AHSA Monthly Meeting 16 Sep 2020 (Derek Buckmaster: The Wirraway “Newspaper War”)

DerekB16/09/202027/12/2022

Derek Buckmaster gave a presentation on The Wirraway “Newspaper War”.

The AHSA September monthly meeting was held online via Zoom. A recording of the meeting is included below (click the image below to view the video):

1943 Two CAC Wirraway aircraft operated by 5 Service Flying Training School at Uranquinty, NSW, collided in mid air on 8 August 1943. The collision occurred following a diving attack during a formation flying exercise. A20-584 pulled up under A20-215 and collided and then partially disintegrated. The aircraft crashed 1½ miles from each other. From A20-215 Pilot Sgt L.H. White 413809 (staff instructor pilot) parachuted and survived with shock and inury to right foot, but trainee LAC Raymond Thomas Cooper 428633 was killed. From A20-584 both Pilot instructor W/O Frank Kenneth Smith 407450, and trainee LAC John Christopher Chantler 422931 were killed. Source: NAA A9186, 476

1945 Supermarine Seafire Mk III PR228 operated by the Royal Naval Air Service Bankstown crashed at on a hill at Barnawartha, 15 miles northeast of Chiltern, Victoria on 8 August 1945. The aircraft was returning from Laverton to Bankstown after drop tank trials at Laverton. On the way back it crashed on a hill at Barnawartha, 15 miles northeast of Chiltern, presumably due to bad weather conditions. The fighter was destroyed and the pilot, FLTLT Geoffrey William Schaeffer RAAF was killed. Schaffer had been the senior test pilot at RNAS Bankstown since February. Sources: aviation-safety.net website; NAA: A705, 163, 160, 168

1964 Three new RAAF DHC-4 Caribou aircraft on their delivery flight to Australia arrived in Vietnam on 8 August 1964 after diverting from Butterworth, Malaysia. Six new DHC-4 Caribou aircraft had already been delivered, making the long flight from the de Havilland factory in Canada to Australia via South East Asia. In June 1964, the Australian Government announced it would commit additional forces to the growing Vietnam conflict including six of the new Caribou aircraft. So the third group of new Caribou aircraft (A4-171, A4-179, A4-185) on their delivery flight to Australia was diverted from its stopover point at Butterworth, Malaysia, to Vietnam, with the ferry crews handing over the aircraft to personnel of the newly created RAAF Transport Flight Vietnam (RTFV), a new unit created on 20 July at Butterworth. Initially arriving at Vung Tau, located on the coast 60km southeast of Saigon, an official ceremony for the RTFV was held on 10 August before the aircraft commenced operations on 14 August. A second batch of aircraft arrived from Australia by 29 August. Under the command of SQNLDR Chris Sugden, a former WW2 and Korea veteran, the RTFV initially comprised seven officers, seven senior non-commissioned officers and six airmen. By June 1966, the RFTV was expanded to become the re-formed No 35 Squadron and would remain in Vietnam serving with distinction until 1972. The Caribou proved ideal for operations in Vietnam, given the plethora of small unsealed airstrips across the country. Over eight years, Caribou aircraft would conduct 81,000 sorties, carrying 680,000 passengers and 46 million kilos of cargo earning the unit the nickname ‘Wallaby airlines’; a nickname that has remained with 35 SQN ever since. Source: Air Force Association SA Division