Our Journey

Two Australians—Major Stuart Peach and Squadron Leader Ronald Rankin completed a two-week visit along the 38th parallel inspecting Republic of Korea Army dispositions, activities, defences and weaponry. Australia had been the first country to provide trained military observers to assist the work of the United Nations Commission on Korea (UNCOK), and they were the only observers in Korea. Returning to Seoul on 24 June, they reported that the South Korean Army was organised entirely ‘for defence and … in no condition to carry out an attack’. The next day, North Korea invaded across the parallel. It was the Peach-Rankin report showing unequivocally that North Korea was an aggressor which on 27 June convinced the UN Security Council to act. Concluded the official historian: Thus the journey of Peach and Rankin ranks as one of the most consequential reconnaissances ever conducted by Australian service officers.

After the North Korean People’s Army launched an all-out offensive against the territory of South Korea, the Air Force’s Number 77 Squadron, based at Iwakuni, Japan, was directed to join in the fighting as part of the response by the United Nations. Bad weather prevented No 77 Squadron flying on 1 July, but on 2 July the unit's Mustang Fighters flew 16 sorties during three separate missions over the Korean Peninsula.

When Warrant Officer Ron Guthrie was forced to abandon his Meteor jet fighter over Korea on this day, he unintentionally notched up several ‘firsts’. During this first clash between RAAF Meteors and Soviet MiG-15s, Guthrie’s aircraft sustained gunfire hits which caused it to enter a nose-down dive at 36 600 feet. With all controls gone, he decided to eject using the Martin Baker seat with which the Meteor was fitted. This was actually the first time that a Martin Baker seat had been used in combat, and his altitude is still the record for the highest combat ejection in the RAAF. The altitude of his ejection has only been exceeded in the RAAF by peacetime ejections at 38 000 feet from two Sabre jets involved in a midair collision in 1960. On landing, Guthrie was captured by Communist forces and spent two years as a prisoner of war. The RAAF Heritage Centre Williamtown, (Fighterworld), has an example of a Martin Baker ejection seat on display.

Pilot Officer W.H. (‘Bill’) Simmonds scored the only fully confirmed RAAF victory over a Communist MiG-15 in the Korean War. He was in a flight of four Meteors of No 77 Squadron protecting US bombers, making the biggest single attack of the war so far against an important supply depot at Sunan (now the site of Pyongyang airport), when MiGs attacked from behind. Simmonds was able to get onto the tail of one of the MiGs as it passed less than 10 metres below him and blasted it with a long burst of cannon fire. Two other members of the RAAF flight reported seeing the enemy pilot eject as his aircraft went into a spin and crashed to earth. Australian pilots reported a total of five MiGs shot down during the war, but this was the only occasion where there was absolutely no doubt about the claim.

Two Gloster Meteor Mk8 jets of No 77 Squadron, flown by Sergeants George Hale and David Irlam, were conducting a road reconnaissance over North Korea near Sinmak when Hale saw what he thought was a lone MiG-15. It was only as he dived into the attack that he realised he was opposed by three enemy aircraft. In the ensuing dogfight, Hale’s cannon fire sent one MiG down on its back, belching black smoke and shedding bits of fuselage as it dropped from view. Immediately confronted by another pair of MiGs, he scored hits on one of these also and saw it trailing white smoke as it climbed away from him. Having expended all his ammunition, Hale broke off contact. This was the last time that 77 Squadron aircraft engaged in aerial combat in Korea, and indeed the last time that any RAAF unit has been involved in air-to-air fighting since.