No. 17 Air Observation Post Flight (No. 17 AOP Flight) was a

Royal Australian Air Force "Through Adversity to the Stars" , colours = , colours_label = , march = , mascot = , anniversaries = RAAF Anniversary Commemoration ...

artillery-spotting and liaison unit which saw action as part of the

Bougainville campaign The Bougainville campaign was a series of land and naval battles of the Pacific campaign of World War II between Allied forces and the Empire of Japan, named after the island of Bougainville. It was part of Operation Cartwheel, the Allied ...

and

New Britain campaign The New Britain campaign was a World War II campaign fought between Allied and Imperial Japanese forces. The campaign was initiated by the Allies in late 1943 as part of a major offensive which aimed to neutralise the important Japanese base at ...

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. The flight was established in October 1944 and disbanded in December the next year.

History

No. 17 AOP Flight was formed at

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

on 2 October 1944. It was equipped with seven

Taylorcraft Auster The Taylorcraft Auster was a British military liaison and observation aircraft produced by the Taylorcraft Aeroplanes (England) Limited company during the Second World War. Design and development The Auster was a twice-removed development of ...

light aircraft, the first of which was delivered to the unit on 22 October.RAAF Historical Section (1995), p. 172 These aircraft were among the 56 Austers the RAAF had ordered in 1944 to equip Nos. 16 and 17 AOP Flights. The flight formed part of No. 84 (Army Cooperation) Wing, along with No. 5 Squadron, which was equipped with

CAC Boomerang The CAC Boomerang is a fighter aircraft designed and manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation between 1942 and 1945. Approved for production shortly following the Empire of Japan's entry into the Second World War, the ...

and

CAC Wirraway The CAC Wirraway (an Aboriginal word meaning "challenge") was a training and general purpose military aircraft manufactured in Australia by the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) between 1939 and 1946. It was an Australian development of ...

aircraft, and the

Bristol Beaufort The Bristol Beaufort (manufacturer designation Type 152) is a British twin-engined torpedo bomber designed by the Bristol Aeroplane Company, and developed from experience gained designing and building the earlier Blenheim light bomber. At l ...

-equipped No. 10 Local Air Supply Unit. The flight began moving from Cairns to Bougainville in late October 1944, with its main party arriving on the island on 14 December 1944. Some operational flying was conducted in December, but all of No. 17 AOP Flight's aircraft had to be grounded on the 31st of the month as their fabric airframes had been damaged by the tropical conditions. The necessary repairs included replacing some of the Austers fabric sections and perspex windows, but the process of shipping these items to Bougainville proved slow.Odgers (1968), p. 324 As a result, the unit was inactive until the first aircraft to be repaired returned to service on 1 February 1945. A detachment of No. 17 AOP Flight was established on 14 February at

Cape Hoskins Cape Hoskins is located on the north coast of New Britain in the West New Britain Province. History Hoskinos, as locals are known, regularly find arrowheads and spears just below the surface soil. When villagers were building state of the art ou ...

on the island of

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

to support the

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (Austral ...

units engaged there; this detachment comprised two officers and eight airmen, and was subsequently equipped with

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. ...

aircraft. From February 1945 the main body of No. 17 AOP Flight supported the advance conducted by the Australian Army's

II Corps 2nd Corps, Second Corps, or II Corps may refer to: France * 2nd Army Corps (France) * II Cavalry Corps (Grande Armée), a cavalry unit of the Imperial French Army during the Napoleonic Wars * II Corps (Grande Armée), a unit of the Imperial French ...

against Japanese positions on Bougainville. The Austers were used for reconnaissance, artillery spotting and supply dropping as well as evacuating wounded personnel, and proved successful in these roles.RAAF Historical Section (1995), p. 173 By June 1945 No. 17 AOP Flight had conducted 1,328 sorties on Bougainville, though shortages of supplies and pilots hindered the operations of the unit and the other elements of No. 84 Wing.Odgers (1968), p. 326 The flight worked closely with infantry and armoured units, and its aircraft were called "the eyes of the

battalion A battalion is a military unit, typically consisting of 300 to 1,200 soldiers commanded by a lieutenant colonel, and subdivided into a number of companies (usually each commanded by a major or a captain). In some countries, battalions are ...

commanders" by

George Odgers George James Odgers (29 March 1916 – 2008) was an Australian soldier, journalist and military historian. Odgers served in the Australian Army as a private soldier and non-commissioned officer; and later in the Royal Australian Air Force beco ...

in the official history of the RAAF in World War II.James (2012), p. 228 In April 1945 another detachment of the No. 17 AOP Flight was established at Tadji on the mainland of New Guinea to evacuate soldiers wounded during fighting in the

Aitape–Wewak campaign The Aitape–Wewak campaign was one of the final campaigns of the Pacific Theatre of World War II. Between November 1944 and the end of the war in August 1945, the Australian 6th Division, with air and naval support, fought the Imperial Japane ...

; by the time of the Japanese surrender it had conducted 255 evacuation flights. Following the end of the war No. 17 AOP Flight was disbanded on 7 December 1945.

References

;Citations ;Works consulted * * * {{Use dmy dates, date=June 2017 17 17 17