RAAF Black Cats by Robert Cleworth & John Suter Linton

Author:Robert Cleworth & John Suter Linton
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Allen & Unwin
Published: 2019-07-21T16:00:00+00:00

8

THE FIGHTING MEN

JANUARY TO FEBRUARY 1945

In the first week of January, the JCS gave General Douglas MacArthur a late Christmas present—he was appointed commander of all ground forces in the Pacific Theatre of war. Admiral Chester W. Nimitz was made commander of all naval forces, which now included Admiral Thomas C. Kinkaid’s Seventh Fleet. This definitive separation of responsibilities meant that MacArthur and Nimitz would have to work together in their push towards Japan. The immediate task was to launch an amphibious landing on the main Philippine island of Luzon. Operations were also planned for an assault on the outer Japanese islands of Iwo Jima and Okinawa before, eventually, striking at Japan itself. Nimitz’s plan to take Formosa, in the South China Sea, had been postponed.

At the end of the first Sino-Japanese War in 1895, Formosa became a Japanese colony. Any Chinese resistance had been quashed by the turn of the century, and the inhabitants were indoctrinated into Japanese culture. Part of the indoctrination included rewarding parents with increased rations if they gave their children Japanese names. Under colonial rule, particularly during the 1930s, Formosa increased its agricultural, mining and industrial output to supply food and materials to feed Japan’s military. By the mid-1930s, it had become an important base for both the IJA and IJN, and was the launching pad for the invasions of British Malaya and the Philippine islands in December 1941. From 1937, over 200,000 Taiwanese were enlisted in the IJA. Some of these Taiwanese were among the invasion force that took the Philippines and had remained there as part of the occupying army.

Anticipating the Allies’ move to take Formosa, as well as strategic airfields along the east coast of mainland China, Japan hurriedly reinforced its defences. Apart from building up ground forces and increasing the number of aircraft to be used in kamikaze raids, naval ships now became permanent obstacles in the harbours. After the failure at Leyte Gulf, the IJN ordered any ships that were too damaged to repair, or low on fuel and surplus to the navy’s needs, to anchor in various harbours and remain there as defence platforms to repel any invasion. For the RAAF Catalinas, this meant having to face increased anti-aircraft activity when trying to reach their targets.

Former Flight Lieutenant Clem Clemesha, first engineer with 20 Squadron, recalled ‘getting a surprise’ when mining Surabaya, in the Netherlands East Indies, early in 1945:

On arrival at the target area during the night, the Skipper had to fly straight and level for so many seconds at just a few hundred feet, and signal to the Navigator, who would be down in the nose of the aircraft, when to let the mines go. They were dropped so many seconds apart. This particular time, as the Navigator was just about to release them, he called over the intercom, ‘Christ almighty Skipper, there’s a ship right underneath us.’ I don’t remember what anyone else said, but all hell broke loose and without any further ado he let

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