Interviewed  by  George  Dick  and  tape-recorded  at South  Oakleigh  on  5th  July  1991.

Before the war I worked in a builder's hardware store in Melbourne, and was a member of a Citizen Military Forces unit — the 4th Field Artillery in Windsor, Melbourne. Our group went across to the AIF when the broke out and I spent a mere 2 days at Puckapunyal supporting the 9th Division. My brother was in the Permanent Air Force and as he put in a claim for me, I was recalled to Melbourne where I was enlisted in the RAAF.

I was sent to do my rookies at Somers and after the usual six weeks there I went to No 4 School of Technical Training in Adelaide, where I was in barracks at Emanuel College on North Terrace. I wanted to be a flight mechanic, but at that time they had enough people in that mustering and, as they were short of airframe fitters, they shunted me off to be trained in that mustering. While I was at 4STT I became the drum major, beating out the time as we marched to and from school every day. I played before R G Menzies on one occasion.

When I finished the Adelaide course, I was moved across to Melbourne on posting to No 1 Engineering School at Ascot Vale to do the advanced part of my training. Towards the end of that some of us were put on a special 'secret' course to learn about Beaufighters. None of the instructors had seen a Beaufighter, and although they were teaching from some technical manuals, these turned out to be manuals for the Bristol Beaufort bomber, not the Beaufighter. It's probable that none of those aircraft had yet left England for the sea passage to Australia.

After receiving my Air Force trade qualification at that school, I boarded the train bound for Sydney, having been posted to No 2 Aircraft Depot at Richmond. No 30 Squadron did not have any aeroplanes at that time so I was told to do some work on a Walrus. Later, when they called for volunteers to plait some steel marine cables, I stood forward, and then worked with a sergeant who had been in the AUSTRALIAN FLYING CORPS. He was a fantastic fellow and taught me how to plait the cables for the Walrus — not an easy job. We were kept in our own hangar and although some

Beaufighters might have been assembled at the Depot at that time, I never saw one.

I think the first Beaufighter that I saw was flown up from Melbourne, and No 30 Squadron was eventually supplied with the 24 aircraft to which it was entitled. It would have been about June that some of us were told to leave the Depot and report to No 5 Hangar where No 30 Squadron was located. I had been posted to that unit on 9th March 1942, the day it was formed, but had been kept at the Depot until the Beaufighters arrived and there was some work for us to do in the Squadron.

I went across to the Clarendon Hotel for a few drinks, but not very often. I caught the train into Sydney on a few Saturdays, went to Leichardt, to dances (I was a competent dancer in those days), the fights, and other entertainments in the city. I was able to get into the broadcasting studio one night and watch the performance of the Harry Dearth show, and enjoyed that.

The living conditions at Richmond RAAF Station were pretty good — the food was Ok and we didn't go without. However, we were there in mid-winter and were glad to get the word to move up to the tropics. The major element of the Squadron, as well as our stores, supplies, vehicles, and so on, were to go north in the train. On the morning of their departure, the CO told me to load what he regarded as 'his' Indian motor-bike on to one of the tenders and take it down to the railhead. Before we loaded the bike onto the flat-top at the railway station, I took 'Caccy' Carmichael for a ride up to Kurrajong, had a few beers at the pub, and when we arrived back at the railhead, Blackjack was standing there. I was on a charge for that escapade.

For some reason somebody arranged for my name to be left off the list of those going north on the train, and had listed me to fly up there with Squadron Leader Peter Parker in Beaufighter A19-38, leaving Richmond shortly after dawn on 17th August 1942. But I slept in that morning and my late arrival to board the aircraft delayed the Squadron's take off by one hour. So Peter Parker put me on a charge.

The twenty-four aeroplanes eventually got off, landing at Bohle River some five hours later. 'Caesar' O'Connor was the navigator, and Sergeant Gwynn Davies was the other groundstaff technician in my plane.

'Curly' Wearne had sent a small party up ahead of us and they had already prepared our camp; the tents were dispersed among the trees rather than being laid out in rows. Warrant Officer Good was in charge of the men who had established the camp.

There had been a couple of raids on Townsville before we got up there so a couple of Beaufighters were given the job of going on standby to have a go at any other nigh-time raiders. They went across to Garbutt for the night. I don't think they ever had to scramble, though.

I went into Townsville many times while we were in that Bohle River camp, and got into trouble once or twice. Frank Thompson (a fitter IIA) and I broke out of camp and went across to Magnetic Island for the day and got back to the mainland    flat broke. We were hungry after our outing so went into a cafe, ordered something to eat, and paid for it with the coins left under the plates as tips for the waiter.

Peter Parker took somebody else in his aircraft for the hop across to Moresby, so I had to join the rest of the Squadron fellows and board the Taroona. Because the wharfies wouldn't load our bombs and ammunition, we had to provide loading parties, but I managed to avoid being selected for that. The Taroona was a passenger vessel so we were accommodated in cabins; there were 4 of us to occupy a 4-berth cabin. We sailed just before breakfast on 11th September, and a frigate escorted us for the most part because there was some kind of submarine scare, it being not long after the Coral Sea Battle. We pulled in at a little island near Cairns.

We berthed at Port Moresby about tea-time on 14th September and while most of the fellows were taken out to Wards strip in Army vehicles, I was detailed to remain there and help unload our stuff from the ship. We spent that night and the next day on that job, going out to Wards in the dark the night after the Taroona docked. There wasn't a tent for me so I slept in the open on my groundsheet, with my rifle and bayonet stuck into the ground to support my mosquito net. At that stage we were camped at the far end of the strip, but we moved into June Valley the next day. The Beaufighters had arrived by that time.

There was a shed at our new campsite, and our stores were stacked under its roof — including the grog which the officers had brought up. That shed was eventually occupied by Cliff Maxwell and his transport section. Much as we were tempted, Neither Frank nor I were game to put our hands outside of our nets to grab a bottle of that beer because the mosquitoes were so bad.

Somebody had put stakes in the ground to show where the living tents were to be positioned, but I chose a spot at some distance from the Headquarters tents, at the back of June Valley, and more-or-less on 6 Squadron's ground. My brother was in 6 Squadron at the time. The others in the tent with me were Frank Thompson, Laurie Webster (a fitter IIA), and Keith Carmichael (a flight rigger). When Frank left us, he was replaced by another fellow from Servicing Flight. We had enlarged our living space by putting up a canvas fly at the front.

Laurie Webster was a very quiet fellow who had been born in London, and was a married man with a couple of kiddies living out at Orange. After the war he became a manager for Farmers and then a manager for Waltons in Sydney. We played 500 every now and again, and I reckon I would be the best at that card game. We played just for matches.

During one of my wanderings around the place I came across an old Ford truck that had been abandoned in the bush and I managed to get that going. I was made to put it in the Transport Section so that it became one of the Squadron's vehicles — except that I could use it at any time I wanted to get water or stuff for our tent. I had fitted up a shower outside the tent — it was a tin with holes punched in the bottom and suspended from a pole. Cold water, but that was welcome in the tropics. The vehicle that I restored to working order seemed to be always in use by the Defence Officer, and he was the one who looked after the boongs we had as labourers around the place.

I had a bit of a trading enterprise going while we were at Moresby — principally in the cigarette and tobacco line. I'd buy them from the Americans (who got some issued for free but could buy them cheaply in the PX). Then I'd sell them to the Australians, at a small profit, of course. I sent home my money from time to time. Our fellows developed a liking for the American cigarettes, though they could buy Craven A and Turf from the canteen — when they had them. I occasionally rolled my own, using gum-rice Tally-Ho papers.

I'd acquired a fair collection of gear — American shirts, trousers, and the like — and when one of our fellows was coming south I packed it all in a kit bag and he agreed to bring it back for me. It never ever arrived. I was crooked at losing all of that.

Our sleep was disturbed on quite a few occasions when the bombers came across but for all that they didn't do much damage around Moresby, and our camp was never bombed. Of course, our aircraft copped it during the big raid on 12th April 1943 when 105 aircraft did a raid. One of our Beaufighters, A19-50 was burnt to the ground after a bomb hit, and there were three others which were pretty badly holed. However, three of theirs were shot down.

I was down at the strip driving a big American refuelling tanker when they came over. We had one tanker which we had to fill from 44 gallon drums by hand pump, and another which had its own in-built pump. When the Red Alert went off and I saw that they were nearly above Wards, I left the tanker and headed for the bush.

Some Americans came down to our end of Wards strip to see what damage we had sustained and Don Bain offered to take them for a walking tour of our dispersals and show them the Beaufighters and explain what had happened. He indicated that they should leave their jeep there, and as the party moved off, he gave me the nod. So when they were out of sight I drove that vehicle away and hid it. When the party came back, Don pretended to be surprised that their jeep had gone, and organised another vehicle to take them back to their camp. The MPs came looking for it but Don had altered its appearance, so it was never discovered.

We went down from Moresby to Milne Bay at one time and while we were there Don acquired a motor-bike which he arranged in his own inimitable way to be brought back to Moresby. He had been a motor-bike rider before the war and was well known on the racing circuits. He was also renowned for the number of his female conquests and how they were achieved and e would recount those to an audience in his tent and amuse us all with his yarns.

I was working on one of the Beaufighters down at the strip and must have displeased Sergeant McClelland (a fitter IIA) or got on his wrong side in some way that caused him to swear at me and call me a bludging bastard. So I went for him. The upshot was that I was put on a charge. 'Curly' Wearne wasn't able to help me out of that one. The WOD tried to make me take my hat off before I went into the CO's tent, so I had a go at him too, and that didn't help. Blackjack thought he should shoot me, and when he offered me the option of trial by court-martial, I elected to take what he handed out. So he fined me 10 days pay, gave me 3 months CB, during which time I was to walk to and from the strip every day. So I didn't like him any more.   

He'd had his hooks into me right back from Richmond days when I'd pinched his motor-bike for a ride to Kurrajong, and when I'd kept the Squadron waiting for an hour because I'd slept in on the morning of our departure from Richmond. So I'd been on two charges before we even left Australia. Not long after we got to Moresby I was in front of Blackjack on another one. This time it was for borrowing his staff car. He had driven it down to the strip and then taken off in his Beaufighter to do over some enemy target on the other side of the Owen Stanleys. So I grabbed it and drove it up to Koitaki, but the CO must have seen me when he was in circuit area and knew that I'd been out in his car when he felt the still-hot radiator. So I was on yet another charge.

Every now and then a couple of Beaufighters would be sent down to Milne Bay for a couple of days to do a specific job, and during July and August 1943 'A' and 'B' Flights took it in turns to spend a couple of weeks there. I never went down there on those detachments, but I did go down for a couple of the one-night affairs.

During July 1943 we were engaged in packing up our stuff to move to Goodenough and after we vacated our June Valley camp we were put on board the West Cactus, an American vessel, sailing out of Port Moresby about 6.30 Am on 25th. We were escorted to Milne Bay by a B25 and a corvette. It was an awful ship, we were supposed to sleep down in the hold, but it was just too hot and sweaty down there. So we stayed on deck as much as we could, although it was a bit rough during our first day at sea. Our food was even worse than what we had been getting at Moresby, and was dished out from a mobile kitchen chained to the deck. The toilet was a primitive affair — a sloping trough fixed to a length of the deck's railing, and being sluiced out by sea water.

We called in at Milne Bay for a short time when the Australian Army and Americans and AIF fellows disembarked. We went on to Goodenough, arriving there about 4pm on 28th July. There was no wharf so we had to clamber down into the waiting barge via a scrambling net over the side. We had to do that in full gear and the descent was so awkward that I lost my grip on my rifle and it fell into the water. The Army trucks took us to a transit camp and we stayed there until 23rd August when we moved to our own new camp. This was a real good camp, being up on the hill overlooking Vivigani strip; we had a nice cool breeze at night and there weren't too many mosquitoes there — although there were lots down on the low-lying areas.

On of 22 Squadron's Bostons made a belly landing on the strip towards the end of August, but the crew were not injured. However, another of their aircraft crashed at the end of the strip while taking off at 2.45 on 13th October, turned over on its back.  A crew member could be heard screaming inside, but couldn't be rescued before the bombs on board exploded. At least four of our crews were lost while the Squadron was at Goodenough. Dick Stone and Morris-Hadwell were lost on the shambles of an attack that Bill Boulton led against an airfield near Rabaul. Bill Cosgrove, a well-known player for the Richmond Tigers crashed into the sea just beyond the end of the strip after an early morning take-off on 11th August.  Only a few weeks later Flight Lieutenant Joe Newman and his navigator made a ditching after their plane was crippled while strafing some ack ack guns at an airfield in New Britain.  Dinghies and food were dropped to them during the next two days but although they might have got ashore nobody ever found out what happened to them.  An army officer was with them that day.

Only about a week or so later we lost our CO, Wing Commander Glasscock when he too had to ditch his Beaufighter after being damaged by ack ack.  His usual navigator had not gone on that flight, but he too was lost when he went out searching for the CO in a seaplane.

When Wing Commander Glasscock was lost, Bill Boulton took over. He was a large fat man, and although I never had anything to do with him myself, I don't think he was at all liked.  He piloted his Beaufighter in the race against a Boston sometime in November.

A large formation of American and Australian planes was scheduled to have a go at the large Japanese base at Rabaul and the Beaufighters had to fly across to Dobodura which was the assembly point.  I flew across there with Cyril Cornish and Harry Braid. We had started our take-off run on the Vivigani strip when the Boston crashed just ahead of us, and I urged Cyril to get us off the ground as quickly as possible.  And he did manage to do just that, but I could see the strain he was under for the sweat just poured out of him.  There were thirteen Beaufighters involved, it was on the thirteenth of the month and it was Cyril's birthday.

Cyril had to feather one of the propellers because of engine trouble so he got on the radio to warn them that he would be landing with a sick engine.  We were met by quite a crowd of people hoping to see a new aircraft type, for the radio people had interpreted Cyril's message as referring to a 'six-engined aircraft'.  After the attack on Rabaul on 12th October, I went with Cyril on a search for a missing P38 and on our way to New Britain we shot up a Japanese barge.

We flew across the enemy strip at Cape Gloucester and they threw everything they'd got at us, and our aircraft was really peppered, but, fortunately we didn't cop any serious damage.  It was raining heavily at the time and Cyril had to open the side windows so that he could see what was going on.  There were times when I was standing in the well behind the pilot, but I had to clamber down towards the rear every now and again because it was my job to replace the empty cannon drums with fully-loaded ones. Because we circled round a life-raft a number of times there was some concern about our fuel state.  However, Harry gave his pilot a height and course to fly and we were all relieved to see a friendly coast.  Both motors cut out dead as we landed on the strip at Kiriwina.  I got flying pay for 5 days at two shillings a day.  About 80 other groundstaff got a similar amount for that detachment to Dobodura.

We stayed there the night and flew to Goodenough the next day. The Squadron moved to Kiriwina early in November 1943, most of the men and supplies going over by sea, but I went across on a 40 minute flight in a Douglas DC2.  We were accommodated with No 46 Operational Base Unit out in the scrub until we got our own camp going.

Swimming was an enjoyable pastime at Goodenough and at Kiriwina, where it was just like being at the St Kilda beach.  I cut my foot very badly on the coral reef there, however, and that injury has affected me ever since.

The first crew we lost at Kiriwina were Flight Lieutenant Daniels and Sergeant Tibbals when A19-139 had engine trouble, flipped over, and went in on its back on 21st February.  Four days later we lost Flying Officer Coates and his navigator, Pilot Officer Chapple in A19-39, which crashed into the jungle near Ubili.  The day before, I was one of the party set to work in the hold of the SS Han Yang at the East wharf;  it had brought over our rear party and our main supplies from Goodenough.

The postings for groundstaff started to come through in October at the end of their fifteen months tropical tour, and they left as their replacements arrived to start their tours.  My posting came through early in December, and I left Goodenough by air with instructions to report to No 1 Embarkation Depot at Laverton on 13th December 1943.



PERSONAL  PARTICULARS

NAME (in full)  :   HARRY  WILLIAM  TAYLER
BORN ON         :   21st June 1919
BORN AT         :   Brighton, Victoria
FATHER          :   Edmund Leslie Tayler
MOTHER (Maiden) :   Minnie Barlow
EDUCATED AT     :   Brighton State School
MARRIED TO      :   Freda Frances Doran
MARRIED ON      :   16th March 1946
MARRIED AT      :   Brighton, Victoria
CHILDREN        :   Dianne Christine
ENLISTED AT     :   Melbourne
ENLISTED AS     :   8th April 1941
ENLISTED ON     :   Trainee Tech group V
DISCHARGED ON   :   ...  December 1945
RANK ON DISCHARGE   Leading Aircraftman
OCCUPATION THEN :   Mechanic  (Melford Motors)
ADDRESS - 1991  :   16 Pell Street, South Oakleigh
                                VIC  3167   (03) 570 1669