LAC "Bill" Allen was born during the period of the Armistace the end the Great War on 29th September 1918. He joined the RAAF 23rd October 1942, less than a month after his 24th birthday. He trained and served in New Guinea as a FITTER IIE, servicing the Beaufighters.

He was interviewed by George Dick and recorded on cassette tape 24th Augusty 1990 at his home 13 Victoria St, Revesby, NSW
 

I was living in Leichhardt when I went to Woolloomooloo and enlisted in the Royal Australian Air Force as a Trainee Technician on 23rd October 1942 and was sent out to Bradfield Park to do my rookies. My basic trade training was done at the Technical Training School at Ultimo, but I was barracked at the Coogee Bay Hotel and came in by tram every day. In December they moved me down to No 1 Engineering School at Ascot Vale on completion of my trade training course I was remustered as a flight mechanic and was posted out to No. 7 Aircraft Depot at Tocumwal in March 1943, where I spent nearly nine months, leaving there towards the end of 1943. I think the aerodrome had been occupied by American units, but there were none there at that time — and I don't blame them for leaving such an isolated place. Beaufighter aircrews were later trained at No. 5 Operational Training Unit at Tocumwal.

When my posting came through to go to No. 30 Squadron I had no idea what kind of unit it was, what kind of aircraft it had, or where it was located. From Tocumwal I went by train to Bradfield Park (where I was given a few day's enjoyable leave at home). The Railway Transport Office then issued me with rail warrants to go up to Townsville, and ordered me to join a troop train leaving Central Station the following night. There was an overnight stop in Brisbane, but I was too tired to look around that city very much. The movements people stuck me on another trooper which left Roma Street Station that evening and I spent another two days on the leg to Townsville, arriving there on 18th December.

After de-training we were moved out to an Air Force transit camp at Aitkenvale, where we were accommodated in tiny prefabricated masonite cabins set among the mango trees. It was summer time and the sound of ripe mangoes sploshing on the roof and the ground, together with the overpowering smell of the over-ripe and rotting fruit, is something I won't forget for a long time.

I spent about five hot and steamy days at that camp and was then called out by the Orderly Room and sent to Garbutt aerodrome where I was put on a American Dakota DC3 which took off and headed northwards. That was the very first time I had been up in an aeroplane. It was a pretty boring trip as there was nothing to see other than white clouds and blue sea, but we eventually landed at Milne Bay where I became a transit passenger at No. 43 Operational Base Unit.

The next leg of my trip was in another aeroplane flown by an Australian crew and we were headed for Kiriwina. Seven of the other passengers on that flight were Leading Aircraftmen bound for No. 30 Squadron on posting:- C J Heycox, A C Brown, S R Reakes (all flight mechanics), L J Chenoweth, H Bailey (both flight riggers), G I Coles (a fitter IIE), and B E Brewer ( an electrician). The day after our arrival we were served Xmas dinner by the officers and senior non-commissioned officers. It turned out to be merry affair because someone had spiked the cordial with some raw alcohol.

The two flight mechanics that we were intended to relieve (Geoff Muncaster and Des Armstrong) had joined the Squadron when it had formed at Richmond in March 1942 and were a bit miffed that their home postings hadn’t come through early in 1944, when they reckoned their tours had expired. So they flatly refused to go down to the strip and do any work; they said they’d done enough and were anxious to get home before anything happened to them. They were over the moon when the Orderly Room told them that orders had come through for them to go to No. 2 Embarkation Depot in Sydney on posting.

When I first joined the unit, I was put in 'A' Flight where Sergeant Len Stitt (a fitter IIE) and Flight Sergeant Jack Linklater (a fitter IIa) were in charge. Jack ran a pub after the war. The Engineering Officer was Flight Lieutenant Ray Wheatley, a rather portly fellow who had arrived in the Squadron about the time it moved from Goodenough to Kiriwina.

Kiriwina was a beautiful place, the only detraction being that maybe nine out of ten men got coral disease - an irritating infection of the ears brought on by swimming in the water, and for which the MO did not appear to have an effective remedy. In fact the medical people weren’t able to do much about other tropical complaints — especially skin rashes, itches, and tinea.

We were accommodated in the usual kind of tents, shaped like an inverted 'V' slung over a horizontal ridge pole, and covered with a canvas fly. Early on I shared a tent with Ted Pullan, Ken Cole, and Jack Speed. Ted arrived with a batch of nine other fitters IIA who had arrived at Kiriwina a few weeks before me; he got his corporal stripes while he was serving up there. Ken came in with about ten other flight riggers late in November; he got transferred to No. 22 Squadron at Kiriwina. Jack was in the same incoming draft as Ken.

My best mate at the time was Allan Gough. He had been in the Squadron about six weeks or so when I arrived at Kiriwina. He came to No. 30 Beaufighter Squadron on posting from No. 22 Boston Squadron whose camp was close to ours on the Island.

The Commanding Officer when I joined the unit was Squadron Leader Bill Boulton; he had got the job after two previous commanders (Glasscock and Emmerton) had been shot down in the New Britain area. His name was also known because he had piloted the Beaufighter which won the race against a 22 Squadron Boston at Goodenough. When the squadron leader went south on mid-tour operational leave, his place was taken by Squadron Leader Bob Maguire. Both of those men had been in the big Allied raid on Rabaul in October 1943.

One of the pilots took me up for my first flip in a Beaufighter within ten days of my arrival at Kiriwina. A week or so later I saw a large formation setting out to attack Gasmata; there were 35 Beauforts escorted by 42 Kittyhawks and 10 Spitfires. All of them returned to base safely ......but not in the case for one of the Spitfire pilot's whose plane went into a spin about 500 feet up and crashed in flames, incinerating the pilot. That was the first time I saw an aircraft crash.

On 21st February one of the three Beaufighters returning from an operation got into trouble and crashed into the sea just three miles off Kiriwina. That was A19-134, LY-B, flown by Flight Lieutenant Daniels and Sergeant Tibballs; they were both killed. It was the sergeant’s 21st birthday.

About the middle of April we sent an advance party across to Tadji which was to be the operational base for our Beaufighters for a time. The aircraft didn’t go across there until early in June.

Corporal Doug Murphine (fitter IIA) and I looked after the Beaufighter allotted to Pilot Officer Murray Towill and Pat Sweeney, but they bent that one during a take-off at Kiriwina, and were given a few days sick leave. The replacement aircraft was A19-115 (a Mk VI aircraft) which had been accepted into the Air Force at Laverton in April 1943. When it was being ferried up from Australia, its tail-wheel was bent during a landing at Wards strip in June of that year. No. 15 Aircraft Repair Depot must have had some difficulty putting it back into good order because it was at Moresby until it was taken over by our Squadron some eight months later.

When A19-115 arrived we both got at it and removed some of the stuff to give it a better speed, and tuned it up to perfection. When Murray Towill got back from sick leave and took it up for a test flight, Doug and I went up with him. The strip at Kiriwina was long and wide, but the Murray seemed to need all of that for he crabbed off to the side and we just managed to clear the trees. Murray discussed this with us on landing and the three of us came to the conclusion that the port motor had too much boost. We set too and adjusted the boost, but that didn't solve the problem. We discussed the matter with the Engineering Officer and with others in the Squadron and tried many other adjustments over the next fortnight or so, but on every test flight the aircraft did exactly the same thing. The only conclusion that could be reached was that the Beaufighter had a twisted fuselage.

Finally, Murray refused to fly it again.

Wing Commander Gibson had taken over command of the Squadron by that time, and he managed to persuade Murray to fly it across to Aitape when the Beaufighters, the aircrew, and some groundstaff were deployed there. Ordinarily, I would have gone with Murray when he took A19-115 across to Aitape, but I was left at Kiriwina with the rear party, so he took Doug Morphine .

The Commanding Officer wasn’t happy about having a rogue aircraft in his squadron, but thought he ought to check it out for himself before he asked Air Force Headquarters to allot it to another unit. So, with Doug Murphine standing behind him in the aircraft’s well, he took it up on a test flight a couple of days after arriving at Aitape. As soon as it got airborne it veered off to port and ploughed straight into a giant piece of earth-moving equipment near the end of the strip, killing the Wing Commander and the Corporal. Since that was my aircraft, I might have been on board for that crash.
Being part of the rear party at Kiriwina, I didn't go away across to Aitape, being involved in packing up and loading our stores on to an American Liberty Ship. We sailed on the Thomas W Symons, (which had some of 30 Squadron and some of 22 Squadron men aboard) leaving Kiriwina at 1815 hours on 21st June 1944; Flight Lieutenant George Dick, the Squadron’s navigation officer, was our OIC. Most of the boys were very unhappy to be leaving Kiriwina, where they had had an enjoyable time.

The ship called in at Finschaven at 2000 hours on 23rd June,; to me it looked like Sydney Harbour with all the ships anchored there and lights blazing everywhere. We weren’t allowed to go ashore, however. On 26th we put to se again at 1500 hours, and were escorted by a sub-chaser for the voyage across to Cape Gloucester, arriving at 0900 on 27th June. We pulled up anchor at 0800 the following day and went back to Finschaven, arriving at 1800, and took on rations the following day.

There were 26 ships in our convoy when we moved further up the coast to Hollandia, arriving there at 0800 on 3rd July. The place had just been taken by the Americans. and the Harbour held more ships than I’d ever seen in one place before. We sailed during the night hours of 11th July. Our next port of call was Mappin Bay, which we reached at about 1600 the next day, and where we didn't feel particularly comfortable as shells from a US Navy warship were passing over our vessel towards Japanese shore targets.

We pulled out of the Bay at 0500 on 18th July and finally arrived at Noemfoor, dropping anchor at 1000 hours on 19th July 1944, having been at sea for 31 days. We weren't allowed to disembark for two days because not all the Japs had been cleared out (in fact there were still some enemy soldiers in the Island’s interior until the end of August). The American 158th Regiment had made a virtually unopposed amphibious landing on the Island on 2nd July but the enemy made a fierce but ineffective counter-attack four days later.

Our Ground Defence Officer selected a batch of men to go ashore in an LST and clear a site for our camp, and I helped to hack away at the scrub and put up some of the tents. It was hard work. The place had been taken a very heavy battery for their were shell and bomb craters all over the place, and many of the tree-tops were bare. Everyone was a bit upset to learn that since our Beaufighters had been operating out of Tadji, they had lost nine aircraft - the most they had ever lost in such a short time. Five of the crews were lost.

After seven months in the island I experienced my first air raid. There were only three Japanese kites but our ack-ack kept them pretty high up. However, they made a second run over the island and this time they came in under the ack-ack, hitting a fuel dump about half-a-mile away from our camp. It burnt all through the night, and we were worried that the flames and the light made us an easy target. An American Black Widow gave chase but had to ditch while returning to base. Two of the crew were saved and two lost.

Two of our aircraft attacked Kamrau Bay on 17th August but on the way back one of them ran out of fuel and landed on a island but the aircraft was slightly damaged. It turned out to be Mappia Island and was occupied by the Japanese. A recovery party took fuel and spares in and Keith Smith, with our Engineer Officer on board, managed to take the plane off from a very very short sandspit and bring the plane back to Noemfoor.

The largest formation of planes I’ve ever seen took off from Noemfoor on 8th September; I counted 40 Liberators, 100 P47s, 30 Bostons, 20 Mitchells, all of them from the USAAF. The RAAF sent 6 Bostons, 6 Beaufighters, and 50 Kittyhawks.

Four enemy bombers came at us on the night of 8th October; the worts part being that they came in after the All Clear had been given and we were all caught napping, having to scramble out of bed in a hurry when the bombs started falling. Four RAAF men were wounded, but there was no material damage.

While we were at Noemfoor we went to a show put on by the Americans: Bob Hope, Frances Langford (one of my favourites), Patsy Thomas - a curvaceous glamour girl, comedian Jerry Cologna, and mouth-organist Larry Adler. I suppose that nearly everyone on the Island was there for that show, and every tree around the place was loaded with Yanks. If only the Japs had known about that assembly!

When my kite was coming back from an operation it blew an oil pipe and had to land at Middleburg Island. The Fitter IIE and myself were flown over to do the repair, and I was surprised to find that the island is only about 1 mile long and half-a-mile wide, with the strip taking up the entire length. Coming home we flew through very heavy storms, it being impossible to see Noemfoor until we were right overhead. Four of our kites had to land at Biak and four at Sansapor on the way back from a job because of the storm.

Because our twenty-two Beaufighters were being flown across to our new base at Morotai on 16th November I went down to see them take-off. The first kite blew a tyre during the take-off run, but got airborne OK. This was A19-212, flown by Flight Lieutenant Hiller. The seventeenth aircraft to take off was A19-206 flown by Rhys Porch and his navigator Mark Harty. It swung to one side after getting airborne, just missed the duty pilot’s tower, clipped a bulldozer, crashed into a ditch, broke in two and burst into flames. The two groundstaff going to Morotai on that plane - LACs Heidke and PArker were thrown clear. A Service Policeman raced into the flames, unstrapped the navigator and dragged him clear. He was very badly burnt and die in hospital a few hours later. The pilot was incinerated.
When the strip was clear, A19-212 came in for a belly landing, and a very good one it was. During the four months we were at Noemfoor, we lost 8 kites but four of the crews were saved.

Some of the groundstaff went across to Morotai in our Beaufighters but most of us went in transport aeroplanes. I went in an American C47 on 27th December, with 14 other chaps. It was a very rough trip and I was glad when we landed at 0820 hours. Twenty-one Beaufighters had left Noemfoor for Morotai but when I landed there were only eight serviceable on the tarmac. Some had got damaged during a big enemy raid on the Island about a week before.

There were two strips next to each other - one for bombers and one for fighters. Something like 500 or 600 American kites were parked along the strips or in their dispersal bays. There were Liberators, Fortresses, Venturas, Lightnings, Thunderbolts, Mustangs, Kittyhawks, and Black Widows.

Bob Richmond and Bruce Tiller took me out on an operation on 6th February 1945. We flew to the Celebes where we had to knock out a bridge. But we didn’t do any good. The trip took 4 hours 30 minutes.

On 15th May I climbed into a Beaufighter which took off for Sanga Sanga, a small island to the south of the Philippines. There were four Beaufighters and 12 Kittyhawks in the formation. We had to turn back because of the very rough weather, but the leader decided to have another go and we managed to get through to our destination, landing at 1130 hours, being the first Aussies to land there. Two more Beaufighters came in three days later, four more on 27th and the rest on the 28th. Most of the groundstaff came over by LST from Tarakan on 26th May. The intention was to operate from there because it didn’t look as if they would ever get the strip at Tarakan ready for use.

On 14th June I clambered aboard Beaufighter A8-155 which took off from Sanga Sanga at 1100 hours. The Americans wanted the strip so 30 Squadron was being moved back to Morotai. My aircraft was flown by Neil Redfern and Jack Collinson. We touched down at 1430.

Within a month my posting back to Australia had come through. An American C47 lifted off at 1330, landed at Biak at 1630 and remained there overnight. I was put on a Skymaster at 0800 the next morning which got me into Brisbane at 1900, where I was accommodated in the St George hostel. The Railway Transport Officer put me on a south-bound train the next evening, and I arrived at Sydney Central at 0700 hours on 1st July, having spent 7 hours in Grafton on the way down.

After a period of leave, I was posted to No 5 Aircraft Depot at Forest Hill in mid-September, and took my discharge on 4th January 1946. I was subsequently a machinist with Amalgamated Wireless of Australia.