own design) on Rainbow Services League floats during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Boyd’s rainbow ribbon design has gone on to be a symbol of the GBLT cause.
Peter Boyd died in 1998 and George Peters in 1991.
Apparently, Phoebe was Peter Boyd's pre-war muse and sometime nude model.
(and now an Post-WWII model)
McDonnell Douglas A-4H Skyhawk
a/c IE1083, 8 Squadron, Indian Air Force
Personal mount of Flying Officer VK Heble
Bareilly, India, 8 December 1971
India had been in negotiations with the US Government with the intent to acquire the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk from 1964, well before the nation joined the UN and SEATO. The original discussions centred around the acquisition of a combination of A-4s and the F-8s for the Indian Navy, which was seeking replacements for its A-1 and FJ-3 fleets. Douglas was quick to pitch the A-4 to the Indian Air Force once India’s UN membership was sealed, aggressively lobbying Indian politicians in a somewhat scandalous promotions campaign. In defiance of Air Force brass, who were seeking major purchases of the Avro Canada Buccaneer and McDonnell F-4 Phantom II to fulfil ground attack duties, the Indian government developed a joint requirement for the A-4 resulting in both services receiving aircraft built to a common standard. 132 A-4H single-seater and TA-4H two-seaters were delivered to India, the Air Force receiving 96 and the Navy 36, although the Navy later received an additional 24 A-4Hs from Air Force stocks during the 1970s. Ironically, the Air Force still went on to purchase 40 Buccaneer Series 51s and 88 F-4E/RF-4E Phantoms IIs and added a further 116 A-4N Skyhawks to their fleet.
The first A-4H Skyhawks were delivered to India in 1968. Based on the A-4F, these were similar to Australia’s A-4Gs and contrary to popular opinion the H designation did not stand for Hindu, but simply identified the next variant on from the G. From 1970 to 1982 the A-4H fleet was used extensively on combat deployments on behalf of the UN and SEATO. Their most heralded operations, though, were missions flown during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the Skyhawk performing close air support and interdiction missions from land and sea against targets in both East and West Pakistan.
This A-4H, IE1083 of 8 Squadron, is depicted as seen in photographs before a mission against Pakistan’s Murid Airbase on 8 December 1971. The squadron was formed in 1943 and flew the Vengeance, Spitfire, Bijalee, and Sabre before converting on to the A-4H in 1969. On 8 December 1971, four 8 Squadron planes lead by Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj were dispatched on the unit’s third raid of the war against the Pakistani Air Force based at Murid. Each Skyhawk was loaded with three Mk.16 1,000 lb fragmentation bombs fuzed for air bursts on a centreline multiple ejector rack and two external fuel tanks on the inner wing pylons. The A-4s of Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj and his wingman Flying Officer VK Heble were armed with Mk.82 500 lb bombs with fuze extenders on the outer wings, while Flight Lieutenant Karambaya and Flying Officer Deoskar flew with SNEB 68mm rocket pods in these positions. Forming two pairs, each pair approached Murid from a different direction and their time over the target was separated by 30 seconds. Karambaya and Deoskar were the first in, their role being to suppress air defences; a mission they had previously accomplished on the second of the squadron’s three attacks. Bharadwaj and Heble had also visited the base before, using Mk.14 1,000 lb high explosive bombs against a fuel storage site on the first of the unit’s three missions against Murid, but this time their targets were a series of revetments housing Pakistani Air Force F-104G Starfighters.
All four A-4Hs returned to base safely and without damage and Indian post-strike analysis counted two Starfighters as probably destroyed with another damaged, with one fuel truck and a Bofors 40mm ack-ack site destroyed. It wasn’t until the 2018 release of the book "In The Ring and On Its Feet - Pakistan Air Force in the 1971 Indo-Pak war” by Pakistan's premier military aviation historian Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail (retd.) that the full extent of the raid’s success was publicly revealed. Five F-104G Starfighters of Pakistan’s 15 Squadron had been destroyed or otherwise damaged beyond repair by Bharadwaj and Heble’s bombs, while the effects of the air defence suppression had destroyed not just the Bofors site and a fuel truck, but also resulted in a UH-H helicopter being gutted. Tufail noted that that two of the Bofors gunners were killed and in that nine Pakistani personnel were injured.
Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail’s book also shed new light on an incident related to this attack on Murid. Flying ahead of the Skyhawks were two F-4Es of 31 Squadron and two Mirage IIICINs of 15 Squadron. Using mixed fighter force tactics to counter the expected Pakistani interceptors, the F-4Es penetrated Pakistani airspace at medium altitude while the Mirages ingressed at low altitude. Encountering a pair of patrolling Starfighters, the Phantom II crews drew their opponents into a trap for the Mirages to use their AIM-9F Sidewinders to engage the enemy. In the ensuing battle Flight Lieutenant Sunil Chhetri was credited with destroying one F-104G while the probable claim by his wingman Flying Officer Jarnail Singh was not confirmed. Tufail’s account of the incident reveals that the two Starfighters were actually Iranian F-104S aircraft, Iran’s 15 Fighter Squadron having deployed to Pakistan to bolster the nation’s air defences. Chhetri’s confirmed claim was flown by Captain Masoud Shojaei and Singh’s unconfirmed probable was an actual, the damaged F-104S being abandoned by its pilot, Major Ali Daei, about two minutes after disengaging. Both Iranian pilots ejected and survived the encounter.
A-4H IE1083 remained in frontline service until 1981, when it was retired from 20 Squadron as they upgraded to the Tornado IDS. In the meantime it had been upgraded to bring it up to a similar standard as the A-4N, the 20mm Colt cannon being replaced by 30mm DEFAs, the N’s “camel” avionics hump, squared-off horizontal and vertical tail surfaces, extended jet pipe and braking chute being added and a Hughes Angle Rate Bombing System installed. The plane flew several combat campaigns beyond 1971, seeing action with 8 and 20 squadrons in South East Asia from 1973 to 1975 and returning to the theatre in 1979 following Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia. Lightened, with the avionics hump and armament removed, IE1083 was used for training duties and was seen undertaking target towing and dissimilar air combat sorties between 1985 and 1992, after which it was stripped for spares and broken up.
Douglas PBD-1 Invader B.1, 453 Sqd, RAAF, Kangnung, southern Korea, 1 March 1946
Douglas PBD-1 Invader B.1
The PBD-1 was the USMC version of the Douglas A-26 Invader. It featured numerous changes from the USAAF's A-26, including wing-tip fuel tanks, more powerful engines driving 4 bladed propellers and wing-mounted radar. In USMC service, the Invader was a direct replacement for the North American PBJ-1 Mitchell.
435 Sqd was the only RAAF unit to operate the PBD-1. Although a RAAF unit, 435 Sqd was one of several Australian manned squadrons to serve under RAF command for the duration of the war. Equipped with Hudsons, 453 Sqd's first campaign was the ill-fated defence of Malaya and Singapore. Forced to disband with the fall of Singapore, it was reformed in India, initially on Blenheims before more Hudsons became available. In 1943 it flew Beauforts before progressing to Beaufighters in 1944.
The Invader was taken on in mid-1945 when the squadron was ear-marked for use in the invasion of Japan, flying both maritime patrol and land attack missions. Because these misions were to be undertaken exclusively at night, the USMC midnight blue finish was retained and roundels similar to a type used by the Fleet Air Arm in the Pacific on midnight blue camouflaged aircraft was adopted. Unlike other tactical aircraft involved in Operation Downfall, these nocturnal RAAF and USMC Invaders were exempted from applying the yellow and orange invasion stripes. Like the late-war PBJs, the USMC and RAAF removed the PBD's rear turrets to save weight, drag and a crew member, as the threat from Japanese night fighters was minimal.
The Mission
With Flight Lieutenant George Barrington at the controls and Warrant Officer Ronald Barassi serving as the navigator-bombardier, Sweet Miss Lillian (named after Barassi's wife) went to war on their sixth and final mission together just after midnight on 1 March, 1946. That night, the invasion of Japan was underway, as American troops stormed beachheads on the Kanto Plains and British Commonwealth forces went ashore at Wakasa Bay. Their mission was code-named Pomegranate, being a coastal armed-reconnaissance seeking targets of opportunity. If, after a certain interval and completion of search patterns and no targets being found, and fuel and weather permitting, Pomegranate crews were instructed to attack land targets from a selection presented to the crew at their briefing. In Marine Corps terms, these lone night attacks against land targets were known as "hecklers".
After being relieved on station and finding no targets at sea as they patrolled to the south of the Wakasa Bay invasion fleet, Barrington and Barassi mounted a heckler against the airfrield at Matsugaoka. This site has been attacked in hecklers before with no retaliation, but with the invasion clearly underway the Japanese fought back this time. Using standard heckler tactics, the crew first made a bomb run on the airfiled and followed this up with a rocket attack. It was during the rocket approach that the nose of the aircraft was struck by flak, critically injuring Barassi and injuring Barrington's legs and feet. Barrington brought the damaged aircraft back to an emergency landing without a nose wheel, but it was too late for Barassi, who was found dead in the crumpled and holed nose.
The crew
Warrant Officer Ronald Barassi flew in RAF Mitchells and RAAF Beauforts before being transferred to 453 Sqd for service as a bombardier/navigator/radar operator in the unit’s PBD-1 Invaders. Before the war, he was a well-known and liked player for the Melbourne Australian rules football club. His was survived by his wife and son, Ronald Dale Barassi Jnr.
The young Barassi Jnr spent his latter teenage years living with Norm Smith, coach of the Melbourne Football Club and a former teammate of his father. He showed potential as a player and was recruited to Melbourne under the father-son rule. After compulsory military service (in the Australian Army), Barassi Jnr went on to become a football legend, playing for Melbourne before moving to Carlton as captain-coach. He later coached Melbourne, North Melbourne and Sydney, earning several VFL Premierships as player and coach and initiating tactics that were seen as revolutionary. In 1988 Barassi Jnr was listed as one of Australia’s Living Treasures.
George Barrington joined the RAAF in 1943 and, like Barassi, was trained as part of the Empire Air Training Scheme. He stayed with the RAAF post-war as an intelligence officer in Japan and Southeast Asia, rising to the rank of Squadron Leader, before joining the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) 1956. For cover he worked as a journalist and writer as G.B. Barringston, becoming the Southeast Asia correspondent for The Argus newspaper from his base in Thailand. By 1960, his writing exploits extended to the first in a series of Bruce “Bluey” Howard books, which have been described as an ocker cross between Biggles and James Bond. Bluey Howard was franchised into a series of popular Australian movies, a long-running comic strip published in Australasian Post and has recently been revived into the graphic novel format. He also wrote several travel books during the 1960s and early ‘70s as part of his cover, but used a variety of pseudonyms for these titles.
In 1985, Barrington published the first of what he promised to be three autobiographies. Wings Above the Earth dealt with his early years and RAAF service. Having retired from his ASIS duties in 1975, he felt free to publish his espionage memoirs, Spy Catcher, in 1987, but the Australian Government tried to suppress the work. After a lengthy and suppressed court battle, the book was released and became an instant best seller, but has since been criticised as fraudulent. In 1990, Max Harris, literary critic for The Age newspaper, revealed the Spy Catcher trial to be the result of “a hoax". After reading a redacted version of the manuscript that lead to the trail, Harris noted that the Australian Government had been given “a fake draft of photocopied documents, photographs and notes” that was “a crude paste-up job” from which to judge the book and had been set up for “a calculated publicity stunt.” Barrington died in 1989 before this criticism came to light and the manuscript for the third instalment of his autobiography remains unpublished. David Marr's 1992 biography of Barrington, [iG.B. Barringston: A Fraudulent Life[/i], went further. Marr noted that Barrington's ASIS worked really only amounted to attending parties and bars and passing on gossip, that his travel books were full of errors and that Spy Catcher was "a work of fiction featuring a significant amount of plagiarism.” He also revealed that Barrington was behind the fake Tojo Diaries published in the Murdoch newspapers in 1979.
Curtiss SBF-4 Helldiver II
"He'll be back" C3-M, 800 NAS, HMS Emperor
South China Sea, October 1945
When HMS Emperor began its voyage to the Pacific from Britain, it and 2 other aircraft carriers were part of an experiment. With the growing power, range and load-carrying ability of Leand-Lease Hellcats and Corsairs, the Fleet Arm Arm wanted to test if carrier air groups could successfully operate in combat without the need to include two-seat combatants (such as the Barracuda, Firefly and Avenger). As the result of exercises in the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean, the commanders of the three carriers (HMS Emperor, HMS Shah and HMS Ruler – together dubbed the “Triple Crown Fleet”) identified the need for a “combat support” two-seater to conduct a variety of missions, including air-sea rescue, navigation lead-ship and strike-force pathfinder roles.
The requirement was evaluated at high levels whilst docked in Ceylon. During these discussions, a Canadian naval officer commented that his Navy had similar ambitions but had concluded it was prudent to add Helldivers to its carrier air wing to perform a similar range of specialist missions. It was subsequently arranged for a force of 8 SBF-4 Helldivers, built by Fairchild-Canada, to be transferred from Royal Canadian Navy stocks for service aboard the Triple Crown Fleet. The aircraft were picked up from Australia in July, 1945, along with several seconded Canadian personnel who were familiar with the Helldiver. No new unit was created; instead, a Helldiver Flight was added to the lead fighter squadron of each of the 3 carriers.
Together with the Hellcats and Corsairs of the Triple Crown Fleet, the Helldivers were active over IndoChina and Hong Kong during August and September, 1945. To replace attrition, more Helldivers were added from Canadian stocks and subsequently took part in 2 campaigns against the Japanese Home Islands, during December 1945 and again during the invasion of Honshu, in March and April 1946. Following the end of the war in May, 1946, the Hellldivers returned with their carriers to Britain, where they were retired in October, 1946.
This Helldiver is seen with a typical air-sea rescue load, including two inflatable life rafts and 8 flares underwing, with a 150 US gal fuel tank mounted in the bomb bay.
Noorduyn Norseman VI
724 Naval Air Squadron, Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm,
HMS Speaker, British Pacific Fleet
Operation Unsaid, South China Sea off Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina, August 1945
724 NAS was a specialist unit, establsihed in February 1945 at Mascot, New South Wales, Australia, but soon moving to Nowra. Outwardly a light transport squadron tasked with establishing the carrier on-board delivery (COD) mission for the British Pacific Fleet, this acted as a cover for a more clandestine range of roles. Initially equipped with standard Beech Expediter, Noorduyn Norseman and Taylorcraft Auster aicraft for training, these aircraft were supplemented by carrier capable models during April and May, the Beech JRB-7 Expediter IV (with tailhook and folding wings), Noorduyn JA-2 Norseman VI (with tailhook) and Auster Vb (also with tailhook). Of the 27 JA-2s delivered to the Fleet Air Arm, 14 were to JA-2N standard with AI Mk XV (APS-6) radar.
724 Norsemans and Expediters began aircraft carrier operations and deployments from July, 1945. Their first major mission came during Operation Unsaid, the seizure of Binh Ba Island land the Cam Linh peninsula on the western side of Cam Ranh Bay, Indochina. This operation was a necessary step in preparation for the re-taking of Hong Kong by British Commonwealth forces, the timeline for which had been hastened by the Red Army's 9th August invasion of Manshuria and China and the rapid retreat of the Japanese Army. Wanting to beat both everyone else to Hong Kong (the Chinese Nationalists, the Chinese Communists and the Red Army), and having to do so without direct American support, British commanders saw the need for an airfield and a deep-water naval base in Indochina to provide the necessary logistic support. As the main force of the British Pacific Fleet steamed north from Australia in from 15 August, 725 NAS were already flying several Expediter IVs and Norseman VI's northward.
On 16 August, they landed aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Speaker, steaming in the South China Sea. HMS Speaker had been serving as an “logistics carrier” in support of Operation Oboe off North Borneo before being ordered north in response to the Red Army's actions. In fact, the ship was a “commando carrier”, with special forces on board from the South-East Asia Command's Small Operations Group, including Royal Marines, the No.2 Special Boast Section, the Special Air Service and the Australian Z Special Unit. Up top were Royal Marine Auster Vbs. This was the kind of carrier force that 724 NAS had always been intended to join.
From 18 August, 724 NAS aircraft flew missions over Indochina, delivering special forces personnel and their supplies via parachute in preparation for Operation Unsaid, which was successfully launched on 25 August. During the first two days and nights of the invasion, the Norseman VI depicted here and two others flew several missions under fire into the airstrip on the Cam Linh peninsula to deliver troops and supplies and perform medical evacuations.
724 NAS went on to support the British liberations of Hong Kong and Singapore, additional Allied operations in Indochina, further Operation Oboe actions in the Dutch East Indies and missions against the Japanese home islands before, during and after the Y-Day invasion of Honshu. With their highly trained crews, radar, dark sea blue all-over camouflage and carrier capability, the aircraft of 724 NAS were especially appreciated for their night infiltration work.
Hawker Tempest V(FE)
Phoebe, 83 Sqdn, RAAF, Parachup Khiri Khan, Siam, February 1946
Personal mount of F/L Peter Boyd
The plane
With the end of hostilities between the European Axis nations and the western Allies in August 1944, the RAAF was able to disband several fighter squadrons operating in Europe and re-deploy forces against Japan. Taking the opportunity to re-equip, an order was placed for a Far East version of the Tempest V, the Tempest V(FE) featuring modifications to make it suitable for long-range missions. The aircraft were sent to Ceylon where the RAAF was preparing to participate in Operation Zipper, the Allied invasion of Japanese occupied Malaya.
One of the squadrons to receive the Tempest V(FE) in Ceylon was 83 Sqdn. This unit had previously flown Boomerangs in the Northern Territory and Queensland, but in early 1945 it was briefly disbanded before standing up again in Ceylon. As part of the Zipper plan, training included simulated take-offs from aircraft carriers, as they were to fly directly from carriers to an airstrip near the invasion beach. 83 Sqdn was to fly from HMS Begum, but this was damaged by a submerged object just before going abound and was replaced by the USN escort carrier, USS Block Island. USS Block Island had just come off supporting operations in the Dutch East Indies and was porting in Ceylon at the time; her aircraft were removed and replaced with the RAAF Tempests.
In transit to Malaya, the squadron received orders to camouflage their aircraft, which up to then wore a polished metal finish. The only suitable paint available on Block Island was the US Navy standard midnight blue, so this was applied to the upper and side surfaces and the squadron codes changed from black to white. The departure from the carrier was delayed due to the slow expansion of the beachhead at Port Sweetenham. During this time, the squadron’s resident artist, Flight Lieutenant Peter Boyd, adorned the Tempests with large girlie images. This combination of midnight blue and Peter Boyd’s “blue” artwork earned the squadron the “Blue Peter” nickname; also, their Squadron Leader was S/L George Peters.
Once ashore on 2 September, 1945, 83 Sqn performed air defence and close air support missions. As the front line moved away and other airfields became available, the unit moved forward, initially in the direction of Singapore but in early November they deployed to Butterworth in northern Malaya. Here they performed long-range mission into Siam, including fighter sweeps and escorting bombers and transports supporting armed Thai resistance fighters against the Japanese. From February, 1946, until the end of the war in May, they were based at Parachup Khiri Khan in Siam and mounted operations in Siam and across the Gulf of Siam into Japanese occupied French Indo China.
The pilot
Peter Boyd had served with 78 Sqdn flying Kittyhawks in New Guinea before transfer to 83 Sqdn in Ceylon. By the end of the war, Boyd was credited with 7 aerial kills (2 Oscars, 1 Zero, 1 Edna, 1 Emily, 1 Lorna, 1 Tabby), plus a share in the sinking of 3 Japanese ships.~
After the war, Peter Boyd (described by critic Robert Hughes as “the least talented of the Boyd family artistic dynasty”) made a name for himself as a painter and photographer of nudes. In 1954, one of Boyd’s exhibitions was closed down by Queensland police on the grounds of “obscenity”; a similar run-in with Victoria’s Vice Squad saw several pieces of art removed from an exhibition in 1956. Along with former S/L George Peters (often described as a “colourful racing identity and night club owner”), Boyd pioneered erotic entertainment (including nude body painting and drag queen shows) in Sydney’s Kings Cross during the 1960s. Both men were mentioned in royal commissions into police and political corruption in Qeensland and New South Wales during the 1980s and 90s; Boyd for his parties and orgies and Peters for his black market activities and encouragement of the “slab economy”.
The publication of Peter Boyd’s autobiography, Blue Peter, in 1979 caused a stir. He outed himself as bi-sexual and commented favourably on “the many” Australian homosexual servicemen he had met during the WW2. This saw him forced to resign his membership from the RSL (Returned Services League of Australia), whose policy on such matters at the time where best summed up by outspoken Victorian RSL President, Bruce Ruxton: “There are no poofters in fox holes.” In an interview with the Sydney Morning Herald following his “expulsion” from the RSL, he commented that “what really makes the likes of Ruxton mad is that I’m an ace. I’m a bona-fide war hero. Ruxton was a cook who never saw combat, never had to kill a man and never rose about the rank of Private.” He drew more ire when, in 1980, he became a patron of the RSL (Rainbow Services League), an advocacy and support organisation for gay and lesbian current and past service personnel. He repeatedly wore his RAAF dress uniform and campaign medals (plus a fictional Rainbow Campaign ribbon of his own design) on Rainbow Services League floats during the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade. Boyd’s rainbow ribbon design has gone on to be a symbol of the GBLT cause.
Peter Boyd died in 1998 and George Peters in 1991.
Apparently, Phoebe was Peter Boyd's pre-war muse and sometime nude model.
(and now an Post-WWII model)
McDonnell Douglas A-4H Skyhawk
a/c IE1083, 8 Squadron, Indian Air Force
Personal mount of Flying Officer VK Heble
Bareilly, India, 8 December 1971
India had been in negotiations with the US Government with the intent to acquire the Douglas A-4 Skyhawk from 1964, well before the nation joined the UN and SEATO. The original discussions centred around the acquisition of a combination of A-4s and the F-8s for the Indian Navy, which was seeking replacements for its A-1 and FJ-3 fleets. Douglas was quick to pitch the A-4 to the Indian Air Force once India’s UN membership was sealed, aggressively lobbying Indian politicians in a somewhat scandalous promotions campaign. In defiance of Air Force brass, who were seeking major purchases of the Avro Canada Buccaneer and McDonnell F-4 Phantom II to fulfil ground attack duties, the Indian government developed a joint requirement for the A-4 resulting in both services receiving aircraft built to a common standard. 132 A-4H single-seater and TA-4H two-seaters were delivered to India, the Air Force receiving 96 and the Navy 36, although the Navy later received an additional 24 A-4Hs from Air Force stocks during the 1970s. Ironically, the Air Force still went on to purchase 40 Buccaneer Series 51s and 88 F-4E/RF-4E Phantoms IIs and added a further 116 A-4N Skyhawks to their fleet.
The first A-4H Skyhawks were delivered to India in 1968. Based on the A-4F, these were similar to Australia’s A-4Gs and contrary to popular opinion the H designation did not stand for Hindu, but simply identified the next variant on from the G. From 1970 to 1982 the A-4H fleet was used extensively on combat deployments on behalf of the UN and SEATO. Their most heralded operations, though, were missions flown during the 1971 Indo-Pakistani War, the Skyhawk performing close air support and interdiction missions from land and sea against targets in both East and West Pakistan.
This A-4H, IE1083 of 8 Squadron, is depicted as seen in photographs before a mission against Pakistan’s Murid Airbase on 8 December 1971. The squadron was formed in 1943 and flew the Vengeance, Spitfire, Bijalee, and Sabre before converting on to the A-4H in 1969. On 8 December 1971, four 8 Squadron planes lead by Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj were dispatched on the unit’s third raid of the war against the Pakistani Air Force based at Murid. Each Skyhawk was loaded with three Mk.16 1,000 lb fragmentation bombs fuzed for air bursts on a centreline multiple ejector rack and two external fuel tanks on the inner wing pylons. The A-4s of Squadron Leader RN Bharadwaj and his wingman Flying Officer VK Heble were armed with Mk.82 500 lb bombs with fuze extenders on the outer wings, while Flight Lieutenant Karambaya and Flying Officer Deoskar flew with SNEB 68mm rocket pods in these positions. Forming two pairs, each pair approached Murid from a different direction and their time over the target was separated by 30 seconds. Karambaya and Deoskar were the first in, their role being to suppress air defences; a mission they had previously accomplished on the second of the squadron’s three attacks. Bharadwaj and Heble had also visited the base before, using Mk.14 1,000 lb high explosive bombs against a fuel storage site on the first of the unit’s three missions against Murid, but this time their targets were a series of revetments housing Pakistani Air Force F-104G Starfighters.
All four A-4Hs returned to base safely and without damage and Indian post-strike analysis counted two Starfighters as probably destroyed with another damaged, with one fuel truck and a Bofors 40mm ack-ack site destroyed. It wasn’t until the 2018 release of the book "In The Ring and On Its Feet - Pakistan Air Force in the 1971 Indo-Pak war” by Pakistan's premier military aviation historian Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail (retd.) that the full extent of the raid’s success was publicly revealed. Five F-104G Starfighters of Pakistan’s 15 Squadron had been destroyed or otherwise damaged beyond repair by Bharadwaj and Heble’s bombs, while the effects of the air defence suppression had destroyed not just the Bofors site and a fuel truck, but also resulted in a UH-H helicopter being gutted. Tufail noted that that two of the Bofors gunners were killed and in that nine Pakistani personnel were injured.
Air Commodore M Kaiser Tufail’s book also shed new light on an incident related to this attack on Murid. Flying ahead of the Skyhawks were two F-4Es of 31 Squadron and two Mirage IIICINs of 15 Squadron. Using mixed fighter force tactics to counter the expected Pakistani interceptors, the F-4Es penetrated Pakistani airspace at medium altitude while the Mirages ingressed at low altitude. Encountering a pair of patrolling Starfighters, the Phantom II crews drew their opponents into a trap for the Mirages to use their AIM-9F Sidewinders to engage the enemy. In the ensuing battle Flight Lieutenant Sunil Chhetri was credited with destroying one F-104G while the probable claim by his wingman Flying Officer Jarnail Singh was not confirmed. Tufail’s account of the incident reveals that the two Starfighters were actually Iranian F-104S aircraft, Iran’s 15 Fighter Squadron having deployed to Pakistan to bolster the nation’s air defences. Chhetri’s confirmed claim was flown by Captain Masoud Shojaei and Singh’s unconfirmed probable was an actual, the damaged F-104S being abandoned by its pilot, Major Ali Daei, about two minutes after disengaging. Both Iranian pilots ejected and survived the encounter.
A-4H IE1083 remained in frontline service until 1981, when it was retired from 20 Squadron as they upgraded to the Tornado IDS. In the meantime it had been upgraded to bring it up to a similar standard as the A-4N, the 20mm Colt cannon being replaced by 30mm DEFAs, the N’s “camel” avionics hump, squared-off horizontal and vertical tail surfaces, extended jet pipe and braking chute being added and a Hughes Angle Rate Bombing System installed. The plane flew several combat campaigns beyond 1971, seeing action with 8 and 20 squadrons in South East Asia from 1973 to 1975 and returning to the theatre in 1979 following Vietnam’s invasion of Cambodia. Lightened, with the avionics hump and armament removed, IE1083 was used for training duties and was seen undertaking target towing and dissimilar air combat sorties between 1985 and 1992, after which it was stripped for spares and broken up.