Turning Point by Michael Veitch

Author:Michael Veitch [VEITCH, MICHAEL]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Hachette Australia
Published: 2019-07-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 20

THE KITTYHAWKS STRIKE

Just when the RAAF pilots and airmen at Gurney Field believed that no more rain could possibly be wrung from the sky, it turned on a deluge like nothing seen before. In the two days prior to the battle, they recorded over a foot and a half, and the runway reached the point where it seemed to be suspended over a sea of mud. Men bounced on it as if walking across a trampoline, and the makeshift methods the engineers devised to clear the seeping goo were stretched to their limit.

The tension of the living conditions and the inaction was taking its toll. The Japanese had been expected for weeks, and eventually the pilots’ adrenaline had begun to stale. The Zeros had appeared sporadically to strafe and attack, but the men were desperate to get their hands on the enemy, particularly as their living conditions, in Southall’s words, were devolving ‘to a mere existence of mud and muck and misery’.

Squadron Leader Keith Truscott, who had been unlucky enough to be rostered off flying duties on each of the occasions the enemy had made an appearance, was known to relieve his frustration by simply taking off in his Kittyhawk, unannounced and alone, and flying around – sometimes for hours. Where he flew and what he did was never discovered. Perhaps he did it simply to buy himself some time in the cooler air, away from the mud and the heat, and especially the snakes, spiders and other tropical crawlers, which he particularly loathed.

All this changed, however, the morning the Japanese barges pulled up onto the beach at Goodenough Island, offering themselves as target practice for the Kittyhawk pilots. Finally, the men knew, the battle was coming – and they were ready for it.

In the early hours of 26 August, 75 Squadron’s Pilot Officer ‘Buster’ Brown was awake, serving as duty officer at Gurney Field, listening to the sounds of mortar and machine-gun fire several miles away up the Government Track. At any moment he expected the telephone to ring, but for now he was happy to let the men sleep. Over the next few days, he suspected, there would be very little of it to be had.

The quiet came to an abrupt end around 2 a.m. as a screeching whine passed overhead, followed by a tremendous explosion some way off. The guns of the Japanese cruisers had opened up, probing for the airstrip. Brown grabbed the telephone receiver and managed to contact 75 Squadron’s commander, Les Jackson, to ask if he’d heard it.

‘Do you think I’m bloody deaf?’ was Les’s characteristic response.

For Jackson, getting back at the Japanese was a deeply personal matter. The squadron’s former and beloved CO, his own older brother, John, had been shot down and killed on virtually the last day of the six-week campaign earlier in the year defending Port Moresby. Now, as his replacement, Les would have a chance at revenge.

Soon all the pilots were awake and consulting with their ground crews,

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