A figure of great renown in Australia for his almost phenomenal sporting prowess, Keith "Blue" Truscott’s career as a pilot got off to a shaky start. To his dismay he found that he could not seem to grasp the co-ordination that was required to fly smoothly, and more importantly, land. Long after all the other members of his course had gone solo, he was still dual. If it had been anyone but Truscott he would have been washed out, but his very public profile kept the authorities from that irrevocable decision until he finally managed to complete four solo circuits. In time he became an excellent pilot, but he never mastered the art of landing though, and habitually "arrived" at an altitude of about three metres for the rest of his career.

    This notwithstanding he was posted to an EFTS in Canada, and thence to England where he joined the RAAF’s first fighter squadron, 452. Flying Spitfires, he teamed up with his new CO the Irish ace Paddy Finucane, and developed into a superb fighter pilot, achieving sixteen victories as well as being awarded a DFC. He was then posted back to Australia to become part of a cadre of experienced pilots around which our inexperienced squadrons could learn to fight against the all prevailing Japanese. After converting to P40E Kittyhawks which he found to be demanding and heavy, he was posted as a supernumerary to 76 squadron, then forming in Townsville.

    Their first posting was to Milne Bay, and Truscott was detailed to lead the second flight of twelve for the ferry flight. That flight started on a near disastrous note when Truscott’s machine bellowed down the runway, veered into the fuel dump sheering off the undercarriage, and hurtled a further two hundred metres into a hastily vacated gunpit. Fearing an explosion the ground crews scrambled to the aid of the stricken pilot only to find him almost totally unscathed. With a replacement Kittyhawk the flight duly got under way.

    Gurney Field, the no.1 strip at Milne Bay was a steaming quagmire of black mud that had been overlaid with perforated steel mesh, and upon landing a wave of black gelatinous muck covered the machines. Worse, the strip was unfinished and dispersing the aircraft was impossible as to leave the mesh was to sink axle deep immediately. Also operating out of Gurney Field at that time was 75 squadron, commanded by Les Jackson. He had already found that the all pervasive mud knocked at least 30 km/h off the speed of the Kittyhawks and made them less manoeuvrable. An unhappy state of affairs considering that the Japanese "Zero" already outclassed the P40Es.

    The Japanese had decided that to successfully invade Australia they needed to hold Port Moresby. To assist this venture, they needed air superiority and the strip at Milne Bay was ideally placed to achieve this. Allied to this was that they saw Milne Bay as an easy victory, only being defended by two infantry brigades, one of which had never seen combat, and neither of which had jungle experience. The aerial defence was two RAAF squadrons of outdated outclassed fighters, and a Hudson light bomber.

    To this end the Japanese began to soften up the defences on August 4th 1942. Five "Zeros" strafed the field, destroying one Kittyhawk on the ground before five more were scrambled to shoot down two "Zeros". Again, on the 11th, the enemy strafed, this time with seven "Zeros". Two were destroyed and three severely damaged for the loss of four pilots and Kittyhawks. By now only twelve of the original twenty four 76 squadron P40s were serviceable due to both enemy action, and the atrocious conditions. The rain was torrential. Thirty centimetres falling in only two days, and the steel mesh began to sink into the mud. Two weeks later twelve enemy machines strafed the strip, and on the following day, August 25th, three Japanese cruisers, two destroyers and two large transports were identified en-route to Milne Bay. Truscott, Turnbull and Jackson were the ranking RAAF officers, and to them fell the task of devising the strategy for the aerial defence of the bay, a job that none of them had any experience or training in. Truscott and Turnbull decided to attack the convoy, while Jackson took on the invasion barges. The Battle of Milne Bay had begun.

    Truscott led in at mast top height ignoring the battleships to repeatedly attack the troop transports. Turnbull who was carrying bombs, was unable to gain enough height under the 300 foot cloudbase to make them effective, so he copied Truscott’s tactics and dropped the bombs anyway. They returned to the strip with empty guns and immediately re-fuelled and re-armed, setting the pattern for the battle. They took off again but were defeated by the weather which had closed in even more, hiding the enemy vessels. To their dismay it became apparent that they had searched for too long, and darkness fell before they could return to Gurney Field. In the teeming rain and darkness the ground crews heard the returning aircraft approach and lit the flarepath. They were unable to see the aircraft and the pilots unable to see the ground. Desperately, one at a time, they eased their machines down through the murk until they had all landed without mishap.

    At 0130 the Japanese Marines landed and made contact with B coy. of the 61st battalion. Before dawn Truscott was up slopping from machine to machine encouraging the crews in their endeavours, and checking the state of readiness. As first light showed, the P40s slushed their way into the air and headed for the beaches to strafe and sink landing and supply craft, one of which was full of drop tanks for the "Zeros" that the enemy soon expected to be operating from the Milne Bay strip. Continuing their strafing runs they set a disguised fuel dump ablaze, and finally turned for home with empty guns, leaving a wash of burning fuel on the sea. Reports came in from the army of Japanese tanks being sighted, but it was too late in the day to investigate. That night the Japanese continued their push towards no. 3 strip.

    Again at first light the strafing sorties began with instructions to pay careful attention to treetop sniper nests. As the first sortie returned with depleted weapons, five dive bombers and ten "Zeros" attacked the field and Truscott after vacating his aircraft fired upon them with his revolver. As the enemy pulled out of their attack, Jackson and 75 squadron who were returning from a sortie fell on them downing six machines. Turnbull was now ready to depart, and took a wingman in search of the tanks. Finding one in a clearing, he dived vertically on it firing as he did so but flicked into the ground as he started to pull out.

    To Truscott fell the command of 76 squadron. After a largely sleepless night he learned that the Japanese had reached no.3 strip before dawn. They held the eastern end of the 2800m strip, and the Australians the western end. With visibility down to 100m in places, Blue Truscott led the dawn strafing run on the 28th at little more than treetop height. They came in from the west over the heads of the army and bellowed down the strip firing as they went. So close were the enemy to the no.1 strip that barely was the undercarriage retracted on take off, before the guns started firing. There was no need to bother climbing to circuit height. That afternoon word came down that all aircraft and pilots were to be evacuated to Port Moresby as the strip at Milne Bay was in danger of being overrun. Truscott was unhappy with this order and argued it to no avail. The evacuation took place at last light, Truscott stubbornly staying behind.

    The New Guinea campaigns had been plagued by the lack of air superiority from the RAAF who kept promising the imminent arrival of updated aircraft. This caused a great deal of ill feeling from the army who dubbed the Kittyhawks as "Neverhawks", and "Tomorrowhawks". Actually having close support from the RAAF was novel, and a great boost to morale, and indeed at times the only thing that allowed the Australians to prevail. Now however despite the previous weeks of close support it seemed that the RAAF had reverted to type and done a bunk. The only hopeful point was that Blue Truscott had stayed behind. Morale dropped markedly when the machines left, but the feeling was that Truscott would not let them down. However at dawn the fighting continued with no sign of aerial assistance, and by late morning the soldiers were bitterly sure that they had been deserted. Then shortly after midday the aircraft returned, not in great numbers, but as clean and refurbished as was possible during a hectic overnight stay in Port Moresby.

    New intelligence said a flotilla of ten ships might be approaching, but when Truscott and four others went searching for them, they had disappeared. Another afternoon of ceaseless strafing followed, and another order to evacuate the strip. Having observed the unrest the previous night on the removal of the fighters, and the desperate need of the soldiers for any support at all, Truscott decided to stay until the battle was won, or all the aircraft destroyed. This flagrant defiance of orders was unanimously upheld by the rest of the aircrew.

    The Japanese warships entered the bay in support of a massive assault. and shelled Gurney Field. The assault was repulsed. Close fighting continued and on the 31st Truscott accompanied by a wingman attacked an enemy field gun 400m from the strip. Diving from 2500 feet he fired vertically upon it, destroying the gun, and an hour later repeated the manoeuvre to destroy some landing barges. September 6 saw the arrival of Beaufighters and Beauforts, and on the 7th the RAAF’s first co-ordinated attack in the Pacific was carried out. The Beauforts would carry torpedoes to attack an approaching enemy convoy, whilst Truscott and his remaining eight Kittyhawks would cover their approach by attacking first. They would be backed up by three Beaufighters, whilst Jackson and the remnants of 75 squadron would act as top cover.

    Choosing the largest ship he could see, Truscott led his puny force into a storm of flak. Miraculously they all emerged untouched to watch the results of the torpedo attack. One ship was hit, but the rest of the fleet scattered. Disheartened they returned to Gurney Field and determined to try again the next day. That night the field was again shelled, but this was the last time. The shelling covered the Japanese evacuation of their troops, as for the first time in four hundred years the Imperial Army admitted defeat in a land battle.

    By the end of the battle only seventeen Kittyhawks were serviceable out of the original total between 75 and 76 squadrons of more than forty. Of the P40s that survived, all had gun barrels that had been reamed out from 0.5in to 0.6in, the two squadrons had fired approximately 200 000 rounds of ammunition and worn out three hundred gun barrels. Nine Kittyhawks were destroyed and seven pilots killed.

    Blue Truscott died on March 28th 1943 in a flying accident.