Tropical Forecasting in New Guinea, October 1943-February 1945 (continued)

In February 1944 I was posted from Port Moresby to No 71 Wing on Goodenough Island, where our weather office served three squadrons of Beauforts—Nos 6, 8 and 100—as well as some flights around the region by aircraft of the transport squadrons. At the beginning the Beauforts carried out strikes on Japanese positions in New Britain, and performed regular weather reconnaissance flights which also doubled as supply drops to spotters located in lonely spots on small islands occupied by the Japanese to make radio reports about enemy activities. I shared with my forecasting colleagues, Flight Lieutenant Errol Mizon, our officer-in-charge, and Flying Officer George Powell, the briefing of crews for strikes, and frequently when off-duty, flew on reconnaissance. Beaufort aircraft were not very comfortable, and had an indifferent reputation with some personnel, but I enjoyed the experience of being with my friends in aircrews. I confess to never liking low flying, particularly when the captain flew in low over a jungle location to drop a bundle of supplies through the chute of the aircraft, but it was an essential task. Not so essential was the habit of a flight commander from No 8 Squadron, who flew at about 50 feet above the Bismarck Sea, to put down the nose of the aircraft quite suddenly and blaze away with his front guns at some imaginary object. He would then turn to me as I sat on a step to his right and say, with a wicked grin, 'Sharks!'. I suppose he hoped that I would be deathly pale, but my Atebrin yellow did not change.

Bureau of Meteorology