Glimpse of the RAAF Meteorological Service
Preface
Foreword
Introduction
Chapter 1: Growing Up
Chapter 2: Port Moresby Before Pearl Harbour
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
1788
1822
1840
1841
1850
1853
1855
1857
1859
1863
1873
1879
1887
1894
1901
1903
1904
1908
1910
1914
1918
1916
1917
1919
1920
1921
1928
1932
1933
1934
1936
1937
1938
1939
1940–1944
1940
1941
Dec 1941–Jan 1942
1942
1943
1944
1944–1945
1945
1946
Appendix 3: Papers Published in Tropical Weather Research Bulletins
Appendix 4: Radiosonde Observations 1941–46
Index
Search
Help
Contact us
1942 (continued)
6 Mar: RAAF reconnaissance aircraft sights invasion fleet assembling in Rabaul harbour. Convoy sighted later headed towards Salamaua.7 Mar: Eighth Japanese raid on Port Moresby by 10 bombers.
8 Mar: Japanese occupy Lae and Salamaua.
11 Mar: General Douglas MacArthur and party escape from Corregidor in two torpedo boats arriving Mindanao 13 March; fly from Mindanao to Batchelor airstrip south of Darwin 17–18 March. Fly in DC-3 aircraft from Batchelor to Alice Springs; by train to Adelaide arriving 19 March thence by train to Melbourne, arriving 21 March. Establishes headquarters in insurance building 401 Collins Street 23 March.
20 Mar: 15th and 16th raids on Port Moresby. Two waves of Zeros strafe Seven-mile airstrip.
21 Mar: 17 RAAF Kittyhawks of No 75 Squadron arrive in Port Moresby. These were the first fighters available for defence of the base. Because they had been long expected they had been christened Tomorrow-hawks' by local troops. Ground defences fire on Kittyhawks mistaking them for Zeros.
23 Mar: 17th Japanese air raid on Port Moresby by 19 high-level 'Betty' bombers supported by four Zeros. Seven-mile airstrip in poor condition; many Kittyhawks of RAAF No 75 Squadron unserviceable.
24 Mar: 18th Japanese air raid on Port Moresby by 18 bombers and four Zeros.
Mar-Apr: Japanese occupy Manus and Bougainville Islands.
10 Apr: 25th Japanese air raid on Port Moresby by seven bombers and six Zeros.
11 Apr to 13 May: Japanese make 23 air raids on Port Moresby.
17 Apr: After eight weeks eluding Japanese pursuers in jungle of Timor F/O Bryan Rofe and the surviving members of his party evacuated by night by US submarine and are transported to Perth.
18 Apr: MacArthur appointed Commander-in-Chief of Allied military forces in South-west Pacific (CINCSWPA). General Sutherland, MacArthur's Chief of Staff. General Blamey AIF in charge of land forces. General Brett USAF in charge of allied air forces and Vice-Admiral Leary USN in charge of naval forces. AVM Bostock, RAAF, appointed chief of staff to General Brett. AVM Jones appointed of Chief of Air Staff, RAAF.
3 May: Japanese occupy Tulagi.
5 May: All available Japanese aircraft bomb Port Moresby. RAAF No 75 Squadron (reduced to three Kittyhawks) withdrawn to Australia. USAF Airacobra fighters based in Port Moresby.
5–8 May: Japanese invasion force en route to Port Moresby repulsed by USN carrier task-force in Battle of Coral Sea. Many RAAF and USAF land-based aircraft, based mainly in Townsville, refuel in Port Moresby in search of Japanese fleet.
People in Bright Sparcs - Rofe, Bryan
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Bureau of Meteorology |  |
© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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