Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service
Preface
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Growing Up
Chapter 2: Port Moresby Before Pearl Harbour
Sydney to Port Moresby by DH-86
First Impressions of Port Moresby
Meteorological Office Routine
Flight to Kokoda
Tropical Meteorology
John (Doc) Hogan
Setting up House
We Join the RAAF
A Contrast in Attitudes
Some RAAF History
RAAF No 10 Squadron
RAAF No 11 Squadron
The Catalina Story
Construction of the Seven-mile Airstrip and Reclamation Area
Meteorological Service for the RAAF
Unexpected Vistitors
Our State of Readiness
Our Domestic Situation
A Japanese Surprise Packet
What Had We Meteorologists Achieved?
Chapter 3: Port Moresby After Pearl Harbour
Chapter 4: Allied Air Force HQ and RAAF Command, Brisbane
Chapter 5: Japan Surrenders and We Are Demobilised
Epilogue
Acknowledgements
Appendix 1: References
Appendix 2: Milestones
Appendix 3: Papers Published in Tropical Weather Research Bulletins
Appendix 4: Radiosonde Observations 1941–46
Index
Search
Help
Contact us
Some RAAF History (continued)
In 1938 Darwin, Townsville and Port Moresby were designated as RAAF bases but their modest establishment did not begin until the following year. The only established RAAF bases in 1939 were at Point Cook and Laverton, near Melbourne, and Richmond, west of Sydney.When Australia declared war on Germany in September 1939, the focus of our military planning was on Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. The Sixth Division AIF sailed for the Middle East in January 1940. Units of our Navy sailed to the Mediterranean and many of our RAAF squadrons moved to England and the Middle East. The many RAAF recruits who joined the Empire Air Training Scheme proceeded to Canada for preliminary training for duties in England and the Middle East. RAAF Squadrons No 10 and No 451 operated Sunderlands in RAAF Coastal Command.
RAAF No 10 Squadron
The intriguing and heroic story of No 10 Squadron has been written in some detail by Flt Lt K. C. Baff (1983) and by Stewart Wilson (1992). That squadron, formed at Point Cook in July 1939, was despatched to England to take delivery of seven Short Sunderland flying boats, built by the same company which had produced the Short Empire 'C' Class flying boats used by Qantas, and quite similar in appearance apart from the armament of the Sunderlands. Arrangements were well in hand for the aircraft to be flown to Australia when German forces invaded Poland in 1939. The Australian Government agreed to a British request that No 10 Squadron should remain in England to assist in the protection of Allied shipping in the Atlantic from submarine and other naval attack. No 10 Squadron Sunderlands did not arrive in Australia until 1944 when they became No 40 Squadron RAAF. Sqn Ldr Pearce, Sqn Ldr Gibson and Sqn Ldr 'Dick' Cohen (all of whom I had the good fortune to meet in Port Moresby in the course of duty with the RAAF Meteorological Service) all earned DFCs while serving with No 10 Squadron in England. Sqn Ldr Pearce was the first member of the RAAF to be awarded the DFC.
People in Bright Sparcs - Cohen, Dick (Kingsland)
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
Published by Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre, using the Web Academic Resource Publisher
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