TONY CLARK: It is fitting and proper that we should gather here today to commemorate and celebrate the lives of those many thousands of RAAF personnel present and past who served in Beaufort Squadron as we participate in this last reunion.
We gather here to manifest our gratitude to those with courage, skill and steadfast devotion to duty protected Australia during World War Two. We are profoundly aware of the cost of war. Many RAAF personnel were to lose their lives or to suffer terrible injury.
Many were to bear the consequences of their service in ways that we can never fully comprehend. The lives of 505 RAAF personnel who served in Beaufort squadrons were lost, including 96 personnel who died during Beaufort training in Gippsland. Unrelenting sorrow followed and the lives of countless families and friends were changed forever.
What better place to remember them than at this very place we stand today?
Sue has mentioned the formation of the various Beaufort squadrons associations. I'd like to quickly mention the no.7 Squadron Association, which was formed in 1946 by Gordon Phillips, who was to lead the association, the no.7 Squadron Association, for the next 52 years.
But I'd also like to mention Pilot Norm Raw. His role was crucial in the success of the first reunion. Beer was rationed at that time, and Norm was a laboratory manager. He was a laboratory manager with a great specialty. He was a fermentation chemist, and he was the chief chemist at Carlton United Breweries. And so, success was guaranteed. And it was by all reports, a very good reunion.
Similarly, John Kessey, John Lemcke and Colin King were instrumental in establishing the Beaufort Squadrons Association, which were mainly no.100 Squadron members with branches in all states. It's very easy to think of these reunions as an opportunity to retell the stories of past battle, to have a few beers. But their real value lay in the willingness of former members of Beaufort Squadrons to support their peers and to contribute over many years to the wellbeing of their mates.
Slowly, these associations that once had many hundreds of members began to fade away. And following the death of Hugh Roche, wonderful man and wonderful Ron and Betty McGrath. They asked Pam and I to organise the no.7 Squadron reunions. It's been an extraordinary privilege to participate in these reunions and to meet the men and women who flew, serviced or built Beauforts together.
With their families they shared their stories, their life events and welcomed us into their midst. We have never met a finer group of people. Those greatly admired by us who told their stories with humility and are much loved by those who know them. They were Australia's greatest generation, and we will never forget them.
I'd like to turn now to briefly tell a story of the Beaufort, which in 1939, in early 1939, the RAAF's first line aircraft strength was 55 Hawker Demons, 73 Avro Ansons and 22 Super Marine Seagulls. A total of 150 aircraft. All of them were obsolete.
Australia had earlier recognised the need for modern aircraft, but in March 1939 made the ambitious decision to build in Australia a British aircraft, the Beaufort, designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The intention had been to assemble Beauforts from components supplied by Bristol. But following the battle in Britain, an embargo was placed on the export of all aircraft material by the British government.
And so, from the Melbourne headquarter, a huge enterprise was hastily established to build the Beaufort and to manufacture all 39,000 parts that were required for each plane. Railway workshops in three states were utilised to manufacture major components to be assembled at plants at Fisherman's Bend and Mascot. Facilities were also established to build engines, gun turrets and under carriages.
Nearly 600 Australian contractors’ subcontractors manufactured almost every required component. Nearly 30,000 people were employed in the manufacture of Beauforts, of whom more than a third were women. And this was a great change in Australia’s social standing and the participation of women in these skilled manufacturing and administrative roles was a major industrial and social change.
The Beaufort was a state-of-the-art twin engine, all metal monoplane with stressed skin wings. The original design incorporated two Taurus engines but was modified in Australia to accept Pratt and Whitney R1830 engines. The aircraft was operated by a crew of four and carried either a single torpedo or 2,000 pounds of bombs and was well armed with guns.
700 Beauforts were built and were to prove indispensable, indispensable to the defence of Australia. Beauforts served with great distinction in more than 30 RAAF operational squadrons and units, and from the early days of their availability in late 1941, through to the surrender of the Japanese, Beauforts were deployed in patrols and convoy escorts along the coast of Australia seeking enemy submarine or surface vessel activity.
In late 1942, Beauforts based in New Guinea, began bombing raids, seaward patrols and torpedo strikes against Japanese shipping, close support to ground troops and technical reconnaissance flights. Beauforts were deployed against a multitude of targets in New Guinea, Papua, Indonesia, Timor and extended as far as New Britain in the Shortland Islands.
Three former wireless operator air gunners are present today, Flight Lieutenant Ron Appleton, Pilot Officer Norman Mann, and Squadron Leader Ted McConchie, who happens to be a former no.32 Squadron member, in fact, may be the only surviving no.32-member squadron member who served during World War Two. All served in Australia and New Guinea during World War Two. They are three of the many thousands of young men who trained, to operate and maintain Beauforts and they are, of course, very special.
I'd now like to turn to our distinguished guests. Air Vice Marshal Kym Osley and his wife, Debbie, who’ve been the most fabulous supporters of our reunion over many years. We're most grateful for their assistance and encouragement in and in championing of the Beaufort cause.
We also welcome today members of no.32 Squadron with Andrew 'Bluey' Daley, Andrew Daley is, of course, the current CO of no.32 Squadron. Former no.32 Squadron CO is Mark Oram, Dave Newman and John Day. And I'm not sure about the others. On behalf of those who have over so many years enjoyed the extraordinary hospitality of no.32 Squadron and of the School of Warfare, both units based at East Sale, we offer our sincere thanks for the kindness extended to Beaufort crews and their families.
With us today are many of the families of former Beaufort crews, and we thank you for joining us, especially today. Many of you travelled from interstate and great distances and your presence honours family members in a way in which only family can.
We've received generous messages from the Prime Minister and Sir Angus Houston, and I'm sure we'll be able to get you copies of those in some way.
But I also want to make thanks or make my thanks known to the Shrine of Remembrance Melbourne. Particularly Naias Mingo, Laura Thomas and Neil Sharkey. And many others whose names are unknown to me.
Whilst this is the last Beaufort squadrons reunion to be held, our commitment to the cause of ensuring the significance and contribution of Beaufort squadrons to the war effort in the Southwest Pacific area remains unwavering.
In this regard, in March 2003, a faithfully conserved Beaufort A9557 was unveiled at the Australian War Memorial in a ceremony attended by more than 400 former members of Beaufort squadrons and was displayed for only a couple of months. This historically significant Beaufort now languishes in lonely isolation at the Treloar Annex of the Australian War Memorial, standing without wings and engines and not accessible to the general public since 2003. We will continue to urge the Australian War Memorial to place Beaufort A9557 on permanent display, and we urge you to add your voice in support.
Our very great friend John Caddy, the late John Caddy, would not allow me to leave this podium without mentioning the Anzac Day march. I urge you and encourage you to join the Anzac Day march, as long as you are able to march behind the banner of the Beaufort Squadrons Association, and I thank you all for being here today.
Before I leave this podium, I would like to mention three books. If you are interested in further reading to do with Beauforts, then there is this excellent book written by Colin King 'Song of the Beauforts'. Colin was a wireless operator air gunner, a great mate and a very nice man. It's primarily about no.100 Squadron, but it tells the story of all squadrons, really, and it's a very good document. The other is a book by Kevin Gogler ‘We Never Disappoint' It's primarily about no.7 Squadron, and Kevin happens to be here in the audience this afternoon, and I'm sure he'll be happy to speak to you about this book. The last I won't say as good as the other books, but it's a book written by me. 'Remember Them', which is about the the accidents that occurred in Gippsland during the Second World War. It's a book of great sorrow. It's available at the book shop here at the Shrine of Remembrance. Thank you.
AVM KYM OSLEY AM, CSC: Sue, thank you very much. And Tony, thank you for those great words there. I'd also like to acknowledge the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation and also pay my respects to their elders past and present.
I look out on the group here and I just see so many friends. Deb and I have been coming to the reunions for a number of years, as Tony mentioned. And it's just great to see that. I'd particularly like to acknowledge our three veterans that are here and fantastic that you can come along today and be here. And I'll obviously be able to chat with you a little bit later.
Just as I walked up, I noticed that there was an air cadet from the Australian Air Force cadets in the front row, and it’s great to see you here today as well. And I'm sure that the veterans would also acknowledge that because part of the the preliminary preparation for people going through aircrew training often was to join the Air Training Corps back in 1941 to 1945. So, I know that only last year they celebrated the 80th anniversary of the Australian Air Force cadets, so just like to acknowledge that.
I'd also like to pass on the best wishes of Air Marshall Mel Hupfeld. Mel and I both have a similar background. He's a pilot. I was a weapons systems officer, but we both flew in fast jets and Mel didn’t fly in anything that vaguely resembled in performance a Beaufort. But he did fly an F-18, some Mirages, and he flew in F-18s in combat as well. And I've flown in combat as well. So, I sort of, I think Mel and I sort of understand in a very small way what the contribution of the Beaufort aviators and ground crews were. And he sends his best wishes down. He couldn't be here today.
Prior to coming to the regular reunions down here in Melbourne, I was associated for a long time with the Queensland Beaufort Squadrons Association, John Kessey, John Lemke and Alex Overett were some of the key members out of that organisation and over the years, I think I started in about 1989 or so my association with the Beaufort Squadrons Association in Queensland. And then over the years as Deb and I bounced back into F-111s and into ever increasing senior positions, we kept that association going and all the way through, and it was very, very good to have that connection and to bring in the Beaufort Squadron aviators and ground crews along regularly to RAAF base Amberley to talk with the current generation at that time.
2021, so last year was the 100th anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force, and it was a big year. We acknowledged during that year the contribution made by all aviators, all ground crew, all the different aircraft types and and tribes and trades over the 100 years up to 2021. But I must admit that the Beaufort had a very special place, particularly from my perspective, and that was sort of two key reasons.
Firstly, and I think Tony really touched on this, and that is the Beaufort was the leading-edge capability at the time, and we had all those obsolete airplanes that Tony mentioned at the start of the war. We needed very rapidly to get access to technology. In 1939, 1940 and the Beaufort was the way that we managed to do that.
We couldn't rely on just getting overseas aeroplanes delivered. We had to start producing them ourselves. And when we talk about numbers, it’s always good to put it in perspective. And we had 2150 Beaufort air crew that was quite a significant number. And if you add on the ground crews, 10% of the Royal Australian Air Force effort in World War Two was associated with the Beaufort. That's incredible. You know, we didn't just, you know, sort of put a few dollars down on the Beaufort. We put the whole lot. We bet on red and actually it came up for us. It ended up being a part of 19 frontline squadrons.
It was, as Tony put it, the workhorse of the Pacific War. The largest number of missions, combat missions, flown by any other RAAF aircrew ever was done in a Beaufort, and I think it was about 360. So, when you hear about people doing 30 or 40 missions in Lancasters, think that we had aircrew here in Australia that were flying five or six times a day and clocking up that number of missions, quite incredible. Secondly, the Beaufort was was our way of quickly going from being a a nation of farmers and a nation of sheep graziers, to actually becoming a highly industrial nation. And we used the Beaufort. We copied it, you know, shamelessly and it rapidly allowed us to mobilise Australian industry at a very critical time. Because of the fact that you had to Japan, and you had Axis nations preventing resupply and that we had to start building those sovereign capabilities.
And if you're wondering, there’s 39,000 parts in a Beaufort and so we ended up having about 600 companies around Australia. So General Motors Holden built Beaufort parts and I think probably the lawnmower companies-built Beaufort parts, but they built them everywhere in cottage industries everywhere, and then brought them together and actually put them together in seven factories across three states and then built those Beauforts. It was a massive undertaking, a massive amount of coordination, and one third of the workers working on those Beauforts were female. And so, for the reasons that obviously most of the males were off doing war service at the time.
I'll pause there and just sort of say we find ourselves today in a not too dissimilar situation in that the security situation around the globe is rapidly deteriorating. We can't really necessarily rely on, as they couldn’t in 1939 and 1940, on rapidly getting resupply from overseas. And so, we have to build our own capabilities, and we've been doing that for a number of years. So, the Beaufort provided a bit of a blueprint for what we're doing with the F-35. And the F-35 today, we have around about two and a half thousand people around Australia making parts for the F-35. Some companies are making 900 or 1000 parts. Every F-35 has Australian parts in it, and we're ratcheting up our sovereign capabilities. And the Beaufort, I think, demonstrated how that could be done very well, and we are continuing to do that in the defence force. So, it's more than just a combat aircraft. It really was a rally call for Australian industry and for Australia in general. I'll just finish up by sort of talking about how we need to honour the Beaufort air crew going forward. This might be the last reunion and there may be lunches going forward.
And at this point, I will thank Tony and Pam for the magnificent job that they've done organising this reunion and many of the others. But we're not just going to stop remembering the Beaufort air crew until once a year, we go to a lunch.
There are things going on all the time and I'll call out a couple. The Queensland Squadrons Association, as they disbanded, they created the Australian Defence Force Academy Beaufort Prize. It is the second largest prize given at ADFA. If you're wondering what the most prestigious is, the Spitfire people put in a few more dollars. So, they pipped us at the post. But each year an RAAF officer graduate gets awarded that prize so that they can further their studies in aerospace and air power. And as they get awarded that prize, another generation of ADFA air crew and ground crew and engineers suddenly become aware of the Beaufort and what it did over history.
Also no.32 Squadron well represented here today, and I'm very grateful to see the the ex-COs here and my old friend Dave Newman. We've known each other 44 years, so been around a long time and it's great to see that strong connection. It's not just no.32 Squadron. We just recently created no.100 Squadron again. So that's our historical aircraft squadron. No.1 Squadron flew the Beaufort. And as I said, and number six, and when I was in both of those squadrons, I was CO of no.1, and I was a flight commander in no.6. We recognised the Beaufort air crew and no.2 Squadron does the same.
So, I think you will see that there will be strong connections going forward and also through the Beaufort at the Australian War Memorial. I know that it went on display in 2003 and restoration stopped, but restoration actually was restarted during the COVID lockdown in 2020, and they are hoping to get it restored in the not-too-distant future. So, a bit of late breaking news there and they are expanding the War Memorial. So, there is ever hope that we'll get that aeroplane on display.
And also, through many local memorials. I personally went to the dedication of one memorial at the Bairnsdale Beaufort Garden. So, if you're going through Bairnsdale, worth the stop in the gardens there and also off at Bargara near Bundaberg, there's a memorial to the Beaufort and there are many other memorials around Australia. So, I think that, you know, they are being remembered there.
But perhaps finally, through you is how are we going to remember the Beaufort. And I give you each a challenge. I personally sat down with John Kessey, and I wrote down his story and gave it to his grandchildren. You have either firsthand experience with it, the three people in the room that actually were involved in it firsthand. The rest of you, you've listened to someone who was actually there. You need to write these stories down. You need to pass them on to the next generation and make sure they're not lost. It doesn't have to be elegant. You don't have to be an author like Tony or others. But just getting a couple of pages written down about what you remember about the stories is going to be very important into the future
Finally, I'll just say, what does the Beaufort mean to me? What do the Beaufort air crew and ground crew mean to me? I met many of them firsthand. I saw them as human beings and I saw their personalities and I saw the pride and the respect that they had and as they told their stories and as they acknowledged each other and that left an indelible mark on me. Deb and I helped many of them sort of write down their stories, not just John Kessey, but others. And we also helped with establishing that Beaufort prize and that I have the privilege of going along to ADFA and presenting that each year.
And I've unfortunately had a, I guess, been asked to on several occasions to deliver the eulogy to people for John Kessey, for Alex Overett, John Lemke and to speak on behalf of the Royal Australian Air Force, a very grateful Royal Australian Air Force and a grateful nation. And so, I think they have been, and they will always be role models to me personally and I think an ongoing inspiration to the current generation of aircrew, many of whom are down in the audience down there. And I think that it’s going to be something that we are going to hold up with great pride and continue to acknowledge that for many, many years to come.
So, we will absolutely remember them. Thank you.
NEIL SHARKEY: For today's special commemorative event, I’ve been asked to speak with you all about the creation of an exhibit here at the Shrine, which I'm guessing is going to be of special interest. The Beaufort Bomber B1. Mk. IV dorsal gun turret displayed in the Shrine’s Second World War Gallery was installed early last year and was a long-awaited and welcome addition to the Gallery.
It filled the gap that had been keenly felt by me, certainly, since July 2017, when a near identical turret that had been on display in the same location since October 2014 was withdrawn by its owner, The Royal Australian Air Force Museum at Point Cook. Mindful of the original turret’s loss, a visitor favourite since the opening of the Shrine’s Galleries of Remembrance, then-Chairman of Shrine Trustees, Christopher Spence, requested that the Shrine’s Exhibitions team source a replacement. It is possible that his former career may have piqued his interest in this particular project. Hours of effort, i.e., mine, had already been spent trying to do just this. Ie replace the turret. But the chairman's suggestion that the Shrine purchase rather than simply loan a turret, gave the project renewed impetus.
The Beaufort, as we’ve all heard, was Australia’s mainstay medium bomber in the Pacific during the war, designed in Britain by the Bristol Company in the late 1930s and built under license in Australia by the Department of Aircraft Production. The type almost a score of Royal Australian Air Force squadrons at one time or another. Some 23,800 workers, a third of whom were women, produced 700 finished aircraft between May 1941 and August 1944 at government aircraft factories, Fisherman’s Bend.
The importance of the Beaufort to the Royal Australian Air Force and the type’s significance in the history of the development of heavy industry in Victoria is why the Shrine had selected to loan a Beaufort turret for the Galleries in the first instance. Once upon a time, we had been far more ambitious. There's some more of the images.
When I first started working at the Shrine in 2007, plans for the gallery's redevelopment, which we’re now in the midst of, had included a large gallery space very close to where we are now seated just over here in fact, which would have housed an entire Beaufort bomber. The loan of the Beaufort from the Australian War Memorial, the aircraft that we've already mentioned, had in fact already been secured, signed off at the same time the Shrine had successfully negotiated the loan of the Devanha boat. Cest-la-vie.
When it became clear that the powers that be were not able to foot the bill to pay for the original business plan that the Shrine had, we revised our plans. A Beaufort dorsal turret was considered a charismatic and manageable alternative to the entire aircraft, and indeed, it proved to be the case when the Royal Australian Air Force Museum Point Cook agreed to loan a turret, they had recently taken off display. Here you will see a photograph of this lone turret and the enclosure that we built for it. So, it's quite a simple design. Just managing to hold the turret aloft and also to secure it from people trying to get inside it and so forth. You can't quite make it out. There was also a television screen here which displayed an audio visual. It was at this time, so at the time that we installed this turret, that the Beaufort audio visual representation, which accompanies both that turret and the current turret, was first developed by multimedia wizards Megafun.
A special shout out must go out to Keith Tucker and John Lloyd-Fillingham who crafted this magnificent piece of work, combining archival footage, digital animation and a section filmed at the Australian National Aviation Museum Moorabbin alongside the Beaufort Cockpit, which I’m sure many of you are familiar with. Some of you may remember Keith and John. They were guests at the 2014 Beaufort Squadrons Association reunion. There, they conducted interviews with many Beaufort crew, veterans and former DAP workers present that day. The sentiments and words these individuals shared about their experiences with Beauforts were incorporated into the script of the audio-visual presentation, so the association can really feel some ownership over that presentation. I've been told we may be able to watch it the presentation, for those of you haven't seen it before, after I speak, time permitting, so I better push on.
You can imagine the Shrine's dismay when the exhibit we had invested so much money, energy, research and talent was withdrawn in 2017. Hence, our drive to secure a replacement. You may be surprised to learn that Mk. IV turrets remain relatively common in this country even today. Unfortunately, most surviving Second World War aircraft componentry is derelict, incomplete and aesthetically speaking, more at home in landfill than museums. Far rarer than turrets, the build teams with the skill sets required to restore them to original condition.
Thankfully, two individuals; self-confessed Beaufort obsessive Tony Clark, who you've all heard from today and who you all know and love very well, I’m sure, provided me invaluable assistance on this project over the years, both for the original installation and for the restoration and installation of the new. And he put me in contact with the build team in Queensland who I'll speak about in a minute.
The other person who was of tremendous help was David Crotty. So, this is David here. He was a former conservation expert at the Australian War Memorial and also at the Qantas Founders Gallery. The turret restoration took place at the Australian Aviation Heritage Center in Caboolture, Queensland, under the direction of Ralph Cusack. That's Ralph there.
The all-volunteer workforce refurbished the turret in the same workshop as the group's primary project, A9141, a DAP Beaufort being restored to flying conditions So this is their hope that one day that this magnificent aircraft will actually not only be on display, but in the air. Now, our turret is assembled from the componentry of several war-era turrets, each sandblasted, beaten, straightened, welded, rivetted, painted, oiled and hand-stitched back into place. The artefact was painstakingly reformed between June 2018 and December 2019. So, you can see that's an example of what Ralph and his team were working with. And this is the sort of work you can see how they just beat out this object, stretched it out and reformed it, sandblasted it, painted and all the rest. So just tremendous work.
Excepting the replica machine guns mounted in its sponsons, for legality’s sake. modern acrylic canopy glass, rather than the identical, period-accurate perspex, which unfortunately yellows and becomes brittle with age, and two replica ammunition feed drums, the Shrine's turret is wholly original. It is a truly magnificent achievement. COVID restrictions delayed its delivery by ten months, but we finally landed it in Melbourne from Queensland with the help of the Royal Australian Air Force.
Design and construction of a brand-new display enclosure began immediately upon its arrival. So, there's the design for it. In addition to simply securing the turret as its predecessor had done, the new enclosure aims to evoke the aircraft's fuselage into which the turret was originally placed. So, you can see that's the shapes of the the ribs in the framework of the fuselage. We were able to use the measurements and so forth from that to create this form here and build in around the turret. At the risk of talking out of school, the enclosure would eventually end up costing more than the turret itself.
That’s not a reflection on the superb work done by theatre set design firm ShowWorks, another shout-out, but it does further highlight to me what a great deal we got with the turret in the first place. Ralph’s team certainly had a harder time on the project than they were expecting. When I asked him what advice he would give himself when next asked to restore a turret his response was one word - ‘don’t’.
Those present who remember the previous display and indeed, anyone who can compare the image of the original display of the lone turret and its enclosure and that of the new, will agree that the new enclosure and display represents a far superior visitor experience. So that's the original here. It's a very simple design. And this is the new turret. The audio-visual presentation has been taken down from the wall and included into the enclosure itself for that immediate experience, people can just sit down, touch it and learn all about it and here’s some other shots. Beautiful photographs that we have. There's the ribs of the enclosure and the skin. So, it's clear acrylic, as you can see with a transfer on it that just gives you a suggestion of the rivet marks of the roundel and so forth just to really evoke the aircraft. And there's machine guns. So, you wouldn't believe it, the machine guns are not real, but you could certainly hold up a bank with one, I think. Ralph was originally just going to replicate the seat cover for us, but I think it became too hard in the end, so he just gave us the real one.
The Beaufort turret demonstrates to a wider public how ordinary Victorians contributed to the war effort during the Second World War. Entire industries non-existent before 1939 arose to provide war material to young Australian men on the frontline. The same industries brought about the widespread integration of women into traditionally male fields of endeavour, paving the way for Australian women to ultimately participate in all aspects of Australia's economy. This is a truly remarkable aircraft, and we are honoured to represent it at the Shrine of Remembrance. Thank you.
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