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By tk *Walking on the wild side of the Savannah River *The government has decided the best way to find out how many fish are in the sea is to ask charter boat captains how many their excursions are taking out *St. Simons residents fight development *Oil spill may damage Pensacola Bay habitat restoration *Environmental officials survey oil spill zone
THAM P 4.
Despite the cricis, Australians will be Australians - two anecdotes are revealing. One story is of a truckie who went to the main gate with his load, got his payment chit signed by the foreman, then sneaked out a side track with his load still aboard, then came round to the main gate again and again. And there was the Ford truckie who kept going down the runways at a snail's pace. When asked by the American construction captain why so slow, he said "I'm running - in my engine after a rebore." The Yank yelled back at him saying "Get that Ford truck going flat out, we've got plenty of motors and we'll keep putting in new ones until the job's finished - now get going," or words to that effect. McIntyre Field, as the Americans named it was a huge undertaking. The four runways each a mile in length, and the 70 miles of taxiways and roads, absorbed three months output of BHP's tar production. There were 450 buildings, including the giant hangars capable of housing the 110 foot by 70 foot Liberator bombers, and a huge 200 bed RAAF hospital complex of buildings secreted in a forest of Murray Pines, well away from the field. Overall it was spread over 8 square miles to ensure defensive dispersal of aircraft, fuel and personnel. It was disguised as much as possible by designing the accommodation buildings in the shape of normal houses and by aligning them on continuations of the streets of the town. In 16 weeks it was largely complete - the Americans poured in - over 7,000 of them were to spend time at Tocomwal. The rail - head disgorged endless amounts of men and material. Over 400 interned aliens under control of the army, provided the huge amount of labour required to handle the rail cargo at the break of guage on the Victorian / NSW border. The Americans shook their heads in disbelief at the inefficiencies caused by the different rail gauges in each state. By the end of 1942, after expenditure of some three million pounds, the aerodrome was ready to meet the onslought which daily seemed inevitable. Then on the 8th. of May, the Battle of the Coral Sea halted Japan's advance, reinforced by the successful repulse at Midway, Milne Bay and Kokoda. It now looked as though Australia was safe - a huge selective sigh of relief! The Americans took off from Tocomwal. One morning the local residents woke to find the tent cities gone, the vast aerodrome silent and empty. General George C. Kenney commanding Allied Air Forces in the South West Pacific Area, just looked at it and said -
Which is exactly what the Americans did - they did it all again at Garbutt Air Base at Townsville in Queensland. The Tocomwal Aerodrome had gone through a frantic construction stage one, a brief American occupation stage two, and in November 1942 it entered its main stage three, with the RAAF operating it as a giant multi - function aircraft depot and training base for bomber air crews and paratroops. As all types of aircraft were ferried in, they were serviced, modified, armed and made fully operational. The types of aircraft made a formidible list - you may remember some of their names:-
Aircraft were in the air night and day, seven days a week, practising take-offs and landings, flying formations, fighting tactics, bombing and gunnery. Spent cartridges littered the ground, even into the gardens of the local houses, houses which at night cowered in the white glare of landing lights or vibrated to the roar of engines being run flat out in the engine test cells. Vultee Vengeances were used to tow drogue targets for the gunners, not a popular duty, and Kittyhawks attacked formations of Liberators in mock aerial battles. Long flights of over 3,000 miles to learn navigation, and the featureless terrain of western New South Wales was ideal for this purpose as it was similar to flying over the ocean. Fifty four of the big Liberators were stationed at Tocomwal and they turned out eleven man crews every two months. Young boys of 18 or 19 had to become men in that all too short two months, responsible for the operation of a big aircraft and all its complex systems. A clerk had to become a competent pilot, a factory worker a flight engineer, a teacher a bomb aimer, an accountant a navigator, a telephone linesman a wireless operator, a baker a gunner - imagine you and I meeting a giant bomber tomorrow and having to take it to war in 8 weeks time. What this desperate pressure meant of course was that there were plenty of accidents and many young men died during training. It was a deadly mix of untried aircrews, new aircraft that malfunctioned or were sabotaged, inexperienced ground staff and not least the often appalling weather conditions - extreme heat and cold, gale force winds, drought conditions and unbelievable dust storms, which blocked out the sun and reduced visibility to zero.
The dust was an ever present menace to all things mechanical - in the hangar after a dust storm, they swept 600 kilograms of dust from the wings and fuselage of a Liberator. Apart from the adventures of the bombers, the fighter pilots were always looking for trouble. By the very nature of their training they took a lot of chances. They flew on the edge and were encouraged to do so in order to develop the skills and reflexes required forcombat flying. The Beaufighter was used with outstanding success as a ground attack weapon. "Two Beaufighters hurtling at ground level across the open plains of the Riverna, one above the other. They come over a rise and are confronted by a stand of Murray Pines. The lower one cannot rise being covered by the upper plane. It streaks between the tree trunks shearing off the wings and engines. The fuselage ploughs on to an eventual gentle stop - the crew steps out to try again another day. One of the propellors still stands in a cairn on the property." Low flying was also hazardous for the local people. The Beaufighter was known as Whispering Death, because it flew ahead of its sound and you could not hear it coming.
And Lake Mulwala played its part in tragedy too. Paratrooper training was tough and unforgiving. Parachute jumps were made from Dakotas over open country just north east of the Tocomwal Aerodrome.
There are many stories to be told about the Tocomwal Aerodrome and the way people lived and played. With 5,000 RAAF personnel, including 400 WAAAF's descending upon a township of then 500 people and staying nearly 20 years, there are stories there worth saving. The impact upon the town must have been considerable - the shops and cafes inundated. The church congregations swelled to capacity, romances led to weddings,
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