At 1330
hours on December 15th 1942, 4sqn RAAF sent aloft yet another sortie in
the Buna-Sanananda campaign. The crew was F/O Mowbray, and Sgt. Cole. Their
task was to observe and direct artillery fire onto an Ack Ack position
known as "Black Charley". Four sqn. was equipped at the time with the Wirraway
and classed as an Army co-operation unit. As such it was mainly tasked
with reconnaissance and artillery spotting work. In the course of this
work the squadron pilots had developed formidable low flying skills.
Upon arriving at the target area, the
aircraft was fired upon, and Mowbray dived to treetop height to locate
the position of the guns and to present the most difficult target possible.
Once the guns had been located, he called in the artillery strike. Flying
in the vicinity of the target during the strike Mowbray, with Cole's assistance,
was able to direct the shelling right onto the target, silencing all the
guns. During this action, Cole was laying down as much covering fire as
possible whilst continuing his observations, and the aircraft’s port wing
was holed three times by shell fragments. Upon return to Dobodura, the
pilot was highly commended, and eventually received an American Silver
Star. Cole as observer was passed over.
Due to the depredations of malaria,
the squadron was for a while doubling the workload of it’s fit members,
one of whom was Sgt. Alan Cole. Consequently, Cole and another pilot, F/O
"Pop" Ifould were briefed on the night of the 17th for the following days
mission. The Army informed them that for the first time tanks were being
used in the campaign, and that to cover the noise of their approach Ifould
and Cole were to fly at low levels near the Japanese positions.
The following day was warm and clear
with the usual layer of cloud at 10 000 feet. Ifould and Cole departed
in Wirraway A20-183 for Buna strip. Once there they followed their orders
exactly. The Japanese were known to be occupying the strip so the four
squadron men flew up and down the length of the strip repeatedly and noisily
. At a height of eight feet. This enabled them to look beneath the canopy
of the plantation and spot the enemy positions. It also allowed the enemy
to fire upon them. Despite these distractions the first tank to enter the
strip was immediately destroyed by a multiple barrel pompom. Ifould called
for artillery support, and Cole laid down fire from his twin Vickers, (a
4sqn. modification). Artillery was not available due to a shortage of ammunition,
so Ifould and Cole decided to dive -bomb the position.
Four squadron aircraft always carried
two 250lb bombs and the pilots were practiced enough to regularly place
their ordinance 8-16 metres from the target. Whilst Ifould climbed into
position Cole put down as much covering fire as possible. Their bombing
was a success, later inspection showed that the bombs had landed directly
on the position, ripping two pompom barrels in half and damaging the third.
When the American general Eichenberger
heard of this attack, he immediately awarded F/O Ifould a Silver Star.
The fact that Sgt. Cole was involved in the action was again passed over.
This did not sit well with Ifould who in no uncertain terms made it clear
that not only had Cole carried out his duties under fire, he had done so
cooly and aggressively. He also pointed out that Cole was with F/O Mowbray
three days earlier when he won his Silver Star.
Eventually Sgt. Alan Cole was awarded
a DFM for "...outstanding courage and devotion to duty...in the course
of thirty two sorties in the Buna-Sanananda campaign..."
subject: CA 15 aircraft
lesliej<at>swiftdsl.com.au
message: In your article on the CA 15 [an excellent article, by the
way] you mention the aircraft was scrapped in the late 1950s. In the 1970s,
a member of my church in Yarraville, Melbourne used to tell us that when
he worked for CAC ,he clearly remembers seeing the remains of the CA 15
behind a hanger at Point Cook base during the mid 1960s. According to this
gentleman, the remains comprised the fuselage minus engine and cockpit
canopy and with the wings removed but lying along side the fuselage. Apparently
they were in company with a number of other derelict aircraft earmarked
for use in the regular fire fighting training exercises conducted at Point
Cook at the time.
[years later, I was told it was common practice for aircraft officially
listed as being scrapped to be retained more or less extant for use in
fire fighting training]
Leslie-John NEWMAN
