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No. 1 Operational Training Unit RAAF
No. 1 Operational Training Unit (No. 1 OTU) was an operational conversion unit of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. Formed in December 1941 at Nhill, Victoria, it relocated to Bairnsdale in mid-1942, and then to East Sale the following year. No. 1 OTU's primary role was to train aircrew for multi-engined aircraft operations. At its peak of activity in August 1944, it was operating over 130 aircraft, the most numerous being Bristol Beauforts. Its aircraft and personnel also conducted transport missions in New Guinea and maritime patrols in southern Australian waters. Following the end of hostilities, the unit was disbanded in December 1945. History During World War II, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) established several operational training units to convert recently graduated pilots from advanced trainers to combat aircraft, and to add fighting ability to the flying skills they had already learned.Stephens, ''Goin ...
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1 OTU (AWM P03901-005)
No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit RAF was a training unit operated by the Royal Air Force Coastal Command. The unit was established during April 1940 by the renaming of a Coastal Command unit and disbanded during October 1943. History The unit originally started out life as the RAF Coastal Command Landplane Pilots Pool based at RAF Silloth in Cumbria training crews for landplanes flying Avro Ansons, Lockheed Hudsons, Bristol Blenheims and Bristol Beauforts. However, during April 1940 the unit was renamed to No. 1 (Coastal) Operational Training Unit and before long with the creation of more OTU's the unit started to specialise in training Hudson crews. On 23 March 1943 the unit moved to RAF Thornaby before disbanding during October 1943. Airfields used * RAF Silloth as RAF Coastal Command Group from November 1939 and No. 1 (Coastal) OTU from April 1940. * RAF Thornaby from 23 March 1943 until October 1943. Accidents During September 1942 a Lockheed Hudson Mk.I N7325 ...
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Avro Anson
The Avro Anson is a British twin-engined, multi-role aircraft built by the aircraft manufacturer Avro. Large numbers of the type served in a variety of roles for the Royal Air Force (RAF), Fleet Air Arm (FAA), Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) and numerous other air forces before, during, and after the Second World War. Initially known as the ''Avro 652A'', the Anson was developed during the mid-1930s from the earlier Avro 652 airliner in response to a request for tenders issued by the British Air Ministry for a maritime reconnaissance aircraft. Having suitably impressed the Ministry, a single prototype was ordered, which conducted its maiden flight on 24 March 1935. Following an evaluation in which the Type 652A bettered the competing de Havilland DH.89, it was selected as the winner, leading to Air Ministry Specification 18/35 being written around the type and an initial order for 174 aircraft being ordered in July 1935. The Type 652A was promptly named after British Admira ...
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Western Australia
Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Australia is Australia's largest state, with a total land area of . It is the second-largest country subdivision in the world, surpassed only by Russia's Sakha Republic. the state has 2.76 million inhabitants  percent of the national total. The vast majority (92 percent) live in the south-west corner; 79 percent of the population lives in the Perth area, leaving the remainder of the state sparsely populated. The first Europeans to visit Western Australia belonged to the Dutch Dirk Hartog expedition, who visited the Western Australian coast in 1616. The first permanent European colony of Western Australia occurred following the ...
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Charles Learmonth
Charles Cuthbertson Learmonth DFC & Bar (2 May 1917 – 6 January 1944) was an officer in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) during World War II. He commanded No. 22 Squadron in combat during the New Guinea campaign, and subsequently took over No. 14 Squadron which was stationed near Perth, Western Australia. He was killed in a flying accident on 6 January 1944, and one of the RAAF's bases was later named in his honour. Death On 6 January 1944, Learmonth led a formation of three No. 14 Squadron Bristol Beauforts on an exercise off Rottnest Island with ships of the US Navy. At a height of and about north-west of Rottnest Island his Beaufort began to shake violently. The Australian-built Beauforts were plagued by a mysterious problem that had destroyed over 90 aircraft and killed many crews, including many under training at RAAF East Sale. Learmonth recognised that the violent shaking was driven by the tail of his aircraft and he called Flight Lieutenant Ken Hewitt, the pi ...
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Edward Gough Whitlam
Edward Gough Whitlam (11 July 191621 October 2014) was the 21st prime minister of Australia, serving from 1972 to 1975. The longest-serving federal leader of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) from 1967 to 1977, he was notable for being the head of a Reformism, reformist and socially progressive administration that extraordinarily ended with his removal as prime minister after controversially being dismissed by the governor-general of Australia, Sir John Kerr (governor-general), John Kerr, at the climax of the 1975 Australian constitutional crisis. Whitlam is the only Australian prime minister to have been removed from office. Whitlam served as an Navigator#In aviation, air navigator in the Royal Australian Air Force for four years during World War II, and worked as a barrister following the war. He was first elected to the Australian House of Representatives in 1952, becoming a member of parliament (MP) for the division of Werriwa. Whitlam became deputy leader of the Labo ...
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De Havilland Tiger Moth
The de Havilland DH.82 Tiger Moth is a 1930s British biplane designed by Geoffrey de Havilland and built by the de Havilland Aircraft Company. It was operated by the Royal Air Force (RAF) and other operators as a primary trainer aircraft. In addition to the type's principal use for ''ab initio'' training, the Second World War had RAF Tiger Moths operating in other capacities, including maritime surveillance and defensive anti-invasion preparations; some aircraft were even outfitted to function as armed light bombers. The Tiger Moth remained in service with the RAF until it was replaced by the de Havilland Chipmunk during the early 1950s. Many of the military surplus aircraft subsequently entered into civilian operation. Many nations have used the Tiger Moth in both military and civilian applications, and it remains in widespread use as a recreational aircraft. It is still occasionally used as a primary training aircraft, particularly for those pilots wanting to gain exper ...
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Fairey Battle
The Fairey Battle is a British single-engine light bomber that was designed and manufactured by the Fairey Aviation Company. It was developed during the mid-1930s for the Royal Air Force (RAF) as a monoplane successor to the Hawker Hart and Hind biplanes. The Battle was powered by the same high-performance Rolls-Royce Merlin piston engine that powered various contemporary British fighters such as the Hawker Hurricane and Supermarine Spitfire. As the Battle, with its three-man crew and bomb load, was much heavier than the fighters, it was therefore much slower. Though a great improvement over the aircraft that preceded it, its relatively slow speed, limited range and inadequate defensive armament of only two .303 (7.7 mm) machine guns left it highly vulnerable to enemy fighters and anti-aircraft fire.Ethell 1995, p. 177. The Fairey Battle was used on operations early in the Second World War. During the "Phoney War" the type achieved the distinction of scoring the first aer ...
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Princes Highway
Princes Highway is a major road in Australia, extending from Sydney via Melbourne to Adelaide through the states of New South Wales, Victoria (Australia), Victoria and South Australia. It has a length of (along Highway 1) or via the former alignments of the highway, although these routes are slower and connections to the bypassed sections of the original route are poor in many cases. The highway follows the coastline for most of its length, and thus takes quite an indirect and lengthy route. For example, it is from Sydney to Melbourne on Highway 1 (Australia), Highway 1 as opposed to on the more direct Hume Highway (National Highway (Australia), National Highway 31), and from Melbourne to Adelaide compared to on the Western Highway, Victoria, Western and Dukes Highways (National Highway (Australia), National Highway 8). Because of the rural nature and lower traffic volumes over much of its length, Princes Highway is a more scenic and leisurely route than the main highwa ...
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Friendly Fire
In military terminology, friendly fire or fratricide is an attack by belligerent or neutral forces on friendly troops while attempting to attack enemy/hostile targets. Examples include misidentifying the target as hostile, cross-fire while engaging an enemy, long range ranging errors or inaccuracy. Accidental fire not intended to attack enemy/hostile targets, and deliberate firing on one's own troops for disciplinary reasons, is not called friendly fire,Regan, Geoffrey (2002) ''Backfire: a history of friendly fire from ancient warfare to the present day'', Robson Books and neither is unintentional harm to civilian or neutral targets, which is sometimes referred to as collateral damage. Training accidents and bloodless incidents also do not qualify as friendly fire in terms of casualty reporting. Use of the term "friendly" in a military context for allied personnel started during the First World War, often when shells fell short of the targeted enemy. The term ''friendly fire'' ...
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Sortie
A sortie (from the French word meaning ''exit'' or from Latin root ''surgere'' meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft, ship, or troops, from a strongpoint. The term originated in siege warfare. In aviation In military aviation, a sortie is a combat mission of an individual aircraft, starting when the aircraft takes off. For example, one mission involving six aircraft would tally six sorties. The sortie rate is the number of sorties that a given unit can support in a given time. In siege warfare In siege warfare, the word ''sortie'' refers specifically to a sudden issuing of troops against the enemy from a defensive position—that is, an attack launched against the besiegers by the defenders. If the sortie is through a sally port, the verb ''to sally'' may be used interchangeably with ''to sortie''. Purposes of sorties include harassment of enemy troops, destruction of siege weaponry and engineering works, joining the relief ...
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Wards Airfield
Wards Airfield is a former World War II airfield near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. The airfield was abandoned after the war and was developed into the Waigani area of Port Moresby. The airfield was named in honor of Australian Lt. Col. K. H. Ward, who was involved with its construction and was KIA on 27 August 1942, during the fighting at Isurava on the Kokoda Trail. It was also known as "5-Mile or 5-Mile Drome" by Americans, for its distance from Port Moresby. History Wards Airfield (Ward's Strip) was built for heavy bombers and transport planes. By 1943, it was the busiest aerodrome in the southern hemisphere. Mainly used for cargo aircraft and larger planes, Ward's was nearest to Jackson Airfield (7 Mile Drome), and at its height, its taxiways actually connected with those of 7-mile. The major operational organization at Wards Airfield was the Headquarters, 54th Troop Carrier Wing (3 May 1943 – 18 April 1944). Operational C-47 Skytrain groups and squadrons assigned to ...
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RAAF Special Transport Flight
"Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration – 31 March , equipment = , equipment_label = , battles = * Second World War * Berlin Airlift * Korean War * Malayan Emergency * Indonesia–Malaysia Confrontation * Vietnam War * East Timor * War in Afghanistan * Iraq War * Military intervention against ISIL , decorations = , battle_honours = , battle_honours_label = , flying_hours = , website = , commander1 = Governor-General David Hurley as representative of Charles III as King of Australia , commander1_label = Commander-in-Chief , commander2 = General Angus Campbell , commande ...
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