Martin James: RAAF – Wilbur Wackett, Keith Noble, Lloyd Ritchie, George Warner
Posted on: Mon 6 Sep 2021
WWII. A two-aircraft formation operating in support of a Catalina flying boat on a covert mission to recover Commandos from a small island off Timor realised that on return, they would be reaching the Australian coast around dusk and were well aware that visibility could be hampered by a large amount of haze. Locating their base at Coomalie Creek Airfield in the Northern Territory could be a problem. And it was! RAAF Historian Martin James tells us the story.
Image: Coomalie Creek, NT. 20 January 1943. Crew members of No. 31 (Beaufighter) Squadron RAAF, still wearing their parachute equipment in front of their aircraft after returning from a mission over Timor. Left to right: Flying Officer K. N. McDonald; Flying Officer J. D. Entwistle; Sergeant W. Agnew, and Warrant Officer H. O. Thorncraft. AWM Copyright expired
