Interviewed  by  George  Dick  and  tape-recorded  at Newcastle  on  15th  November  1990

In February 1943 I went along to the Recruiting Office in Sydney and joined up as an aircrew trainee in the Royal Australian Air Force. My first posting was to the Initial Training School at Bradfield Park where I did my rookie training, drill, a series of introductory lectures and went through procedures designed to select men for pilot training. I got through that allright and went to No 10 Elementary Flying Training School at Temora as a trainee pilot, but as my landings were too high, I was scrubbed.

I was then posted to No 2 Wireless and Air Gunnery School at Ballarat to undergo the navigator/wireless course. About half-way through that nine-month course, the school was re-located to mount Gambier so we were all moved across the border to Mount Gambier. Our radio training included use of the key for morse code, and familiarisation with the Australian designed AT5/AR8 radio gear.

After finishing  the navigator/wireless course and being awarded my navigator’s brevet, I was sent to No 5 Operational Training Unit which at that time was located at Tocumwal. It had moved there from Forest Hill, having been formed there shortly after No 30 Beaufighter Squadron had been formed at Richmond in March 1942 under Wing Commander ‘Blackjack’ Walker.

Wing Commander Brian  Walker was the Commanding Officer at Tocumwal, but he wasn't too popular there because of the way he humiliated officers at Dining-In nights in the Officers’ Mess. Most of the pilots there were very experienced fellows, having been staff pilots or instructors at various flying training establishments round Australia. And they didn't take too kindly to the idea of being regarded as schoolboys and physically punished for some minor infraction at Dining-In nights. Offenders were made to bend over a mess table while the Wing Commander took a long run and delivered an almighty kick in the backside, which usually resulted in the victim being booted off the end of the table..

 The pilots and navigators on my course were put together at one stage and informed that they had to pair off and form Beaufighter crews.  Since the pilots didn't know anything about the navigators, and vice versa, none of us had any way of knowing who would suit them. It was really a matter of pot luck — and was worse than getting married. I initially crewed up with Morrie Moroney, but he was scrubbed for some reason and was posted away from Tocumwal.

 Bob Wemyss had lost his navigator during the course and there was little we could do but form a Beaufighter partnership. So that was that. I have to say that I was very lucky, for Bob Wemyss was an exceptionally good pilot. He was a Queenslander who had enlisted in 1942 and after doing an Instructor’s course with Central Flying School at Tamworth had been teaching trainee pilots at No 8 Service Flying School at Bundaberg immediately before being posted to Tocumwal.

Others on the course included Gordon Fenton and his navigator Rowley Nelson, as well as Bert Moody and his navigator, Bert Aitcheson .

On completion of the course at Tocumwal we were sent off to an Embarkation Depot to do a hardening-up course prior to going to the tropics. There we learned how to cope with bombs, climb over nets and other obstacles, fire pistols and rifles, and so forth.

That lasted for about three weeks, after which we were issued Rail Warrants, were put on a train and sent northwards to Townsville. We had quite a good journey from Brisbane, the train was very comfortable, being equipped with sleepers (although we had to use our own bedding). I learnt to pay poker during the three days and nights of that train journey.

We stayed at a pleasant transit camp near Townsville and then we embarked on the Canberra  in June 1944, and  had quite an enjoyable voyage across to Port Moresby. We hung around there for a couple of days and were then able to hitch a ride across to Aitape, to join 30 Squadron (then under the higher control of 13th Air Force), arriving there on 12th July, about a month after Wing Commander Gibson was killed. He had been test flying a Beaufighter which had been giving some trouble, veered off to one side just as he was getting airborne and crashed into a huge bulldozer.

My best friend was also killed during a take-off at Aitape. That was Roy Wagner, a navigator who flew with John Hutchison. During an earlier take-off not long after their arrival at Aitape they had swung very badly and just missed the control tower. Later, Roy told me that if his pilot ever did that again he wouldn't fly with him any more. But Hutchison couldn't control the swing of his aircraft when he took off on 23rd July in A19-173  and went in, killing both members of the crew.

We were very nearly killed at Aitape ourselves for my pilot also had trouble handling the Beaufighter's tendency to swing and we had a close call during a take-off from that strip. Bob and I talked about this matter and came to the conclusion that some of the instructors at Tocumwal had been on Beaufighters in England, where they used solid-surface, long, and wide runways, which meant there was room and time to correct any swing. So those instructors never really appreciated that a problem existed in Australia, or in the short, narrow, emergency strips in the operational areas. Hence the matter was never mentioned at Tocumwal.

One of those self-same instructors who had been in the UK, (and who was never liked), eventually joined 30 Squadron when it was at Morotai. The fellows later told me with great glee that they had watched him take off one morning in his usual fashion — throttles full forward right from the start — and he developed a very bad swing as he surged down the strip. He soon modified his practices and adopted the technique used by the other pilots.

The main groundstaff element was back at Kiriwina and we didn’t have many technicians with us at Aitape, which was only a temporary location for the Squadron  (it was slated to move from Kiriwina to Noemfoor). Our camp was situated in a coconut plantation right near the ocean and a sandy beach, and the conditions at Aitape was a good introduction to operational life in the Service. We lived in tents, had an Aircrew Mess, but were on American rations - terrible stuff and awfully monotonous. Particularly obnoxious was the tinned butter which was always rancid.

Others who joined 30 Squadron at about the same time as Bob and I were Ralph Clay and Keith McKenzie, Ron Graham and Gordon Wallace, John Young and Sid Heath.

We lost a number of aircrew while the Squadron was located at that operational strip. Squadron Leader Gordon Fenton and his navigator,  Pilot Officer Rowley Nelson, were shot down by ack ack at Boram just a day after we arrived at Aitape, and only ten days after they themselves had arrived. On his arrival, Gordon Fenton had taken over command from Squadron Leader Jack Sandford (on his second tour with 30 Squadron) who had been temporary Commanding Officer after Phil Gilbson’s death, and who assumed temporary command again after Gordon Fenton’s death.

Harry Baldock and Norm Abbot who had joined the Squadron not long before Xmas were lost during a sortie in the vicinity of Muschu Island in  A19-185 on 13th July. Cliff Satchwell and Jim McNamarra were shot down at But in A19-174 about five days later.

We nearly came to grief at But on our very first operation and the first time we were exposed to ack ack fire. The stuff was coming up at us rather thickly and Bob though his best chance was to keep down low and keep his finger on the firing button as he ran over the target. As he pulled up from his attack run, our aircraft splurged and we went through the tops of the coconut trees. Back at Tadji we found that both engine nacelles were very badly damaged, in fact they were flattened in some places.

From Aitape we did the tasks usually carried out by the Beaufighters — destroying barges, stores, dumps, supplies, and targets of opportunity. We also did some close co-operation with our ground troops, as the Army were pushing up towards Wewak. I don't think any of our targets were located in New Britain; our area of operations was generally associated with Wewak. We didn't actually attack that place, for it was well fortified with many ack ack guns.

We flew our Beaufighter to Noemfoor, carrying two of the groundstaff and all our personal gear, landing there on 4th August 1944, where we were driven from the strip to a semi-cleared patch of jungle, told to pick up a tent from a pile, put the thing up, and settle in. We had about half a day to cut down trees and get things organised. The camp was practically next door to that of 22 Squadron, which was equipped with A20 Bostons.

In time, Bob and I had quite a comfortable establishment with a wooden floor raised up on stumps.  Flight Lieutenant Bert Moody and Sergeant Bill Aitcheson were our tent mates there for a short time. They were  in A19-209 and when it crashed on the Bomberai Peninsula towards the end of September. They were captured by the Japanese and tortured. Bert was said to have been beheaded.

The rocket rails were fitted to 30 Squadron aircraft soon after we arrived at Noemfoor and we all did a number of practice flights learning how to use them. However, there weren't too many targets we could use the rocket against and I think Bob used them on only two sorties. It would have been great if there had been some enemy ships around at that time. The Squadron went to quite a few targets in western New Guinea, down the Vogelkop Peninsular, down the other (southern) side of that, and down to Ceram. But attacks on targets in those locations were carried out with cannons and machine guns.

While we were at Noemfoor we were received an additional Dutch guilder note (per day, or per week or per pay), in addition to our normal pay. We were being supplied with rations from  American stores — chilli-con-carne, spam, spaghetti, and stuff like that. Quite a variety of  goodies were  available, but I preferred the Australian-made chocolate to the American-made stuff.

Bob Wemyss and I were loaned to 22 Squadron because they were short on crews. We did a conversion course on to Bostons and from time to time we'd do jobs with 22 Squadron and these were interspersed with jobs in our own Squadron. We went down in a Boston to attack small enemy ships in Ambon harbour, and while we were dropping our bombs there was a lot of flak from the Japanese guns on both shores of the harbour.

One of the disconcerting things about the crew arrangements in the Boston was that the navigator, who sat in the rear turret, had no way of moving forward to the pilot's cabin because of the massive fuel tanks in the mid-section of the fuselage. On the other hand, Bob Wemyss liked the tricycle undercarriage, for that made it very nearly impossible for the aircraft to swing on take-off. And I felt a little more comfortable in the back because there was so much armour plating around the turret, and I used to love swinging the turret around and firing off a few bursts on the twin point-five machine guns.

Jack Sandford stayed as Commanding Officer until the arrival of Wing Commander Carey Thompson. When we were all in the Aircrew Mess having our anniversary dinner, at which the Air Officer Commanding (Air Commodore Scherger) and other senior officers were present, Flight Lieutenant Bert Moody sang a song he had composed for the occasion. Bert, who was a fearless fellow, a man of high moral courage, and a very good and cheerful companion. 

This was his song that night:-

This brought a wild burst of cheering from most of the aircrew, all of whom appreciated the sentiments,but there was dead silence at the top table.

Bob Wemyss and I got three weeks leave to go south after we had been at Noemfoor for three months or so, We were home for Xmas 1944.

We left the Island just as the Squadron was moving  across to Morotai, and were witnesses to a terrible Beaufighter prang, when the aircraft  (A19-206) developed a terrific swing on take-off, crashed, and burned at the end of the strip. The pilot, Pilot Officer Rhys  Porch, couldn't be got out and was incinerated. The navigator, Flight Sergeant Harty, was burnt and badly knocked about and died later that day in hospital. The two groundstaff got out safely — they were running when their legs hit the ground.

Our Squadron was equipped with the Australian-built A8 series of Beaufighters while we were at Morotai. I considered it to be much superior to the English-built A19-series. For one thing, the performance of the A19 series on one motor was not anywhere near as good as that of the A8 series. If you lost a motor in am A8 aircraft it was certain to stay up, whereas it was always touch and go in the A19 series. We had numerous experiences of that at Noemfoor where an which aircraft lost a motor went in. Another difference was that the A8 series were rather faster by about 10 knots. I enquired about that and was told that the A8s had a smoother skin, and that was because they had a greater component of hand-finish than the English ones.

There wasn't any need to do much in the way of navigation when we were based at Aitape since our rather short flights were over the land and we could do map reading to and from the targets. However, the longish flights over the water from our base at Morotai called for the usual DR plot, and a high degree of accurate navigation to ensure that you made landfall at the designated spot on the enemy's coast. And I had to do some proper navigation in the way of creeping-line ahead searches when Kittyhawks went missing. The Beaufighter would have half-a-dozen or so Kittys spread out to starboard and another batch spread to port in order to improve chances of sighting the pilot's tiny dinghy.

The navigator's station in the Australian-built Beaufighter was fitted with an airspeed indicator, the dial of the Remote Indicating Magnesyn Compass, a tail drift sight, a standard P4 magnetic compass, a dial for the D/F loop, the radio gear, and a morse key on the navigation table. I sent messages on the key on only one or two occasions. We used RT  most of the time.

Towards the end of 1944 our Beaufighters were modified to carry bombs, sometimes the anti-personnel bombs, but most often the 250 or 500 pound General Purpose bombs. When we went to the Celebes from Morotai we used the bombs to try and knock out bridges (without too much success) and to damage aerodrome surfaces. We did a bombing raid on the Tondano power station while we based at Morotai.

We went up to Sanga Sanga; only about half-a-dozen aircraft went there initially. We had a beautiful campsite right by the water, so we were able to swim at any time of the day, and we had Filipino boys to look after our every need. It was some time before the rest of the Squadron, and No 22 Squadron, arrived there. From there we were able to support the landing at Labuan and other places in the Philippines.

Bob Wemyss and I had our tours extended because of the crew shortage, and we spent nearly a year with No 30 Squadron in the Pacific, arriving back in Australia in July 1945. We left at a good time because the Squadrons came back to Morotai from Sanga Sanga, and they did practically nothing after that.

After leave at home, I was posted to the Operational Training Unit at Williamtown where I did a variety of jobs — Intelligence Officer, Fire Officer, and so on. Then I did a ferry trip with Lionel Jacobs  a pilot whom I had known at Tadji; he had joined 30 Squadron a few months before us. We picked up a Beaufighter at Noemfoor, went on to Labuan, and escorted Kittyhawks back to Amberley.

I left the Air Force in January 1946.




PERSONAL  PARTICULARS

NAME            :    RICHARD  SYDNEY  WOODGATE
BORN ON         :    2 January    1925
BORN AT         :    Toronto, NSW
FATHER          :    Sydney Edward Woodgate
MOTHER          :    Heather Barbara Maude Irving
EDUCATED AT     :    Cessnock High School
                     Sydney University
MARRIED TO      :    Elizabeth  Mulholland
MARRIED ON      :    29 May 1954
MARRIED AT      :    Newcastle, NSW
CHILDREN        :    Catriona,  Victoria,  Richard Phillip Sydney,                          Alexander Kenneth,  James Lachlan
ENLISTED AT     :    Sydney
ENLISTED AS     :    Aircraftsman II (Aircrew)
ENLISTED ON     :    .. February 1943
COMMISSIONED ON :    27 March 1944
DISCHARGED ON   :    31 January 1946
RANK ON DISCHARGE    Flying Officer
OCCUPATION THEN :    Law Student at Sydney University
ADDRESS - 1990  :    9 Carisbroke Avenue Ave Kotira  NSW 2289
                 (049) 57 3527