Apart from
containing much valuable information
about bygone Darwin , this book throws
new light on the
daring - at times outrageous - WW11 exploits of NT editor , James Frederick Bowditch , a member of the
Z Special Unit commando group which operated behind Japanese lines .
In a recent
short Radio National interview late one
night , author Jim Eames , briefly mentioned a
WW11 operation in which raids
were made by B-24 Liberator
bombers , fitted with slides from which operatives were inserted behind enemy lines , on flights from a
secret base at Leyburn , near Toowoomba , Queensland .
Mention of slides made me
sit upright in bed and
utter , “Jim Bowditch! ” Bowditch
had told me in detail how he had taken
part in tests at a secret base near Toowoomba to develop
a new technique of parachuting men from Liberator
bombers . He explained that parachute
drops were usually made from DC-3 aircraft and when Japanese saw one
of the planes they went on the alert for parachutists . It also made the enemy
wonder if there were
Allied troops on the ground
receiving supplies.
It was thought
a good way to deceive the Japanese would be to insert
small special operative
groups into an area
by dropping them out of a slide
cut into a low flying bomber . A bomber
could fly into a target area
at height , drop some bombs and soon
after descend and drop paratroopers and their supplies. Bowditch and
a former Victorian wrestling
champion , George Carter, first practiced
sliding down a
chute in the
bottom of a fuselage mock up.
The book, which does not mention Bowditch or
Carter by name , actually contains
photographs of
the mock up and
an RAAF Liberator being worked on. On a
test jump from a bomber, after a night of heavy drinking, Bowditch slid out
prematurely , miles from the target
area. Bowditch told how
he
and Carter went into town
one night and engaged in a
drinking session in a pub.
Hitching
a
lift back to base in the car of
a “Colonel Blimp” type officer, Bowditch asked the driver to stop as he wanted to
relieve himself. The officer, however, ordered the
driver to carry on. Bowditch
reached over , grabbed the driver
by the throat
, the car came to a sudden halt... Jim jumped up on
the bonnet of the car and urinated on the windscreen .
After this episode, Bowditch was in the thick of fighting in the dying bloody stages of the war and was subsequently decorated for bravery. The book, published by Allen and Unwin , contains details of operations in which bombers crashed or disappeared.
After this episode, Bowditch was in the thick of fighting in the dying bloody stages of the war and was subsequently decorated for bravery. The book, published by Allen and Unwin , contains details of operations in which bombers crashed or disappeared.
Apart from the
illuminating chapter on the Liberator bomber slides , including the
fact that earlier “slippery dip” trials had been carried out in the NT at
the Fenton airstrip , the book
deals with the man who
re- established
Qantas operations in Darwin after the war , setting up its base at Berrimah , now the Kormilda College site.
After rugby league matches , drinks were consumed
at Berrimah by
this writer in the late 1950s where the staff rooms
were like
monkish cells . Two outstanding Qantas rugby players were the Douglas brothers. Cyclone
Tracy is well covered , journalist Doug Lockwood
is quoted and Kim Lockwood gets a
mention . When you look at the mighty efforts of Qantas
and its staff down through the decades , you cannot help but
feel sorry for
the sad present
plight of the Flying Kangaroo . ( By Peter Simon . )
