Download or read book RAAF Black Cats written by Robert Cleworth and published by Allen & Unwin. This book was released on 2019-09-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In March 1945 Reg Cleworth, a navigator on PBY Catalina seaplanes flying out of Darwin, went missing in action. No details were ever given about the incident that took his life, nor the reason his plane went down. For Reg's younger brother, Robert, the news came as a fulfilling prophecy. The last time they saw each other, Reg confided in Robert, 'I don't think I'm coming back'. Forty years later Robert decided to investigate what happened to his brother. What he uncovered was an extraordinary story of a covert Australian airborne mine-laying operation in cooperation with the US Seventh Fleet to disrupt the Japanese supply routes. One of the riskier and more dangerous RAAF undertakings of the Pacific War, secrecy restrictions were imposed on everyone involved. They were never formally lifted. Had it not been for a chance meeting that allowed Robert access to previously unopened files in the US national archives, this remarkable story may never have been untold. What he unearthed revealed the sacrifice and achievements of the RAAF Catalina crews and the vital role they played in MacArthur's strategic plan for the south-west Pacific. Absorbing, compelling and powerfully told, RAAF Black Cats is an important addition to our understanding of Australia's role in the Pacific War.
Download or read book Black Cats written by RAAF Air Power Studies Centre and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Dakota Hunter written by Hans Wiesman and published by Casemate. This book was released on 2015-03-19 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A tale of a lifelong passion for a WWII aircraft that changed the author’s life: “It is almost like an adventure novel except it is true” (Air Classics). This book tells the story of a Dutch boy who grew up during the 1950s in postwar Borneo, where he had frequent encounters with an airplane, the Douglas DC-3, a.k.a. the C-47 Skytrain or Dakota, of World War II fame. For a young boy living in a remote jungle community, the aircraft reached the proportions of a romantic icon as the essential lifeline to a bigger world for him, the beginning of a special bond. In 1957, his family left the island and all its residual wreckage of World War II, and he attended college in The Hague. After graduation, he started a career as a corporate executive—and met the aircraft again during business trips to the Americas. His childhood passion for the Dakota flared up anew, and the fascination pulled like a magnet. As if predestined, or maybe just looking for an excuse to come closer, he began a business to salvage and convert Dakota parts, which meant first of all finding them. As the demand for these war relic parts and cockpits soared, he began to travel the world to track down surplus, crashed, or derelict Dakotas. He ventured deeper and deeper into remote mountains, jungles, savannas, and the seas where the planes are found, usually as ghostly wrecks but sometimes still in full commercial operation. In hunting the mythical Dakota, he often encountered intimidating or dicey situations in countries plagued by wars or revolts, others by arms and narcotics trafficking, warlords, and conmen. The stories of these expeditions take the reader to some of the remotest spots in the world, but once there, one is often greeted by the comfort of what was once the West’s apex in transportation—however now haunted by the courageous airmen of the past.
Download or read book Black Cats written by and published by . This book was released on 2022-07 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of operations by RAAF Catalina flying boats from 1942 to 1945 against Japanese forces in the Western Pacific: long-range minelaying, bombing, supply drops and air-sea rescue, told by the Catalina pilots themselves.
Download or read book A Mystery Unsolved the Loss of Catalina A24 49 written by Robert Neville Alford and published by . This book was released on 2015-06-28 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Towards the end of WWII, in 1944, a heavily loaded RAAF Catalina flying boat, A24-49, launched from northern Australia for a seemingly routine mission over enemy territory in the Dutch East Indies. The aircraft, with ten crew onboard, vanished without a trace. For family members of those crewmen, this remains an enduring mystery. This book has been largely written and researched by historian Bob Alford, at the instigation of the nephew of the missing Catalina pilot, Tony Morgan. The book includes a thorough background on RAAF Catalina operations during WWII.
Download or read book Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force written by Air Force History Branch and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2021-06-01 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force tells the story of the RAAF’s first one hundred years by describing the acquisition, operation, and service record of the multitude of aircraft types flown by the RAAF. The 176 aircraft types include the flimsy wood and canvas aircraft typical of World War I, through the technological advances during and after World War II, to modern fifth-generation, complex aircraft like the F-35 Lightning II. Even before its formation Sir Richard Williams, the Father of the RAAF, had decided to employ an alpha-numeric numbering system to identify and account for each aircraft in service. This system started with A1, A2, A3 etc as each type of aircraft came into service. Each individual aircraft within each series was identified as A1-1, A1-2 and so on and the aircraft serial became known colloquially as the ‘A-number’. With some exceptions over the century since the A-number system started, aircraft entered RAAF service in broadly the sequence of the A-numbers, and so this book is intended to assist in charting the 100-year history of the RAAF by listing aircraft operated in A-number sequence, rather than by listing them by role (such as Fighter, Bomber, Maritime, Trainer, Transport etc) or alphabetically by name or by manufacturer. The inclusion of a comprehensive Index and the Quick Reference Guide to aircraft by role is intended to facilitate the location of the entry for any specific type of aircraft for those who may not already know its A-number. Aircraft of The Royal Australian Air Force is a must have for all those who have served in the RAAF, those with a passion for military aviation and aircraft in general, and the broader members of the public wishing to gain an appreciation of the Royal Australian Air Force in its centenary year.
Download or read book Sketches of a Black Cat written by Ron Miner and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2012-11-02 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Howard Miner was a student in a small midwestern college when the War broke out. His journey through training and tours of duty as a PBY pilot in the South Pacific are skillfully captured in his art and narratives, framing a wartime drama with a personal coming of age story. The Black Cats flew at night in seaplanes painted entirely black. Their assignments were varied, from patrols and bombing raids to rescues and missions that took them over thousands of miles of water and countless islands. This is a tale of ordinary people navigating through exceptional circumstances -- the friendships made, the cultures discovered, and the constant threat of enemy engagements. Sketches of a Black Cat is a memoir reconstructed by his son, Ron, from a small library of artwork, journal entries, and writing. Through his father's eyes and first hand accounts, we explore the behind the scenes life and idiosyncracies of the military, the antithetical humor, and very real dangers, and the poetic imagery of these tropical places from the air. The descriptive verse and the artist's viewpoint provides us a creatively told and intriguing portrayal of World War II's Pacific Theater"--Page 4 of cover.
Download or read book Airborne Espionage written by David Oliver and published by The History Press. This book was released on 2005-01-13 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the outbreak of the World War I there was no formal organization for the transport of spies across enemy lines by aircraft and no communications network between the air forces and their agents. The exploits of British and Commonwealth, American, Free European, Soviet, German, Italian and Japanese airmen and units are recorded in this account.
Download or read book Flying Catalinas written by Andrew Hendrie and published by Pen and Sword Aviation. This book was released on 2012-10-24 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The consolidated PBY Catalina was probably the most versatile and successful flying boat/amphibian ever built, serving not just with the US Army, Navy and Coast Guard during the Second World War, but also with the air forces of Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, with the Danes, Free French and Norwegians as well as in Brazil, Chile, Indonesia and elsewhere. With a remarkable lifting capacity and endurance, this long-range twin-engine aircraft could absorb a great deal of punishment and still return home after flights lasting an entire day and covering thousands of miles. It was employed as a maritime reconnaissance aircraft, as a bomber and torpedo-bomber, as an anti submarine weapon, as a mine layer, as a special operations machine and as a search-and-rescue craft by day and night. It ferried stores, mail and people - many of them sick and injured - across the world's oceans. In this book Andrew Hendrie tells the story of the "Flying Cats", of their achievements and exploits, of the heroism of many of the crews and the problems they had to endure.
Download or read book They Hosed Them Out written by John Bede Cusack and published by Wakefield Press. This book was released on 2012 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A classic Australian war novel, inspired by the author's experiences as an airgunner in the Second World War. This new, revised and annotated edition includes chapters never before published, a fascinating biography of John Bede Cusack by his daughter, Kerry McCouat, and an informative introduction by editor Robert Brokenmouth.
Download or read book They Fought Alone written by John Keats and published by Pickle Partners Publishing. This book was released on 2015-11-06 with total page 459 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The time: 1942. The place: The Japanese-occupied island of Mindanao in the Philippines. The Story: A stirring true account of a man who refused to be defeated. When the American forces in the Philippines surrendered in May, 1942, a mining engineer named Wendell Fertig chose to take his chances in the jungle. What happened to him during nearly three years far behind enemy lines is the amazing story that John Keats tells in They Fought Alone. For Fertig, with the aid of a handful of Americans who also refused to surrender, led thousands of Filipinos in a seemingly hopeless war against the Japanese. They made bullets from curtain rods; telegraph wire from iron fence. They fought off sickness, despair and rebellion within their own forces. Their homemade communications were MacArthur’s eyes and ears in the Philippines. When the Americans finally returned to Mindanao, they found Fertig virtually in control of one of the world’s largest islands, commanding an army of 35,000 men, and at the head of a civil government with its own post office, law courts, currency, factories, and hospitals. John Keats, who also served in the Philippines, has captured all the pain, brutality, and courage of this incredible drama, in which many memorable men and women play their parts. But They Fought Alone is essentially the story of one man—a testament to the ingenuity and sheer guts of an authentic American hero. “This remarkable story of guerrilla fighting in the Philippines during WWII...it is absorbing reading. . . . More remarkable still, though it contains death, torture, and desolation, it bubbles with humor.” —S. L. A. Marshall, The NY Times Book Review “A true and admirably researched account of an American hero who refused to accept defeat. His courage was incredible and his resourcefulness equally so. . . . I have read scores of books in this genre and Keats’ is one of the best.” —Chicago Tribune
Download or read book US Navy PBY Catalina Units of the Pacific War written by Louis B Dorny and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2013-01-20 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Deadly in its primary role as a submarine hunter, the PBY Catalina was the scourge of the Imperial Japanese Navy's submarine force. Its amphibious traits also made the aircraft well suited to air-sea rescue, and thousands of Allied airmen were saved from a watery grave by PBY crews. Using personal interviews, war diaries and combat reports combined with original Japanese records and books, Louis B Dorny provides a view on the role of the Catalina from both side of the war. Illustrated with over 80 photographs and colour profiles detailing aircraft markings, this is the definitive history of an insight into the PBY's use by the US Navy and Allied forces in the Pacific during World War 2.
Download or read book Into the Fire written by Dakota Meyer and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-09-25 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “The story of what Dakota did . . . will be told for generations.”—President Barack Obama, from remarks given at Meyer’s Medal of Honor ceremony In the fall of 2009, Taliban insurgents ambushed a patrol of Afghan soldiers and Marine advisors in a mountain village called Ganjigal. Firing from entrenched positions, the enemy was positioned to wipe out one hundred men who were pinned down and were repeatedly refused artillery support. Ordered to remain behind with the vehicles, twenty-one year-old Marine corporal Dakota Meyer disobeyed orders and attacked to rescue his comrades. With a brave driver at the wheel, Meyer stood in the gun turret exposed to withering fire, rallying Afghan troops to follow. Over the course of the five hours, he charged into the valley time and again. Employing a variety of machine guns, rifles, grenade launchers, and even a rock, Meyer repeatedly repulsed enemy attackers, carried wounded Afghan soldiers to safety, and provided cover for dozens of others to escape—supreme acts of valor and determination. In the end, Meyer and four stalwart comrades—an Army captain, an Afghan sergeant major, and two Marines—cleared the battlefield and came to grips with a tragedy they knew could have been avoided. For his actions on that day, Meyer became the first living Marine in three decades to be awarded the Medal of Honor. Into the Fire tells the full story of the chaotic battle of Ganjigal for the first time, in a compelling, human way that reveals it as a microcosm of our recent wars. Meyer takes us from his upbringing on a farm in Kentucky, through his Marine and sniper training, onto the battlefield, and into the vexed aftermath of his harrowing exploits in a battle that has become the stuff of legend. Investigations ensued, even as he was pitched back into battle alongside U.S. Army soldiers who embraced him as a fellow grunt. When it was over, he returned to the States to confront living with the loss of his closest friends. This is a tale of American values and upbringing, of stunning heroism, and of adjusting to loss and to civilian life. We see it all through Meyer’s eyes, bullet by bullet, with raw honesty in telling of both the errors that resulted in tragedy and the resolve of American soldiers, U.S. Marines, and Afghan soldiers who’d been abandoned and faced certain death. Meticulously researched and thrillingly told, with nonstop pace and vivid detail, Into the Fire is the unvarnished story of a modern American hero. Praise for Into the Fire “A story of men at their best and at their worst . . . leaves you gaping in admiration at Medal of Honor winner Dakota Meyer’s courage.”—National Review “Meyer’s dazzling bravery wasn’t momentary or impulsive but deliberate and sustained.”—The Wall Street Journal “[A] cathartic, heartfelt account . . . Combat memoirs don’t get any more personal.”—Kirkus Reviews “A great contribution to the discussion of an agonizingly complex subject.”—The Virginian-Pilot “Black Hawk Down meets Lone Survivor.”—Library Journal
Download or read book Semut written by Christine Helliwell and published by Random House Australia. This book was released on 2024-04-02 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: March 1945. A handful of young Allied operatives are parachuted into the remote jungled heart of the Japanese-occupied island of Borneo, east of Singapore, there to recruit the island's indigenous Dayak peoples to fight the Japanese. Yet most have barely encountered Asian or indigenous people before, speak next to no Borneo languages, and know little about Dayaks, other than that they have been - and may still be - headhunters. They fear that on arrival the Dayaks will kill them or hand them over to the Japanese. For their part, some Dayaks have never before seen a white face. So begins the story of Operation Semut, an Australian secret operation launched by the organisation codenamed Services Reconnaisance Department - popularly known as Z Special Unit - in the final months of WWII. Anthropologist Christine Helliwell has called on her years of first-hand knowledge of Borneo, interviewed more than one hundred Dayak people and all the remaining Semut operatives, and consulted thousands of military and other documents to piece together this astonishing story. Focusing on the operation's activities along two of Borneo's great rivers - the Baram and Rejang - the book provides a detailed military history of Semut II's and Semut III's brutal guerrilla campaign against the Japanese, and reveals the decisive but long-overlooked Dayak role in the operation. But this is no ordinary history. Helliwell captures vividly the sounds, smells and tastes of the jungles into which the operatives are plunged, an environment so terrifying that many are unsure whether jungle or Japanese is the greater enemy. And she takes us into the lives and cavernous longhouses of the Dayaks on whom their survival depends. The result is a truly unique account of the encounter between two very different cultures amidst the savagery of the Pacific War.
Download or read book Operation KE written by Dennis R Letourneau and published by Naval Institute Press. This book was released on 2012-11-15 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Operation KE explores the air combat that attended the Japanese evacuation of Guadalcanal in early 1943 —a topic which has hitherto received very little attention. Operation KE was successful largely because Japanese strategic planning and tactical execution was basically sound. The traditional view holds that the Japanese got away with the initiative largely because the Americans let them; the US Pacific high command felt it was not worth the effort to try and stop them. Letourneau contends that this was not entirely the case. He argues that the Cactus Air Force and Guadalcanal-based naval units did their best to disrupt the evacuation, still believing that the Tokyo Express was bringing reinforcements and supplies to the 17th Army. Other US forces in the South Pacific did make a half-hearted and questionably-executed attempt to stop the Japanese, but were bluffed into adopting a ""wait-and-see"" posture. Operation KE focuses on the air war fought between the Cactus and US 13th Air Forces on the one hand and the Japanese Navy and Army Air Forces on the other, from mid-December, 1942 to mid-February, 1943. The book scrutinizes the US air strikes against the six KE-related Tokyo Express destroyer runs, plus related air strikes against the Japanese merchant marine, as well as air and naval base-suppression missions undertaken by both sides, to determine what actually happened in order to analyze why the Japanese evacuation succeeded and why Cactus failed to stop it. Background chapters attempt to assess the respective states of readiness of the Japanese and US air arms in the South Pacific to support on the one hand and counter on the other the execution of Operation KE. The central portion of the book narrates in some detail what actually occurred in the air and at sea -—including air strikes, fighter sweeps, base suppression missions, and naval sorties -—during the crucial prelude to and the actual playing out of the interrelated events that comprised the evacuation operation. Concluding chapters analyze, on both strategic and tactical levels, the Japanese planning and execution of Operation KE, and Cactus' initiatives to interdict KE's successful prosecution. The authors conclude that both the Japanese and the American states of readiness on the eve of Operation KE suffered in such matters as optimizing both resources and operating procedures, and combating a hostile environment. Consequently, both combatants were somewhat handicapped in their abilities respectively to carry out and contest Operation KE. The author contends that the Japanese developed a reasonably sound strategy that exploited those methods and tools of war then in use in the South Pacific; to achieve success, they maximized their own strengths while taking advantage of their adversary's limitations. Contrary to the traditional view, the authors are of the opinion that Japanese utilization of their newly-built airstrip at Munda in the Central Solomons played an important role in the success of Operation KE, which was in keeping with the long-range intention of developing Munda and Vila airstrips as major forward airbases to defend against any Allied push toward Rabaul through the Solomons. The U.S., on the other hand, by consistently misreading Japanese intent regarding Operation KE and pursuing a cautious offensive strategy, blunted the tactical impact of their initiatives to counter the evacuation. Several imprudent tactical decisions and a misallocation of resources further diluted the strength of US efforts."
Download or read book The Study of the Bayeux Tapestry written by Richard Gameson and published by Boydell & Brewer Ltd. This book was released on 1997 with total page 266 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Key articles on the Bayeux tapestry collected in one volume, providing a comprehensive companion to its study.
Download or read book Lake Boga at War written by Breet Freeman and published by . This book was released on 2023-06 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1942 a secret inland flying boat base was established in the picturesque north-western Victorian town of Lake Boga. This housed No. 1 Flying Boat Repair Depot, a large unit of almost 1,000 personnel that serviced and repaired Dornier, Catalina and Mariner flying boats, many of which had just flown back from the frontlines of the war against Japan. The flying boats were from three nationalities and four services: the RAAF, Dutch naval air service, USN and USAAF.The end of the war saw the base close down quickly, although the memories of the wartime years were kept alive through the research and passion of Swan Hill resident, the late Brett Freeman. The original edition of Lake Boga at War was published by Brett in 1995. It was one of most successful Australian aviation history books of its era, bringing to life the remarkable activities at this little-known base. This revised edition seeks to bring these stories to a new generation of readers.Brett Freeman has made an invaluable contribution to the history of my home district and of the wartime RAAF. Those who served at Lake Boga, those who are drawn to the sight of a majestic Catalina alongside this lake of curiously changeable mood, will be richer for this work.Air Vice Marshal Alan E Heggen AO
