Our Journey

In recognition of their achievement in crossing the Pacific Ocean by air in the tri-motor Southern Cross, Charles Kingsford Smith and Charles Ulm were awarded the Air Force Cross and appointed to honorary rank in the Air Force, following a precedent set with Bert Hinkler earlier in the year.

Roughly halfway through the four-month period designated as the Battle of Britain, Flight Lieutenant P.C. (‘Pat’) Hughes was killed in action. He was attacking a Dornier Do-17 bomber at close range when the German aircraft blew up in front of him, causing such severe damage to his Spitfire that he lost control and crashed. Having already been credited with 15 combat victories, Hughes was the third-highest-scoring ace of the battle (although sharing this total with four other pilots, none of them Australians) and had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on 18 August. Before the war he received his pilot’s wings with the RAAF at Point Cook, but on graduating in December 1936 had elected to accept a short service commission in the RAF. Although flying with British squadrons, Hughes remained proud of his Australian links and wore his dark-blue RAAF service uniform to the end.

Flight Sergeant Rawdon (‘Ron’) Middleton captained a Stirling bomber of the RAF’s No 149 Squadron during a mission which earned him the Victoria Cross (VC). Taking off from Lakenheath, England, his crew was sent against the Fiat works at Turin, Italy. After a dangerous night crossing of the Alps, Middleton’s aircraft was attacking through heavy flak when a shell burst in the cockpit wounding both pilots. Although shockingly injured, he finished bombing the target before setting course for England. Five crewmen bailed out as the coast was crossed, and two more as the aircraft headed back out to sea (both drowned), leaving Middleton alone at the controls when the Stirling crashed in the sea. His remains washed up on a Dover beach and were buried in February 1943. The previous month he had been posthumously awarded the VC, the first award to a serving member of the RAAF. His commission as Pilot Officer was backdated to 15 November 1942.

During a raid by six RAAF Bostons of No 22 Squadron on Japanese storage buildings at Salamaua, New Guinea, the aircraft captained by Flight Lieutenant William (‘Bill’) Newton was crippled by 40 mm cannon fire from the ground. Turning his bomber away from the target, he crash-landed in the sea a kilometre from shore. Newton and his wireless operator/air gunner managed to escape the wreck before it sank and swam to the beach, where they were captured shortly afterwards. After they were taken to Lae for a week of interrogation, Newton’s crewman was bayoneted to death outside the town. Newton himself was returned to his captors at Salamaua and beheaded on 29 March. A series of missions he had performed with great gallantry prior to being shot down led to him receiving in October the only Victoria Cross awarded to a member of the RAAF in the Pacific War.

The award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Pilot Officer David Paul, an Indigenous Australian pilot who had been serving in North Africa with No 454 Squadron (an RAAF Baltimore unit in the RAF) was announced. At the time of the announcement Paul was a prisoner of war in Germany, having been shot down by Me-109F fighters over the Aegean Sea on 4 December 1943 while making the final trip of his operational tour. After his release from Stalag IVb POW camp at Muhlberg in 1945, he returned to Australia and joined the New South Wales Police Force, becoming a detective sergeant. He also served in the RAAF Reserve and reached the rank of Squadron Leader.

Two months after No 77 Squadron was committed to operations in Korea, the unit’s Commanding Officer, Wing Commander Lou Spence, was killed in action. He led four Mustangs in an attack on storage facilities at An’gang-ni, north of Pusan in South Korea, which had been recently captured by Communist forces. His aircraft failed to pull out of a steep dive at low altitude and was seen to crash into the centre of the town, exploding on impact. Spence was succeeded by Squadron Leader Richard (‘Dick’) Cresswell, who had twice before led 77 Squadron in war; his previous periods in command were both during World War II—the first, in April 1942, when he was aged just 21. In Korea, Cresswell again demonstrated the qualities which had seen him rated as an exceptional leader of a combat squadron on war duties.

When an American gunship helicopter crashed into dense jungle inside enemy-held territory eight kilometres from the Australian Task Force base at Nui Dat, Corporal John Coughlan, a crewman with No 9 Squadron in Vietnam, volunteered to be winched down to provide assistance to the badly injured crew. The downed aircraft was burning fiercely, its ammunition and rockets exploding dangerously, and he was frequently forced to take cover from shrapnel. Three months later he performed a similar feat in aid of another downed US helicopter. On 17 June 1968 Coughlan was awarded the Conspicuous Gallantry Medal, the highest flying award for non-commissioned ranks (other than the Victoria Cross). He was the first RAAF member awarded the CGM since World War II and only the tenth to receive the medal since it was instituted in 1943.

At about 0230 hours, an eight-man section of RAAF Airfield Defence Guards on listening patrol outside the US airbase at Phan Rang, South Vietnam, fought an enemy party of unknown size. In two earlier incidents that night, pairs of enemy were repelled as they attempted to penetrate the base’s perimeter. As a result, Corporal Noel Power shifted his section’s position to cover two canal crossings most likely to be used by withdrawing intruders. Moments later the patrol exchanged fire with an unseen enemy in an action lasting five minutes. After contact was broken, Power conducted several sweeps of the area without locating anything. During a further search at dawn, however, his men found a wounded enemy from whom it was learnt that a raid by North Vietnamese sappers had been foiled. Power received the first Military Medal awarded to a RAAF member since World War II.