5 November 1940. A SQUADRON OF GLADIATOR FIGHTER PLANES
PILOTED BY MEMBERS OF No.3 SQUADRON RAAF
Engine Fitter
5 November 1940. A SQUADRON OF GLADIATOR FIGHTER PLANES
PILOTED BY MEMBERS OF No.3 SQUADRON RAAF
By Val St. Leon - Written 2007.
It's sad to record the passing of Jack Hamilton, an original member of the first overseas draft from Richmond of 3 Squadron on 15th July, 1940. Jack departed for the Middle-East on the Orontes with 21 officers and 271 other ranks, as a Leading Aircraftsman, and returned to Australia on the Stirling Castle as a Sergeant on 28th March, 1942. His name is recorded on the brass plaque on the old entrance gates at Richmond, where I presented arms to the Squadron as they marched out to the war in black leggings, to the rousing strains of "Roll Out the Barrel" from the station band.
Jack Hamilton, Reg Young and myself all joined the RAAF on the same day as trainee fitters on 16th October, 1939, and we went our separate ways on posting. Imagine my chagrin when early in June 1940 Jack and Reg were posted to 2AD Richmond to join 3 Squadron, which was equipped with Hawker Demons as an Army Co-operation Squadron and about to depart for the Middle East.
Three months later, I was posted to the Squadron and with 18 others we were the first reinforcements and embarked on the Aquitania, without the band or leggings, and I celebrated my 19th birthday between Perth and Bombay. S/L Duncan Campbell was in command of this draft, which included F/O Dick Hickson (father of Jill) and Lex Winton whose father had bredthe famous racehorse Bernborough. Lex and I had become friends at Richmond when he had ferried a Moth Minor down from Archerfield and I had taken him to the 'Dude Ranch' at Castlereagh, to meet friends who owned this establishment, which was noted for good-looking society girls on holidays. (It's not true that a bell used to ring at 6 am to ensure that everyone was in their correct bed when morning tea arrived.)
After reaching 3SQN at Ikingi Mariut near Alexandria, we discovered that the Squadron had been split and we stayed with the Lysander flight, doing Army Co-Operation exercises with the 6th Division.
MIDDLE EAST, 1940. A LOW FLYING LYSANDER AIRCRAFT OF
NO.3 SQUADRON, RAAF, PICKING UP A MESSAGE SLUNG
ON A LINE BETWEEN TWO RIFLES STUCK IN THE GROUND.
[AWM 043191]
Shortly afterwards we proceeded up to the war zone where the rest of 3 Squadron was engaging the forces of evil (namely Italians) near Fort Capuzzo at Sollum. It was here that I was reunited with my mates Jack Hamilton and Reg Young, but they told me from their lofty experience as "Originals" that I was only a "Reo".
Jack, who was six years older than me, had grown a moustache and took a fatherly interest in my welfare, and we shared whatever extra food or beer we could scrounge. The Squadron cook, George Branch, laboured mightily with the meager rations available to him but would have presented no competition to modern-day "celebrity chefs".
Life was tough, we were hungry and it was bitterly cold. Sometimes we would receive a Comfort Fund or family parcel from home and we struggled to maintain the Gladiators and Gauntlets. Our pilots also struggled to gain mastery over the Italian CR42s. Jack and I waited the return of `B' flight which had engaged the Italians over Bardia, and one of our Gladiators seemed to be in trouble, bounced very badly on landing and became stationary. We rushed onto the landing field, which was pure desert, to find Lex Winton unable to use his left (throttle) hand, as a bullet had penetrated the palm. We unstrapped him, lifted him out and Lex was on his way to hospital, but the wound never healed. He later served with distinction in New Guinea but was still wearing bandages on his hand when last we met in Brisbane about 1943.
Jack, Reg and I, being all fully qualified Fitter IIEs, did not last long in the flights and soon with the reorganisation of the Squadron found ourselves in `workshops', under the control of F/Sgt Norm Ford and commanded by F/O Bert Boddison, who had served in WWI. This unit was entrusted with the serious busi¬ness of major overhaul, and here we stayed until our posting home in 1942. Groupings of mates had started to occur and the tent which contained Jack, Ron Bottle, Harry Bews, Jim Jelly and Bob Peters jealously maintained its seniority and influence. Lesser mortals, such as Reg Young, Mal Timms and myself, were occasionally invited to join them, but only on special occasions when my guitar provided entertainment from a very limited repertoire, heavily spiced with risque songs.
After our hurried departure from Benghazi (where on one occasion we thought we were being gassed and then strafed by Me110s at Derna Pass) we regrouped and proceeded by train to Aquir and then Lydda to re-equip with Tomahawks and all the Fitter Ils were promoted to Corporal. It was here I was bitten by a scorpion and hospitalised in an RAF hospital. It seemed to Jack and Reg that I was being kept in hospital too long and as they were going into Tel Aviv for the night I should join them. Jack stole a long ladder and they placed it outside my third floor window and I escaped to the Australian Comfort Fund Canteen, where our presence agitated the 6th Division who started making threatening gestures. They had recently arrived the worse for wear from Greece.
28 April 1941. ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT. THE ARRIVAL OF TROOPS
EVACUATED FROM GREECE AND CRETE. [AWM 008183]
Things looked very ugly as they had little air-support on their retreat and here were six `blue orchids' drinking in THEIR canteen. Jack approached an A.I.F. Padre (with tactics that soon after made him a Sergeant) and we were saved by this gentleman of the cloth, who made an impassioned speech from a table-top that we were "all Australians", etc.
We escaped, but I was in trouble and on a charge, as a bed-check had been made at the RAF hospital during my absence. I thought that Jack should have been charged too, as being an accessory after the fact; but instead Norm Ford used him as a minor functionary, when the charge was read out in front of Bert Boddison.
"Left, Right, Left, Right! Halt! Salute! Caps Off!", and Jack read the charge.
"Escaping from an RAF Hospital?" said Bert Boddison. "This corporal should be given a medal! Charge dismissed."
Jack grinned and when outside he whispered: "You don't know how much trouble I had finding that ladder!"
I suppose I could carry on with many tales of those days; and Jack would be in a starring role. But after the Syrian campaign and the second retreat from Libya (at El Gazala) Jack, Reg Young, Mal Timms and myself were posted home, as we were "Permanent RAAF". There was no other reason that we could determine at the time and we thought we were deserting the Squadron, which went on to better things than we had experienced.
Jack volunteered for aircrew after our return and completed his ITS at Bradfield Park and started training in Canada, but was invalided home with problems that had their genesis in rough conditions and poor food in the desert.
We kept in touch, but he became very deaf, which, he informed me, was caused by the amount of "B/S" evident after we returned home. He had reached 90, was always a gentleman and a good mate. He will be missed.