Some photographs and review after my recent visit to the Darwin Aviation Museum
Replica of a Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII on display at the Darwin Aviation Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
The Darwin Aviation Museum (formerly known as the Australian Aviation Heritage Centre) is situated about 8km from the Darwin CBD, on the Stuart Highway in the suburb of Winnellie. It grew out of the activities of the Aviation Historical Society of the Northern Territory Inc which was established in 1976 with the aim of recovery, restoration and document of aviation relics related to the defence of Darwin in World War II.
Wreck of the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M-2 Type ‘O’ fighter of Petty Officer Hajime Toyoshima who was forced to land on Melville Island during the attack on Darwin of 19 February 1942. Toyoshima was subsequently captured by a Tiwi Islander, Matthias Ulungura and interned at Cowra in NSW under the alias, Todao Minami. He was one of the camp leaders of the infamous escape attempt on 5 August 1944, blowing the bugle to start the breakout. After recapture he committed suicide and is buried in the Japanese Cemetery at Cowra. Photo” Julian TennantWreck of the Japanese Mitsubishi A6M-2 Type ‘O’ fighter of Petty Officer Hajime Toyoshima on Melville Island shortly after his crash landing. Inset shows Toyoshima’s POW identification photo. The wreck is on display at the Darwin Aviation Museum.
Royal Australian Air Force Dassault Mirage IIIO A3-36 which began service with the RAAF on 3 May 1966. The Mirage 111O was Australia’s front line fighter from the early 1960s when it replaced the Sabre through to 1989 when it was in turn replaced by the F-18 Hornet. On 27 May 1985 this aircraft was being flown by Flight Lieutenant (later Air Vice-Marshall) John A. Quaife RAAF when it crashed on the Ludmilla mud flats near the Darwin suburb of Coconut Grove. Quaife was able to eject at 1,000 feet and 200 knots and landed safely in mangroves with only minor injuries. The crash was found to be due to a compressor stall/loss of thrust whilst in a circuit. The unmanned aircraft conducted a controlled landing on the mudflats and was recovered largely intact. The Mirage was acquired by the Aviation Historical Society of the NT and remained at the Darwin Museum on display until October 2001 when it was loaned to No.75 Squadron for restoration and display purposes during the Squadron’s 60th Anniversary in 2002. It was taken by Chinook helicopter to the RAAF Base Tindal where it was refurbished by 75 Squadron for static display at the Darwin Museum. It was returned to the Aviation Heritage Centre of Darwin on 23 November 2005. Photo: Julian Tennant
Martin Baker MB-326H Jet Trainer Ejection Seat (left) and Martin Baker MK.3B Ejection Seat as fitted to a Vampire Mk. 35A (right). Photo: Julian Tennant
Bell AH-1 Cobra (S Model) gunship. Photo: Julian Tennant
Over the years the museum has expanded to cover all aspects of aviation history in the Northern Territory and today it features one of the largest private collections of aircraft and aviation artifacts in Australia. Housed in a custom built hangar that was opened in 1990 after the Society was able to secure a B52 G bomber and currently exhibits 19 aircraft, 21 engines and numerous other related displays.
Aircraft include a B-25D Mitchell Bomber (one of the few surviving in the world), a replica Spitfire, Mirage, Avon Sabre, a Royal Australian Navy Wessex helicopter that assisted in the clean-up of Darwin after Cyclone Tracy, F-111C and the centerpiece, the aforementioned Boeing B52 G Stratofortress 92596 “Darwin’s Pride.” This aircraft entered service with the USAF in December 1960 and made its last flight (to the museum) on 1 September 1989. The museum was chosen for its final resting place as Darwin Airport allowed B52 Bombers to take off at their maximum ‘take off weight’ with full fuel tanks or payload.
Boeing B52 G Stratofortress 92596 “Darwin’s Pride” at the Darwin Aviation Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Nose detail of the B-52 G “Stratofortress 92596 “Darwin’s Pride”, which fills the hangar at the Darwin Aviation Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
North American B-25D Bomber s/n 41-30222. This D model is one of a very few that still exist that has seen active service. It flew a number of missions with the 345th Bomb Group USAAF. It was acquired by the 380th Bomb Group USAAF in New Guinea after it had been taken out of active service and was used as a “fat cat”, ie an aircraft used to collect and transport the food and other luxuries that the Group needed to make life more enjoyable. It flew between Fenton Airstrip 160km south of Darwin and Adelaide. On its last flight the aircraft received maintenance at Parafield Adelaide, but the aircraft was not “swung” correctly leaving the compass incorrect. On the return trip to Fenton the aircraft missed Alice Springs and the crew put the aircraft down in the Tanami Desert. They were rescued the following day. The tail section of the aircraft was destroyed on DCA orders to prevent the aircraft from being repaired and used after the War. Salvaged and returned to Darwin in 1972 and was further damaged by Cyclone Tracy while at East Point. It has now been partially restored to the 1943 colour scheme and nose art of its 1943 New Guinea service condition. Photo: Julian Tennant
B-24 Liberator Ball Turret. Photo: Julian Tennant
1938 Indian Motor Cycle restored to represent a communications motorcycle of the 380th Bomb Group USAAF. Photo: Julian Tennant
This relationship with Australia’s American allies is well documented in the museum and includes several artifacts from the USAAF’s 33rd Pursuit Squadron which flew P-40 Kittyhawks and was virtually wiped out when the Japanese attacked on 19 February 1942, right up to the present day deployment of the Marine Rotational Force – Darwin (MRF – D).
Uniform and flying helmet of Lieutenant Robert F. McMahon of the 33rd Pursuit Squadron USAAF who engaged the attacking Japanese aircraft in his P-40 Kittyhawk during their bombing raid of Darwin on 19 February 1942. Photo: Julian TennantUnited States HMLA-367 patches from the MRF-D 2019 deployment. US Marine Corps Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 367 (HMLA-367) is a United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron consisting of AH-1Z Viper attack helicopters and UH-1Y Venom utility helicopters. Photo: Julian Tennant
Embroidered variation of the US Marine Corps Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (VMM-268) patch. VMM-268 is a United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron consisting of MV-22 “Osprey” transport aircraft. The squadron, known as the “Red Dragons”, is based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe, Hawaii and falls under the command of Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW). VMM-268 undertook a 6 month rotation to Darwin as part of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 2018 (MRF-D 2018) as part of a bi-lateral programme developed in 2011 to build and strengthen partnerships between US and allied forces in the Pacific. Photo: Julian Tennant
Embroidered US Marine Corps Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (VMM-268) patch. VMM-268 is a United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron consisting of MV-22 “Osprey” transport aircraft. The squadron, known as the “Red Dragons”, is based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe, Hawaii and falls under the command of Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW). VMM-268 undertook a 6 month rotation to Darwin as part of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 2018 (MRF-D 2018) as part of a bi-lateral programme developed in 2011 to build and strengthen partnerships between US and allied forces in the Pacific. Photo: Julian Tennant
PVC US Marine Corps Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (VMM-268) patch. VMM-268 is a United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron consisting of MV-22 “Osprey” transport aircraft. The squadron, known as the “Red Dragons”, is based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe, Hawaii and falls under the command of Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW). VMM-268 undertook a 6 month rotation to Darwin as part of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 2018 (MRF-D 2018) as part of a bi-lateral programme developed in 2011 to build and strengthen partnerships between US and allied forces in the Pacific. Photo: Julian Tennant
US Marine Corps Medium Tiltrotor Squadron 268 (VMM-268) Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 2018 patch. VMM-268 is a United States Marine Corps helicopter squadron consisting of MV-22 “Osprey” transport aircraft. The squadron, known as the “Red Dragons”, is based at Marine Corps Base Hawaii, Kaneohe, Hawaii and falls under the command of Marine Aircraft Group 24 (MAG-24) and the 1st Marine Aircraft Wing (1st MAW). VMM-268 undertook a 6 month rotation to Darwin as part of Marine Rotational Force – Darwin 2018 (MRF-D 2018) as part of a bi-lateral programme developed in 2011 to build and strengthen partnerships between US and allied forces in the Pacific. Photo: Julian Tennant
One of the aircraft that I was pleased to see was the De Havillland DH104 “Dove” called Manatuto after a town on the north coast of East Timor. My interest in this aeroplane relates to a beautiful civilian Transportes Aéreos de Timor pilot’s wing that I hold in my collection.
Pre 1975 Transportes Aéreos de Timor Pilot wing. Brass and enamel multi-piece construction with rotating propeller. Collection: Julian TennantTransportes Aeros de Timor (Timor Air Transport) De Havillland DH104 Dove ‘Manatuto’ Photo: Julian Tennant
The Manatuto was registered to the Portuguese Government and operated by the Transportes Aéreos de Timor (Timor Air Transport). Originally based at Dili, Manatuto provided regular passenger, mail and cargo service throughout Timor and to Darwin. In October 1975, just before the Indonesian invasion of Timor, the aircraft flew to Darwin. It was admitted to Australia as an ‘aircraft in transit’ but was subsequently declared an illegal import and impounded after the Indonesian invasion before finally being donated to the society by the Portuguese Government in 1978.
Unlike the Darwin Military Museum, which I reviewed in my previous post, the provenance of the exhibits here are well documented and as a collector whose focus is uniforms and insignia I found several pieces that aroused my interest including some of the less well known RAAF uniforms from recent times.
RAAF Flight Service Uniform c1980-1990. Photo: Julian Tennant
RAAF uniforms on display at the Darwin Aviation Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Shoulder patch worn by Dutch members of No. 18 NEI-RAAF Squadron during their service in the Northern Territory between 1943 and 1945. Photo: Julian Tennant
Smatchet (bottom) and fighting knives on display at the Darwin Aviation Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
A section of fabric from the tail of Spitfire A58-70 which crashed at Livingstone Airstrip whilst being flown by Flying Officer I.S. McKenzie of No. 457 Squadron RAAF, on 31 August 1943. Photo: Julian Tennant
Tropical Spitfire Flying Uniform as worn by pilots of No.1 Fighter Wing, RAAF in 1943/44 (left) and Flying Suit, helmet and oxygen mask of Group Captain Clive Caldwell (right). Visible is the embroidered garland of flowers and and hearts that his wife, Jean, embroidered under the right pocket flap of his flying suit just before he deployed overseas. Photo: Julian Tennant
Helicopter Air Crew Vietnam display. The mannequin is wearing the Gentex SPH-4 Helicopter Helmet, which was first produced in 1969 although this particular helmet appears to be a post war example. He is also equipped with a US Army issue 2-piece “Nomex” flight suit and the “Armour, Small-Arms-Fragmentation Protective” jacket which was commonly referred to as the “chicken plate.” Photo: Julian Tennant
Flight Control panels from the old Darwin Airport. In the foreground is a Dual Flight service console circa 1974, whilst the structure in the background is the Approach Controller’s Radar Console, circa 1990. Photo: Julian Tennant
1940’s single engine, four seater Auster J-5P Autocar VH-BYS as flown by the Salvation Army’s first ‘Flying Padre’ in northern Australia in the 1950’s and early 60’s. Photo: Julian Tennant
The Darwin Aviation Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
The museum also has a small cafeteria and bookshop which, in addition to their range of aviation and military histories also has model aircraft as well as generic Northern Territory related paraphernalia for sale. Overall, this is an interesting museum well worth the few hours I spent examining the exhibits. It is quite easy to get to using public transport as the number 8 bus stops at the front gate, but if you have a hire car and can set a day aside, I’d suggest combining it with a trip to the Defence of Darwin Experience and Darwin Military Museum at East Point which is about 20 minutes away.
The Darwin Aviation Museum
557 Stuart Highway
Winnellie Darwin, NT 0820
Australia
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Keith Swain: ‘Japanese air attacks on Darwin Harbour, 19th February 1942.’ Swain’s painting depicts the Japanese air raid on Darwin on 19 February 1942. Japanese aircraft fly overhead, while the focus of the painting is the Royal Australian Navy corvette HMAS Katoomba, in dry dock, fighting off the aerial attacks. Of the 13 ships in the harbour at the time of the attack, 9 were sunk. Australian War Memorial Accession Number: ART28075
On 19 February 1942, Japanese aircraft bombed Darwin in Australia’s Northern Territory. It was the first direct attack on Australian soil. At least 243 civilians and service personnel were killed, and it was the first of over 60 bombing raids on the frontier town between February 1942 and November 1943. Darwin’s proximity to Southeast Asia made it a strategically important location for the war in the Pacific and at its peak in 1943, there were over 110,000 servicemen and women based in the town and surrounding areas.
Parade at a 6-inch gun emplacement, East Point, 1942. Photo: Northern Territory Library
The strategic value of Darwin was recognised as early as 1892 when military planners perceived a threat from Japan. In 1911 Field Marshall Kitchener had recommended that two batteries of 6-inch guns be situated at the east and west points of the harbour entrance although this was not acted upon. In 1919 as part of Admiral Jellicoe’s plan for the defence of the Pacific a recommendation was made to establish a Far Eastern Fleet in Singapore with a secondary bases in Australia including Darwin. However, with the development of the ‘Singapore Strategy’ in 1923, Darwin’s role as a major naval base was removed and instead it was to be a naval refuelling facility protected by four 6-inch guns.
In 1932, Australian Army troops arrived to construct the fortifications and garrison accommodation and by 1936, four 6-inch guns, two each at East point and Emery Point, magazines, command posts and searchlight stations had been installed. In 1944 the 6-inch guns were replaced by 9.2-inch guns, but apart from firing test rounds in March 1945, not a shot was fired in anger and after the war, the guns were sold as scrap to the Fujita Salvage Company.
9.2-inch gun at East Point at the end of World War II. AWM Photo Accession Number: 126155Replica of a 9.2-inch gun in its emplacement at the Darwin Military Museum, East Point. Photo: Julian Tennant
The battery emplacements at East Point are now the home to the Darwin Military Museum and co-located Defence of Darwin Experience. Originally established in 1965 by the Royal Australian Artillery Association (NT) Inc to showcase Darwin’s history during WWII, the museum has expanded to include exhibits from all Australia’s conflicts from the Boer War to the present day.
6-inch Naval Gun. This gun was originally on HMAS Brisbane and was subsequently deployed to East Point to form part of Darwin’s coastal defence. After the war the guns were manned by the local militia unit, 121 Medium Coast Battery and remained in service until 30 June 1960, when the battery was disbanded. During its operational life, this gun was situated on the cliff some 300m to the right of the museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
3.7 inch Anti-Aircraft gun. 3.7 inch guns were employed extensively around Darwin during WW2. A battery of these guns were sited on the old Darwin Oval and were the first guns to engage the attacking Japanese on 19 February 1942, firing around 800 rounds in the first raid from 0958 to 1020 hrs. Photo: Julian Tennant
Armoury room at the Darwin Military Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Badges, gasmask and 50 cal machine gun in one of the older displays at the Darwin Military Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
The exhibition spaces have spread beyond the original museum which was situated in the command post bunker and are a mixture of indoor, covered outdoor and open air displays. Being in the tropics, this is presenting obvious preservation issues for some of the exhibits, particularly some of the paper and textile items that are not housed in sealed climate controlled environments.
Naturally, emphasis is given to the Northern Territory’s role in Australia’s military history, past and present and there are some very interesting exhibits. of particular interest to me were the displays related to the little known 2/1st North Australia Observation Unit (NAOU), nicknamed the “Nackeroos” or “Curtin’s Cowboys” which had been raised by an anthropologist, Major William Stanner. The unit was tasked with patrolling northern Australia looking for signs of enemy activity, patrolling in small groups on horseback and maintaining coastwatching outposts. As the threat of Japanese invasion passed, the unit was reduced in strength and disbanded in 1945. The concept was resurrected in 1981 with the formation of the North-West Mobile Force (NORFORCE), which is based in Darwin and one of three Regional Force Surveillance Units employed in surveillance and reconnaissance of remote Northern Australia.
Early NORFORCE uniform. Note the felt unit colour patch on the slouch hat and the privately purchased basic parachutist badge on jungle green backing. Photo: Julian Tennant
A slightly battered NORFORCE Slouch Hat on display at the Darwin Military Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
2/1st North Australia Observer Unit (the ‘Nackeroos’) WWII parade uniform. Photo: Julian Tennant
NORFORCE stable belt detail. Photo: Julian Tennant
WWII Buffalo LVT amphibious transport. Powered by a 250hp Continental radial engine, the Buffalo was originally of Australian design (according to the museum’s description panel, which I think may be incorrect) but its manufacturing rights were sold to the USA during the war. This particular example was slightly modified to allow it to be operated from outside the driver’s compartment, which would have become unbearably hot due the tropical weather and the engine being mounted directly behind the driver. Holes were cut into the armour plating on the front and the steering columns, accelerator and brake pedals extended through these apertures. Whilst the Buffalo had potential to be an outstanding utility vehicle, its design did not allow it to operate in any but the calmest of seas without taking on dangerous levels of water. Photo: Julian Tennant
The Australia Under Arms Gallery, which highlights a mixture of conflicts. Photo: Julian Tennant
WW1 Australian Infantryman display in the Australians Under Arms gallery. Photo: Julian Tennant
EOD display in the Australians Under Arms gallery. Photo: Julian Tennant
Korean War infantryman wearing a mixture of Allied apparel, as was common, as the combined nations sought to find the best equipment to battle the extreme conditions. This soldier wears a British steel helmet, a US issue cold weather field jacket, Australian battledress trousers with US leggings and 1937 pattern Australian webbing. Photo: Julian Tennant
Turret detail of a 1954 Ferret MkII Scout Car. The ‘Nightcliff 1st Cavalry’ insignia is a mystery to me as no such unit is known to have existed and the badge appears to be a variation of the British Royal Hampshire Regiment (minus the crown). Photo: Julian Tennant1968 Australian variation of the Pandora Productions satirical anti-war ‘Fly Far Eastern Airways: This vaction visit beautiful Vietnam’ poster. Photo: Julian Tennant
Vietnam War display area at the Darwin Military Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Viet Cong uniform and equipment display in the Vietnam War section of the Darwin Military Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Australian infantryman in the Vietnam War display room of the Darwin Military Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Five cent Military Payment Certificate (MPC) currency note and Christmas card. Photo: Julian Tennant
Vietnamese communist flag on display in the Vietnam War section of the museum. No provenance is provided for this particular item and I have reservations about its authenticity as I was able to buy an identical flag (detail and stitching), which was sold to me as a copy, at the Dan Sinh Markets in Ho Chi Minh City for US$20. Photo: Julian Tennant
North Vietnamese Army shirt. The insignia indicates that it belonged to a member of the Dac Công, which was the Special Forces unit of the PAVN. Photo: Julian Tennant
Vietnam War medals of Royal Australian Navy sailor Graham Pattle. The medal on the left appears to be the Vietnam Medal (reverse) but the ribbon is incorrect for the award. In the background are some Vietnam Zippo lighters. However I have reservations about the authenticity of these lighters ( which are one of my collecting areas) and unfortunately no details regarding their provenance is provided. Photo: Julian Tennant
Australian Army Aviation Corps display in the Vietnam War section. Unfortunately this is another mistake on the part of the museum as the badge being worn is that of the 1st Aviation Regiment and was only instituted in 2013-14, long after the end of the Vietnam War. The soldier should be wearing the AAAVn badge on a black backing. Photo: Julian Tennant
‘Cheap Charlie’ badge. The ‘Cheap Charlies’ were like a lot of other clubs of its type in Vietnam and served the same purpose… to break the monotony and drink booze. To qualify one had to be first and foremost a cheap bastard. Meetings were held every two weeks and fines were handed out to those found guilty of not being cheap, i.e. giving someone a smoke, buying someone a beer etc. The badge had to be carried at all times and be produced to another member on the demand of “Cheep Cheep” – the shower being a popular challenge location. Photo: Julian Tennant
Royal Australian Navy aviator in flying suit. Note the distinctive ‘Northern Territory’ patch. Photo: Julian Tennant
WWII US Army Air Force navigator’s uniform from the 5th Air Force. USAAF. Photo: Julian Tennant
WWII US uniform representing a pilot from the 5th Air Force. USAAF. Photo: Julian Tennant
1943 dated Imperial Japanese Navy hat issued to Hiro Hikita (Volunteer No. 25664) of the Kure Naval Arsenal, which was established in 1903 near the city of Hiroshima. The Kure Naval Arsenal was one of Japan’s largest shipbuilding and repair facilities. The battleship Yamato was built here and commissioned in December 1941. Photo: Julian Tennant
However, as a collector and researcher there are also some disappointments. My interests are quite focused, and my knowledge reflects those limitations but some of the mistakes in the exhibits are glaringly obvious to even somebody with a more general interest in Australian militaria. These include presenting contemporary uniforms and insignia in displays that are described as being from earlier conflicts and including reproduction items as originals without identifying them as copies. Whilst these omissions may escape the notice of the general viewing public, they do undermine the integrity of the museum and the accuracy of its representation, which is unfortunate if its role is to preserve history and educate.
A somewhat strange RAAF ensemble featuring a post WW2 Officer’s summer tropical jacket with current RAAF buttons and WW2 period pilot wings, plus pre-1950 tropical pith helmet. Photo: Julian Tennant
WWII German items on display, although the authenticity of the helmet is questionable. Photo: Julian Tennant
Described as a WW2 US Marine Corps fatigue/field cap, this is in reality a fantasy /fake piece. The Marine Corps actually wore the early short brimmed Army HBT cap in olive drab until the latter part of the war when they introduced the P44 caps for the marines. Futhermore, the camo in WW2 was printed on the same army HBT material for both Army and Marine Corps. This cap has the repeating chevron throughout which, I have been informed, is a sign of the reproduction camo material. Photo: Julian Tennant
Described as WW2 US Marine Corps. This display features a reproduction uniform (identified by the cut and stitiching) plus contemporary K-Bar scabbard embossed with the EGA insignia. Several US collectors have also questioned the authenticity of the belt and magazine pouches used in this display. Whilst it is understandable that museums sometimes include reproductions in their dispays, it undermines the integrity of the institution when they are not identified as such. Photo: Julian Tennant
One of the unusual ‘creative’ interpretations on display in the Darwin Military Museum. The mannequin includes a British Para smock, which I think may be the 1959 pattern, with Airborne forces Pegasus patch and Parachute Regiment beret but it also includes a Glider Pilot Regiment shoulder title which would not be worn by members of the Parachute Regiment and was not worn on para smocks. The Glider Pilot Regiment was disbanded in 1957. Unfortunately this is one of several mistakes that are displayed in the museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
French Foreign Legion uniform representing a legionnaire of the 4e Régiment Étranger, 4e RE. This is the training regiment of the French Foreign Legion and has been stationed at Quatier Capitaine Danjou in Castelnaudary, France, since May 1986. I am not sure why this is on display at the Darwin Military Museum, but here it is. Photo: Julian Tennant
Americans in the Top End display commemorating the close relationship between the US military and the Northern Territory since WWII. In the foreground is a plotting table from the command post of the two 9.2 inch guns that were located at East Point. Photo: Julian Tennant
Australian made Austen submachine gun. Photo: Julian Tennant
Melbourne Argus front page of 20 February 1942. (National Library of Australia)
The Defence of Darwin Experience galleries. Photo: Julian Tennant
Japanese auxiliary fuel drop tank from a Mitsubishi A6M2 Zero fighter dropped in the Darwin area during an air raid during WW2. Photo: Julian Tennant
One of the newer areas of the museum, which is done very well, is the co-located Defence of Darwin Experience. This is presented as a stand-alone attraction in a lot of the tourist orientated promotional material but is really just a new section of the museum which was added in 2012 and included in the one admission fee. This section tells the story of Darwin’s role in World War II through a combination of objects, firsthand accounts and multimedia presentations. Naturally there is an emphasis on the bombing of Darwin and unlike in some of other sections of the museum, the provenance of the artifacts is well documented presenting an engaging insight to the war in the top end by connecting the objects to the participants and their experiences.
War Damage Commission armband on display in the Defence of Darwin Experience gallery. The War Damage Commission was established to enact the Australian ‘War Damage Compensation Act.’ From 1 January 1942, under the ‘national Security Act’, every owner of fixed property in Australia was guaranteed compensation for war damage and was compelled to contribute to a fund from which the compensation would be drawn. After the boming of Darwin, skilled builders and tradesmen were recruited to assess the damage and make compensation recommendations. The assessors wore these armbands to ensure entry into all areas across the military-run district. The War Damage Commission made two major visits to Darwin, in August 1942 and July 1943. Claims were not limited to purely bomb damage; many buildings were purposely destroyed or stripped of materials for military purposes and claims continued to be made by property owners well into the 1950’s. Photo: Julian TennantUniform of Sergeant F.G. Jarvis during his service with the Volunteer Defence Corps (VDC) during WW2. The VDC (aka Dad’s Army) was made up of recruits too old to enlist in the regular forces. The majority of the men in the VDC were veterans of the First World War. Sgt Jarvis was one such veteran having served at Gallipoli as evidenced by the brass ‘A’ on the colour patch indicating active service with the 27th Battalion AIF. The cross-flags insignia represent qualification as a signaller. Photo: Julian Tennant
Overall, I found the Darwin Military Museum to be a mixed bag, sometimes disappointing due to the inclusion of fakes or reproductions that were not identified as such, obvious curatorial errors and the effects that poor display conditions are having on some of the objects. But the exhibits also include some very engaging personal stories and unusual artifacts that are not often found in the public domain. I spent half a day examining the exhibits, jumping back and forth between the various exhibition areas. Visiting the museum resulted in a much better understanding Darwin’s history during the war and when complimented by the ABC’s Bombing of Darwin Podtour, I was able to develop a much more informed exploration of the military related sites in the area.
The Darwin Military Museum LOT 5434 Alec Fong Lim Dr East Point, Darwin, NT 0820 Australia
Entry Fees: Adults: Au$20 Children aged 5 – 15: Au$10 Children under 5: Free Seniors (65+): Au$10 for Northern Territory residents, interstate and international visitors, Au$15 Family pass(2 ADULTS, 3 CHILDREN U16): Au$45.00 University/TAFE students: Au$10.00 Disability carers: Au$12.00 Serving Military Personnel: Au$15
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This exceptional and important Second War S.O.E. ‘Force 133’ Balkan Operations D.C.M. group of eight went under the hammer at the Dix Noonan WebbOrders, Decorations, Medals & Militaria auction on 13 January 2021 and sold for £95,000 (plus 24% buyers premium).
The group was awarded to Sergeant K. A. J. B. Scott, Royal Signals and Special Operations Executive, late King’s Royal Rifle Corps, who was ‘dropped’ into Eastern Serbia in April 1944, linking up with Major Frank Thompson’s ill-fated Operation Claridges in support of Bulgarian Communist Partisans. As anti-partisan reprisal operations closed in, Thompson took the fateful decision to lead his private army ‘T. E. Lawrence Style’ into Bulgaria, where, with Scott continuing to serve as wireless operator, they were repeatedly ambushed and fought running battles with the Bulgarian Army and Gendarmerie before being ultimately broken up.
Starving and exhausted, Scott and Thompson were encircled and captured before being subjected to brutal beatings and threats under Gestapo interrogation. Learning of Thompson’s execution, Scott was then compelled to extract intelligence from S.O.E. Cairo via his wireless set but, cleverly ensuring that Cairo were not deceived, at great danger to himself he disclosed nothing, surviving fourteen nerve-wracking weeks under Gestapo orders until finally, with the Red Army closing on Sofia, he was released, finding his way to London via Istanbul and Cairo as the only British survivor of the mission.
The lot which was offered for sale to Dix Noonan Webb at the request of the family was sold together with an important associated archive of material, elements of which include the recipient’s unpublished autobiography of his war years; private correspondence regarding the Claridges Mission between the recipient and both the author Stowers Johnson and the eminent historian E. P. Thompson, and a rare surviving S.O.E. original typescript of the recipient’s D.C.M. recommendation.
Medals awarded to Sergeant K. A. J. B. Scott, Royal Signals and Special Operations Executive, late King’s Royal Rifle Corps. Distinguished Conduct Medal, G.VI.R; 1939-45 Star; Italy Star; Defence and War Medals 1939-45; Efficiency Decoration, G.VI.R., 1st issue, Territorial; Bulgaria, People’s Republic, Order of People’s Liberty, breast star; Honoured Medal of Georgi Dimitrov 1923-1944. Photo: Dix Noonan Webb
The rare, surviving S.O.E. recommendation, not previously publicly available or held by the National Archives – an original typescript of which is with the lot – submitted by S.O.E. Cairo staff officer and author of the renowned S.O.E. memoir ‘Baker Street Irregular’, Major Bickham Sweet-Escott, states:
‘Sergeant Scott was dropped to join a mission in East Serbia on 7 April 1944. The mission crossed into Bulgaria in early May and on 11 May [sic – actually 18 May], was ambushed by a large party of Bulgarian troops. In the fighting the mission and the Partisans to whom they attached were split up, and Sergeant Scott, together with an officer, were the only British survivors. The wireless transmitting apparatus of the mission which had been dropped into a river during the fighting was rescued by Sergeant Scott at a great personal risk of being captured by the enemy. Several days of flight ensued during which the officer was ill and Sergeant Scott was left alone to face heavy responsibilities. By tact and perseverance he managed to keep the depleted Partisan band together.
On 31 May, a second ambush was encountered and Sergeant Scott together with the officer were captured. Questioned under threats and beating by the Gestapo and Bulgar Secret Police, Sergeant Scott consistently refused to give away any vital military or technical information to the enemy. He was kept imprisoned until 9 September, at Bulgar anti-Partisan Headquarters in Sofia, and during the whole of this time made every effort to gain what information he could about the enemy’s activities. He was then compelled to work his wireless transmitting set to Cairo, but by great ingenuity succeeded in indicating that he was operating under duress, with the result that the messages thus sent by the enemy completely failed to deceive us. By this behaviour he put himself in considerable personal danger, since had he been discovered, he would certainly have been shot. Throughout the whole period, 7 April to 9 September, Sergeant Scott has shown considerable initiative, fortitude and steadfastness to duty and has thus contributed positively to the work of the Force in Bulgaria.’
Special Operations Executive Sergeant K. A. J. B. Scott D.CM.
Kenneth Alec John Baliol Scott was born on 1 March 1920 in Lewisham, London and was educated at Dulwich College. On leaving school he joined the The Rangers, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps – Territorial Army and was mobilised in August 1939, being quickly promoted to Signal Sergeant. Volunteering for Special Duties at the first opportunity, he was transferred to the Royal Corps of Signals in August 1943 and, before long, identified as suitable for Special Operations:
‘Eventually Kenneth Scott found himself at one of the most important finishing schools of the war: S.O.E. Middle East Training School for Wireless Operators. Men here had been selected (after volunteering) from every type of unit, and anticipated being sent to work behind the enemy lines with partisans in the Balkans, or on small Allied craft in enemy waters – anywhere, in fact, where danger was greatest and communication most vital. It mattered not what their previous military experience had been, for it was this that really united them – the consciousness that they had left unit and regiment behind, and all belonged to the same firm; and this indeed was the cognomen for their outfit: the ‘Firm’, Force 133 of S.O.E.’ (Agents Extraordinary by Stowers Johnson refers)
Distinctive parachute wings belonging to Sgt. Ken Scott (Royal Signals) of the Special Operations Executive. Photo: Dix Noonan Webb
Completing specialist training – including a five jump parachute course at Ramat David, near Haifa, in late 1943 – he was driven to a privileged district of Cairo serving as the home of S.O.E. Middle East H.Q., where he was to spend a lazy three months relaxing in S.O.E. surroundings, enjoying not just comfortable furnishings but Arab waiters, cooks and houseboys, pending further orders. Then, suddenly at midday on 5 April 1944, orders arrived for him to pack everything he needed and catch a flight that night to Bari, in Southern Italy. Scrambling into action, he just caught the plane en-route for Benghazi and Malta, arriving at Bari at 1800 hours on 6 April where he was whisked away to the local H.Q. of the firm and briefed on some aspects of his particular mission. The following day, now entrusted with further orders, codes and secret equipment, he was taken to draw his parachute and, completing a blur of further preparations, by 2130 hours he was aboard a plane headed due East from Bari, still not aware of his precise destination. Two hours later he was above the drop zone:
‘The plane was circling. Far down below a group of fires were burning right on the top of a Balkan mountain. Then suddenly, fully and immediately, did Kenneth Scott realise he was making the drop absolutely alone. He groped for his half-pint flask of army rum and began taking an occasional swig. Five times the plane circled and each time, as it crossed above the fires, the heavy bundles of arms and equipment were released through the bomb doors. The sixth circle was the final and Scott sat in the hole ready.
“I look down, [he said, himself describing that vital moment] and even in the circumstances I cannot help wonder at the wild, cold beauty of those hills slowly sliding away below. – We’re running in! The Red Light! “Action Stations!” “Go!!” I heave myself – then the hole – and plunge down to God knows what. The ‘chute opens and I widen my legs to get the straps more comfortable, when from under the ground mist comes a faint cry: “Get your feet and legs together!” – the good old paratroopers’ cry! Soon I land, scarcely a few feet from the fires, and am shaking hands with a couple of English lads, Major Dugmore and Sergeant Rogers. They take me down to the house, where I offer my rum flask, only to find that I’ve already emptied it!”
Not till next day did Kenneth Scott realise he had actually dropped to ‘Entanglement Pin Point Radovnica’ at 2355 hours on Good Friday. Dugmore and Rogers spent the day acquainting him with local conditions and listening in turn to gossip about Cairo. Late in the afternoon the mission, his mission, arrived in a condition entirely belying the code name ‘Claridges’. Major Thompson and Sergeants Walker and Monroe had come down from their latest trek over the Mountains to the north. They were tired and quite drawn with fatigue, very, very dirty, unshaven and hungry. They spoke of heavy fighting ambushes and occupied villages, but the sight of the new wireless operator was as great a tonic for Frank Thompson as were for his famished companions those gastronomic delicacies brought by Scott’s own “air mail”.’ (ibid)
Page from Ken Scott’s typed biography entitled “Life in the Army” which presents his account of his 7 years service in the Army. Photo: Dix Noonan Webb
Operation Claridges
Scott’s arrival in Eastern Serbia, near the border of Bulgaria, had landed him into the centre of one of the more confused and under analysed of the S.O.E. areas of operation during the Second World War. His mission – ‘Claridges’ – led by Major Frank Thompson, a man whose short but eventful life has been the subject of biographies and memoirs (see footnote), aimed to estimate the strength of the communist underground Bulgarian resistance movement and gather evidence for a considered opinion as to whether Britain should support it.
They soon found Bulgarian guerrillas in Serbia and established contact with representatives of the Central Committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party. Air drops of supplies and arms were arranged. However, whilst other areas of the Balkans had seen organised and determined partisan groups operating, Axis-aligned Bulgaria had never been occupied and until 1944 the resistance to Prime Minister Filav’s pro-Nazi regime was militarily weak. As the Germans decided that the partisans must be wiped out, the net closed in on Claridges’ location in Serbia and the Bulgarian partisans with Thompson announced in early May that they had decided to wage their campaign back over the border in Bulgaria. Thompson’s orders were to remain with the Bulgarian leaders if possible but this would require the Claridges force to venture east into Bulgaria itself, where large numbers of anti-partisan soldiers and policemen were active and brutal. It would be a gamble and an altogether more dangerous undertaking than the operations that they had hitherto been conducting under Major Mostyn Davies and a Brigade of Bulgarian guerillas in an area of Serbia controlled by the Yugoslavian Partisan leader General Tempo, a representative of Tito. Although warned of the dangers by Tempo and faced with a difficult decision without clear orders, the restless and ideologically driven Thompson chose to play his part in attempting to foment a communist uprising of the Bulgarian population. His small party, with Scott as the mission’s wireless telegraph operator, left the Cerna Trava area on 12 May 1944, in the company of 150 to 200 partisans of the 2nd Sofia Brigade, crossing the border with the intention of moving into Central Bulgaria. They ran into trouble almost immediately:
‘On the night of the 13/14 May the party fell into a police ambush of approximately 20 Bulgarian policemen armed with knives. The ambush party had been lying in wait across the track on which the Partisans were moving, and succeeding in establishing considerable surprise. In the skirmish which ensued one Partisan was killed and Dencho received three knife wounds. One policeman was stabbed and another taken prisoner. This prisoner stated that he had been recently conscripted into the Bulgar Gendarmerie, adding that he was a married man with children. This ruse to gain lenient treatment and, perhaps, to save his life, was unsuccessful however, since his papers showed him to be unmarried and a member of the Regular Forces. His head was smashed in with a rifle butt [by the partisans].’ (The Outline History of the Claridges Mission based on field signals and the evidence of Sergeant Scott refers)
They were now travelling in unfamiliar and hostile territory, very short of provisions and at constant risk of betrayal to the Gendarmerie or army. Exhausted, their rest in a wood on 18 May was interrupted by machine-gun fire at noon, causing them to scatter and split into two groups. Scott fled with Major Thompson, around twelve partisan officers and five or six other ranks including three women. A search for a new hideout was then delayed by one of their number being shot in the ankle and by increasing numbers of Bulgar troops, and by their own hunger and exhaustion. That night was spent in thickets on a hilltop with just a small amount of cheese for sustenance. With their confidence in the leaderless partisans now waning, Thompson and Scott agreed to split from the group when the first opportunity presented itself. Scott later recalled Thompson jokingly commenting, ‘These partisans are no good: maybe we should find some better ones.’
Indeed, many years later, Major J. Henniker-Major, another S.O.E. Balkans Operative, would state of Thompson’s Bulgarian Partisans: ‘I’m glad they were not my prop and stay – a pretty inexperienced and low level mixture of individual deserters and Communist civilians from the towns. Compared to the Yugoslav army they had an unreal and slightly horror-comic air of a brigand army, boastful, mercurial, temperamental and with an inexperienced yen to go it alone.’
Betrayal and Capture On 30 May Thompson and Scott, desperate for food, attempted to eat leaves with salt and then shared a live wood snail. Three partisans were sent into a village despite it being occupied by an army unit and returned with some bread which was carefully divided. Then, exhausted once more they slept in an orchard.
On 31 May, after a Gendarmerie patrol was spotted at dawn 300 yards away, they decided not to move further. But at 14.00 a twenty-strong police patrol approached from the village where their presence had evidently been betrayed and two hours later fired the first bullets into the wood. Thompson and Scott, as they had planned, split from the group, moving uphill while the Partisans were fleeing down and hid between four trees growing close together in ground cover of dead leaves and branches.
They could hear small-arms and mortar fire, and the screams of one of three women who had stayed with the Partisans and who, despite her painful shrapnel wounds had killed several Bulgarian troops with grenades. A small force of troops then entered the copse in which Thompson and Scott were hiding and, advancing nearer and nearer to them until just ten feet away, the pair were spotted. A shot was fired at Scott which miraculously missed and then both men were captured. Dragged from their hiding place they were brutally kicked and struck with fists and rifle butts until an N.C.O. arrived. Both had their hands tied behind their backs, Thompson with a belt, Scott, whose hand was poisoned and swollen, with a rope, his wrists being so tightly bound that they were cut almost to the bone. As they were led back to the local village, peasants turned out to swear, spit and strike them with their fists or any heavy article they could seize. It was later realised by the captives that this attitude of the population and the Army was largely due to the loss of life caused by the Allied bombing of Sofia – raids which Thompson had encouraged: some accounts report that Sofia was 25 per cent destroyed, with thousands killed.
On reaching the village, Thompson, now extremely weak from lack of food, the march and ill treatment, lost his balance and collapsed. After preliminary questioning to ascertain that they were British fighting with the Partisans, they were taken to a cellar where, without any preliminaries, a shaved and well dressed civilian beat them with a truncheon, while soldiers, policemen and other civilians crowded in the doorway to watch. Their possessions were then set out on a table and an interrogation on more orthodox military lines followed, conducted by a commanding officer who had extracted shockingly precise information about the mission and its history from a captured Partisan.
Two hours later they were handcuffed and taken to a room inside a commandeered school on the edge of Sofia. Sharing the room were a number of captured Partisans and the three villagers who had sold them bread. A high ranking Gendarmerie officer then arrived and began the now familiar routine of spitting, kicking and beating, all conducted in front of an audience of soldiers, Gendarmerie and citizenry. Sleep was impossible owing to the injuries they had received at the hands of the Bulgars and also on account of the continual stream of sightseers. The screams of two women partisans who had also been captured continued through the night, accompanied by sounds of heavy furniture being thrown: they were never seen again. At this point Thompson was taken for three hours of interrogation at around three in the morning and returned looking haggard, scarcely able to stand; Scott followed. Then there was another more military and clear-cut interrogation, in a room containing three Gestapo representatives, in front of two wireless transmission sets, only one of which was recognisable to Scott. Many questions concerned the S.O.E. signals school in the Middle East, the exact station to which Scott had signalled, and the whereabouts of other British missions in the Balkans. These interrogators were extremely well informed but Scott avoided replies to all the questions by pointing out that his operation, and all those of the organisation to which he belonged, were carried out with the highest degree of secrecy, and that owing to these security measures he was totally ignorant of the activities or organisation of other personnel.
Working ‘under Gestapo orders’ On 1 June Scott’s request for medical attention was granted, the doctor being especially interested in discovering where Thompson had learned Bulgarian; since Scott had been asked this question multiple times during interrogation the Bulgars obviously attached some importance to it; it is a horrible irony that Thompson’s meagre knowledge of the language probably helped to incriminate him as a ‘spy’. During the following twenty-four hours, sightseers and Scott’s poisoned arm rendered sleep impossible and on 2 June Scott was taken off into individual imprisonment in Sofia where his captors required him to operate his wireless set in their attempt to acquire information from Cairo.
Scott never saw Frank Thompson again and was informed around 11 June, by a Bulgarian officer, that he had been shot, not as a soldier but as a rebel, and that he too would be shot unless the reports of his behaviour and co-operation were satisfactory. Stowers Johnson, whose account of Operation Claridges in Agents Extraordinary was later described by Scott as ‘factually correct’ and ‘the accurate story of this isolated wartime incident’, wrote that the object lesson for Scott here was that he was still alive because he had not been mixing himself up learning Bulgarian and getting into politics, with the ominous implication that if officers were shot so simply, then there would be even less hesitation with other ranks. That being said, it cannot be ignored that Scott, as the wireless operator of the mission, was of more obvious use to his captors than the equally brave Thompson. Now he would be put to work but, as per his D.C.M. citation, Scott, at great personal risk to himself, succeeded in indicating to Cairo that he was operating under duress, with the result that the messages thus sent by the enemy completely failed to deceive Cairo:
‘His captors were in earnest when they had demanded the set be worked at once. He was taken immediately to a large room entirely used for wireless telegraphy and set to work. A long and rambling account of the Battle of Batulia was drawn up, representing the incident neither as a disaster nor a success, and indicating that the British mission would very soon give details so that a sortie could be received, arms and supplies being urgently needed.
Now came the divergence of theory from practice. German N.C.O.s came at regular intervals to give, receive or monitor messages which were carefully checked somewhere by superiors whom Scott never saw. He realised each message was always reworded! This thwarted part of his plan, but was encouraging in that it must make for a difference of style which might be noticed. He could also make a few mistakes such as an inexperienced, badly trained operator might make. He left out deliberately his security check message. To his relief nobody came to point this out. Perhaps they did not know.
When that first message went out Kenneth Scott had the most trying time of all. If there had been no change in the staff at Cairo, they should suspect the situation at once. But if there were nonchalance in the decoding room, or haste or even sickness there, he might find himself responsible for calling out some Allied aeroplanes with their crews and equipment to be destroyed in the Sredna Gora Mountains. Or if the message were bluntly queried, he might be betrayed!
He need not have worried. At the British receiving station the absence of the security check message was noted with alarm and the errors seemed many more in decoding than even Scott had intended. The whole message stood out in front of the S.O.E. chiefs as a warning signal. Kenneth Scott had the reputation of being one of the best operators in the whole Middle East field. Such mistakes would fail even a trainee operator and when coming from their most capable sergeant of signals could not be regarded as accidental.
At once they knew he was in German hands and sent out warnings to other missions to watch carefully for Major Thompson or any other survivors who might be in hiding. More definite than anything, however, Kenneth Scott by his bravery in making those mistakes had placed responsibility for the safety of his life squarely upon the shoulders of Force 133. If they showed any doubt or distrust, if they queried the authenticity of the message, or indeed if they failed to respond to any request the pseudo ‘Claridges’ might make, the Germans would suspect and Scott would be sacrificed to Gestapo torture and elimination.’ (Agents Extraordinary by Stowers Johnson refers)
Whilst enduring the next fourteen weeks in captivity, under the continual threat of being shot, Scott continued to operate his wireless transmission set according to Gestapo orders, all the while contriving with Cairo to reveal nothing.
Finally, on 9 September, with Russian forces crossing the Danube and the Germans and Bulgarian troops in disarray, Scott was taken to the centre of Sofia by tram to be left abandoned in a side street. He slowly made his way back to London via Istanbul and Cairo. In 1945, Scott returned to Cairo as representative on the Allied Commission for dealing with Bulgarian war crimes. He was discharged on 4 June 1946 and was personally awarded his D.C.M. (which was originally gazetted on 9 August 1945) by the King at Buckingham Palace on 10 December 1946.
Bulgarian partisans of the Bulgarian Fatherland Front resistance movement enter the capital city of Sofia. September, 1944
After the war Ken Scott became a ventilation engineer, starting as a draughtsman, rising to become sales director. In 1954 he married Sonia Townshend and in 1962 they retired to Galloway in Scotland and bought a holiday home in the Algarve in Portugal. In 2000 Scott returned to the scene of his wartime exploits and met the few partisan survivors. He was welcomed one of their own, a man who had shared their hardships. And he exorcised his ghosts by paying his respects at the graves of fallen partisans – and that of Major Frank Thompson. Ken Scott passed away on 30 September 2008. He was survived by Sonia and their two daughters.
The lot was sold with the following original related archive material:
The recipient’s typed and hard-bound autobiography of his war years entitled ‘Life in the Army’ being the story of his nearly 7 years in the army at home and abroad as described in his letters written home, also containing documents, news cuttings relating to his time during the war, illustrations and three original photographs of the recipient in uniform, in excess of 200 pages;
An original copy of the outline history of the Claridges Mission, based on field signals and the evidence of Sgt. Scott;
A silk map of the Balkan region in good condition and two more silk map cuttings of the Balkan region these last two aged and worn;
An original copy of the recipient’s D.C.M. citation; War Office D.C.M. investiture invitation, dated 23 October 1946;
A quantity of photographs of the recipient, seven of which are contemporary images of the recipient in uniform – one being a fine, card mounted, studio portrait, 25cm x 19cm, four also featuring the recipient’s brother Ron in uniform of which one also features the recipient’s mother;
Private correspondence, dated 1975, between the recipient and Stowers Johnson, author of Agents Extraordinary, in which the recipient congratulates Johnson on the accuracy of his account and also, dated 1984, in which Johnson provides thoughts on the attitude of Bulgarian officialdom towards the mission; correspondence, dated 1977 and 1979, between the recipient and the the socialist historian E. P. Thompson (younger brother of Major F. Thompson);
The recipient’s Record of Service card – Army Form W5258;
A well captioned album of photographs documenting the recipient’s visit to Bulgaria in 2002, containing images of the recipient meeting former partisans, visits to memorials, television interviews and press conferences etc;
Two VHS videos, the first with handwritten title ‘From Bulgaria and Revisit + 7 days – Thompson’ the second with handwritten title ‘7 day interview Bulgaria Oct 2002 / Mrs Thompson, filmed in UK by Transki 14/4/1978’;
Five books: ‘There is a Spirit in Europe A Memoir of Frank Thompson by T. J. Thompson and E. P. Thompson, the front end paper signed by Scott and also by the Bulgarian Partisan leader Slavcho Transki with a handwritten tribute to Scott, dated 1978; A Very English Hero, the Making of Frank Thompson by Peter J. Conradi; Agents Extraordinary by Stowers Johnson, the front end paper signed, ‘To Kenneth Scott, with kindest regards and best wishes from Stowers Johnson 10 August 1975’; The Left Side of History by Kristen Ghosdee; Baker Street Irregular by Bickham Sweet-Escott, front end paper signed by Scott.
Footnote – Major Frank Thompson
Captain, later Major Frank Thompson of the Special Operations Executive who commanded Operation Claridges.
William Frank Thompson, educated at the Dragon School, Winchester College and Oxford University, was a highly gifted classics scholar, linguist and nascent poet of immense promise who became a member of the Communist Party of Great Britain in the 1930s under the influence of his close friend Iris Murdoch. His exceptional record of service as a British Army officer began courageously with the Special Reconnaissance Unit ‘Phantom’ in North Africa, the Levant, and the hazardous landings in Sicily in 1943. However, it is his remarkable service with the S.O.E. in Bulgaria that really stands out. Parachuted into Macedonia on 25 January 1944, under the command of Major Mostyn Davies, he was part of Operation Mulligatawny which established links between the British staff and the Bulgarian partisans under Slavcho Transki. When Davies was killed, Thompson assumed command of the mission, now named Claridges, and crossed the frontier into Bulgaria together with Sergeants Scott, Walker and Munroe. All but Scott were killed. The extent to which Thompson’s personal politics were a factor in the outcome of the mission is still debated but there is no doubting his bravery and determination:
‘Along the way, he and his men experienced constant danger from enemy patrols, desertion and treachery by their own ilk, instant betrayal from intimidated villagers and peasants, extreme hunger, verminous lice, vicious sores and scratches from moving at night, bleeding, blistered and calloused feet, bitter cold and pernicious wet; yet, not once did he turn back despite ample good reason for doing so after the first ambush on 18 May. He pressed ahead indomitably to complete his task, however remote and impossible it must have seemed on many occasions. Thompson’s immortality was indeed his own individuality as he assumed the mantle of leading his mission into the heartlands of Axis Bulgaria, an erstwhile T. E. Lawrence of the Balkans or not.’ (Through Hitler’s Backdoor – SOE Operations in Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria 1939-1945 by Alan Ogden refers).
After the war and the establishment of a communist government in Bulgaria, the villages of Livage, Lipata, Tsarevi Stragi, Malak Babul, Babul and Zavoya were merged and renamed Thompson ((Томпсън, in the Bulgarian Cyrillic alphabet) in his honour. While most Bulgarian towns and cities which were renamed by the communists adopted their former names soon after the collapse of Bulgaria’s communist regime in 1989-90, Thompson, to this day, remains Thompson.
Grave of Major Frank Thompson in Litakov, Bulgaria
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Review and photographs of the Nungarin Heritage Machinery & Army Museum in the Western Australian wheatbelt region.
With the fall of Singapore on 15 February 1942, and the bombing of Darwin four days later, fears of a Japanese invasion of Australia began to reach fever pitch. The air raid on Broome in Western Australia on 3 March exacerbated concerns about the vulnerability of the state to Japanese invasion and led to the formation of III Corps and a bolstering of Western Australia’s military preparedness. One armoured and two infantry were deployed to the state and a rapid expansion of Western Australia’s defences commenced.
Nungarin, a small wheatbelt town situated approximately 278 km (173 mi) east of Perth became an important part of the supply network and at its peak was the third largest Army camp in Western Australia with around 1200 service personnel stationed there at any one time. The region was an integral part of the defence network as it was considered sufficiently inland to be outside the range of Japanese carrier-based aircraft. The town of Nungarin was selected for development, due to its location as a road and rail junction, had electricity and a good water supply.
In September 1942, the army acquired 1720 acres of land in and around the townsite and began construction of the Nungarin camp which was home to No.5 Base Ordnance Depot (5BOD), which at the time was the largest army ordnance storage facility in Western Australia and continued to operate there until its closure in 1960. The depot facilities included a vehicle workshop housed in a massive timber clad building which was sold to the Nungarin Shire. It is now home to Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum, which officially opened on the 8th of October 1994.
Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
As its name implies, the museum is more than just a military museum and also includes displays of farm machinery and other cultural artifacts related to the local community. However, it was the military aspects that interested me and after paying another visit to the Merredin Military Museum on the Saturday, I made the 30 minute drive to Nungarin early Sunday morning, just in time to arrive for one of the museums renowned Sunday Breakfasts ($10), which was a great way to begin the visit.
Mechanical workshop pits in the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Sunday Breakfast at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Toy and home-ware display at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
American Studebaker US6 2½-ton 6×6 truck and Willys Jeep (currently undergoing repair). Photo: Julian Tennant
Unsurprisingly, the bulk of the exhibits are the vehicles and equipment of the type that were stored or repaired at the depot during its operation. Run by a small team of volunteer staff, the shed is filled with an assortment of military equipment, some complete and some still under restoration. Surrounding the shed are dozens more vehicles at different stages of disrepair, ‘projects’ is how Phil the caretaker/curator described them to me.
Restored Australian Dingo Scout Car 1942. The chassis and wheels were donated by Anthony Thomson and Kodj Kodjin whilst the armour was found on Bruce Watson’s Nungarin farm. Photo: Julian Tennant
Ferret Scoutcar used by the Australian Army and first produced in 1952. Photo: Julian Tennant
1941 Chevrolet Mobile Field Workshop on loan to the museum from Mr. J. Sewell. Photo: Julian Tennant
True luxury! Double bunk bed and army issue mattress used by troops stationed in Nungarin during WW2. Photo: Julian Tennant
Fully working WW2 period searchlight and generator, which has occasionally been dragged out to illuminate the night sky around Nungarin. Photo: Julian Tennant
Unrestored M3 Stuart tank which was acquired by the museum in 1988 after it had been used for farm clearing at Nukarni after the war. Photo: Julian Tennant
Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Ordnance 3 inch mortar circa 1937. Photo: Julian Tennant
WW2 GMC 6×6 truck. Photo: Julian Tennant
Fully restored Bren Gun Carrier owned by Eddie Woodfield and on display at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
In one corner of the shed there are a couple of rooms holding smaller artifacts including communications equipment, uniforms and personal effects. As a former communicator, of particular interest to me were a couple of Vietnam era patrol radio sets used by Australian Special Forces.
Delco AN/PRC-64 and 64A radio sets used by Australian Special Forces in Vietnam and during the 1970’s. Photo: Julian Tennant
The lunchbox sized AN/PRC-64 was a spy radio set developed by Delco in the USA in the early 1960’s as a radio intended for Special Forces use and for espionage activities. Most of the original AN/PRC-64 sets were upgraded to the PRC-64A variant which included provision for the AN/GRA-71 Electro-mechanical Burst Encoder to allow for faster morse transmissions. These radios were used by the Australian Special Air Service Regiment in Vietnam and also by 1 Commando Regiment. SASR soldier, John Trist recounts his experiences using the 64 set as a patrol sig in the early 1970’s on the Crypto Museum website and was one of many ex sigs (myself included) who bought one when the Department of Defence disposed of stocks in 1995. These days, on the rare occasion when they do turn up in the marketplace, they sell for quite a bit more than the Au$50 asking price at the time.
Display cabinet at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Radio and communications display room at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
An old Vietnam era AN/PRC-77 radio set and harness. Fully restored working WW2 period searchlight and generator, which has occasionally been dragged out to illuminate the night sky around Nungarin. Photo: Julian Tennant
The building housing the collection is an important part of the museum’s story, but unfortunately, a largely timber structure out in the middle of a dry and dusty wheatbelt town does not create an ideal conservation environment for textile artifacts. And although the staff have made considerable effort to try and protect the handful of uniforms and insignia on display in their cabinets, these are not the museum’s strong point. The uniforms that are on display represent a small selection of (mostly) Royal Australian Ordnance Corps uniforms, most of which are post war and reflect more recent connections with the Australian Army.
Selection of military badges, buttons and a watch strap on display at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Fully restored working WW2 period searchlight and generator, which has occasionally been dragged out to illuminate the night sky around Nungarin. Photo: Julian Tennant
Australian Women’s Army Services (AWAS) uniform donated to the museum by Linda Robertson (nee Lynch) who served at 5BOD Nungarin, No.2 Depot-Gun & Ack Ack for a period of approximately 18 months during WW2. Linda’s job was to issue 25 pounder gun parts and search-light components. Photo: Julian Tennant
Western Australia based Regional Force Surveillance Unit, the Pilbara Regiment, slouch hat featuring the unit colour patch (UCP) and cap badge. Photo: Julian Tennant
Detail of a 10th Light Horse Regiment trooper on display at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Various old military water bottles on display at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Saddle blanket detail for a 10 Light Horse equestrian display. Photo: Julian Tennant
The main attraction is really the vehicles, and this is very much a hands-on type of museum where visitors can clamber around most of the displays to check out important details. One of the vehicles that I found quite interesting was the Austin Champ, which was developed to meet the British Army’s requirement for an off-road light vehicle in the early 1950’s. The Australian Army ordered 400 new Champs, plus a similar number of ex-British Army vehicles, but they were not popular due to their unsuitability for Australian conditions and were replaced by the Land Rover which was much better suited to requirements and significantly cheaper.
4 Cylinder Series B Austin Champ used by the Australian Army in the 1950’s. Photo: Julian Tennant
Staghound Armoured Car. Photo: Julian Tennant
Ford F-60L truck awaiting restoration. Photo: Julian Tennant
Rusted shells of armoured cars awaiting salvage on the grounds of the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Trucks awaiting restoration at the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Memorial stone commemorating the 100th anniversary of the armistice which ended the First World War. Photo: Julian Tennant
Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
For visitors a trip to the Nungarin Heritage Machinery and Army Museum can be done as a day-trip from Perth, although if you have time I would recommend staying overnight (possibly in nearby Merredin), which will give you time to check out the Merredin Military Museum as well as the Nungarin museum, plus explore the old military buildings that are spread around the area. These are well documented on the Central Wheatbelt Visitor Centre website or you can use Jane Hammond’s When war came to the wheatbeltpiece for the Royal Automobile Club of WA (Inc.) as your guide for the trip east from Perth.
Ammunition bunker near Nokaning East Road, between Nungarin and Merredin. This is one of 46 concrete bunkers scattered around the area which were used to store various munitions during the war. Photo: Julian Tennant
Nungarin Heritage Machinery & Army Museum
26 Second Avenue
Nungarin
Western Australia, 6490
If you like what you see here, please FOLLOW this page via email or by using either the buttons below or in the column on the right. I try to post NEW content every second Sunday (at least) and knowing that somebody is looking at this gives me the encouragement I need to set aside time to go through my archives and collection in order to develop the content for the page. And of course, feel free to contact me here, via email or by visiting my Facebook or Instagram pages
Note: Click on the smaller images to enlarge and read caption information.
WW1 Australian Flying Corps (AFC) brevet and medal ribbons. Whilst this example is original, the wing featured on the tunic worn by the pilot mannequin at the Sopwith Camel is one of the cheap reproductions that are made by Lukus Productions and sold for $10 in the museum shop. Photo: Julian Tennant
A very unusual A.F.C. insignia in the First World War section. Photo: Julian Tennant
Australian Flying Corps (AFC) pilot standing by a replica of a Sopwith Camel fighter. Photo: Julian Tennant
Royal Flying Corps bullion Observer’s brevet. This pattern was also worn by Observers of the Australian Flying Corps up until the uniquely Australian Observer’s brevet was introduced. Photo: Julian Tennant
A piece of fabric from Baron Manfred Von Richtofen’s aircraft, souvenired by 2274 Sergeant J.H. Gratwick of the 44th Battalion AIF on Sunday 21 April 1918. Photo: Julian Tennant
Tunic of ‘Jimmy’ Woods, a Western Australian who flew with the Royal Flying Corps in Egypt in 1918. Photo: Julian Tennant
Air Woman’s cap of the type worn by the Women’s Royal Air Force in 1918. Photo: Julian Tennant
Uniform of Digby Bull, a QANTAS Empire Airways, a PBY-5A Catalina Flight Engineer. Photo: Julian Tennant
Original 1927 period insignia worn by pilots of MacRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA), a civil aviation company established in 1927 and flying until 1993. Photo: Julian Tennant
PBY-5A Catalina. Photo: Julian Tennant
Airport control tower display in the South Wing of the RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum of WA. Photo: Julian Tennant
MacRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA) display at the RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum of WA. Photo: Julian Tennant
The North Wing is home to the larger aircraft in the collection and has a greater emphasis on the Royal Australian Air Force and its operations during peace and war. This is very much an ‘old-school’ type museum with an emphasis on artifacts rather than interactive displays or gimmicks to keep the kids entertained. Naturally there is a greater focus on Western Australia’s role and the Second World War does have a much greater emphasis than subsequent conflicts, with Vietnam and more recent conflicts almost entirely absent.
Entrance to the North Wing of the RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum of WA. Photo: Julian Tennant
Lancaster bomber and Bomber Command squadron patches. Photo: Julian Tennant
Bomber Command display. Photo: Julian Tennant
Detail of the Avro Lancaster Mk VII which is the centre-piece the North Wing. Photo: Julian Tennant
1934 period RAAF Mess Dress uniform worn by (then) Flight Lieutenant Ivor. J. Lightfoot. Photo: Julian Tennant
Pilot wings, ribbons and Pathfinder badge on the tunic of Robert Newbiggin who joined the RAAF in 1942 after serving in the Militia. From 1944 – 45 he flew heavy bombers in Europe with 195 and 35 Squadrons RAF, the latter being part of No. 8 Group (Pathfinder Force). Photo: Julian Tennant
Uniform of Air Chief Marshal Sir Basil Embry G.C.B., K.B.E., D.S.O. and 3 bars, D.F.C., A.F.C., R.A.F. Danish Order of Dannebrog, Commander 1st Class Dutch Order of Orang Nassau, Grand Officer French Croix d Guerre, Legion d’honneure, Croix de Commandeur. Photo: Julian Tennant
RAAF mechanic servicing a De Havilland Tiger Moth training aircraft. Photo: Julian Tennant
WW2 period RAAF Nursing Service sister. Photo: Julian Tennant
WW2 period Women’s Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) officers hat. Photo: Julian Tennant
RAAF Observer officer’s tunic, sam-browne belt and helmet. Photo: Julian Tennant
RAAF trainee pilot of No. 4 Service Training School, Geraldton WA during WW2. Photo: Julian Tennant
RAF Spitfire pilot’s helmet from the Battle of Britain. Photo: Julian Tennant
Aircraft Spotter playing cards from WW2 which were first issued in 1943. Photo: Julian Tennant
Souvenir belt with various insignia brought back from the North African campaign. Photo: Julian Tennant
The layout of the museum may also appear somewhat random, rather than following a cohesive timeline and this may have been dictated due to space considerations. I suspect that it may also be due to the nature of the museum and what it represents in terms of preserving the history of aviation in WA, rather than trying to explain a linear sequence of conflicts or historical events. Many of the items have been donated by members or their families and it is nice to see some of the more unusual (and sometimes banal) objects on display rather than being hidden from public view in a storage facility somewhere. This more than makes up for the somewhat cluttered and disorganised feel of the museum in my opinion.
Second World War period Middle East Issue Fly Swat, RAAF officers issue Pith Helmet issued in the Burma / Indian operational theatres and a souvenir dagger from Somalia. Photo: Julian TennantBritish Airborne Forces Welbike Paratrooper’s Motorcycle. The Welbike was a single seat motorcycle produced during WW2 at the direction of Station IX (the “Inter Services Research Bureau”) for use by the Special Operations Executive (SOE). Between 1942 and 1943, 3641 bikes were built and although not much used by the SOE, some were issued to the British 1st and 6th Airborne Divisions, seeing use during Operation Market Garden at Arnhem. Photo: Julian Tennant
Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation CA-16 Wirraway Mk. III and other aircraft on display in the North Wing of the RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum of WA. Photo: Julian Tennant
Air Force Survival Kit carried by air crew in the Burma Campaign. Photo: Julian Tennant
As can be expected, the ‘draw-card’ exhibits for most visitors would be the aircraft on display, however as an insignia collector, it is the uniforms and badges that attracted me. The Aviation Heritage Museum does not disappoint in this aspect. It displays some rare and unusual insignia, including what appears to be an Australian Flying Corps patch (see images above), the likes of which I had never seen before, despite having the AFC as one of my primary areas of collecting interest. It also shows some of the older Squadron patches and some more recent items from the more obscure RAAF support units.
My one criticism re the insignia is that some of the displays include obvious (to the knowledgeable collector) fakes such as the AFC wing which is featured on the pilot by the Sopwith Camel in the South Wing. The brevet is one of the copies sold by Lukus Productions and is even available in the museum shop and yet there is no information stating that the uniform being displayed is not authentic in all respects. There were also others that I was not convinced were genuine, but were not marked as being replicas. This is not a good practice IMO as it does potentially undermine confidence in the descriptor didactic panels for other displays as well. However, I only noticed this in a few displays and overall was very impressed by what I uncovered as I made my way through the museum.
Leather patch (with photo showing reverse) and Observer wings of the 531st Squadron, 380th Bombardment Group (H), 5th Air Force (USAAF) which flew B-24 Liberator bombers in the South Western and Western Pacific during WW2. The 380th was placed under the control of the RAAF and operated out of Darwin from May 1943 until February 1945. Photo: Julian Tennant.
76 Squadron sports uniform patch, circa 1944. Photo: Julian Tennant
76 Squadron sports uniform patch and PT singlet, circa 1944. Photo: Julian Tennant
Vietnam War period Douglas AC-47D “Spooky” gunship crew patch. Photo: Julian Tennant
Vietnam War period Douglas AC-47D “Spooky” gunship crew patch. Photo: Julian Tennant
Patch and model aircraft representing the Royal Australian Navy’s 817 Squadron. The construction of this patch leads me to believe that it is probably Japanese made and dates from the 1950’s or 60’s. Photo: Julian Tennant.
Model aircraft and patch of 77 Squadron RAAF. Photo: Julian Tennant
View of the North Wing of the RAAFA Aviation Heritage Museum of WA. Photo: Julian Tennant
General Dynamics F-111 “Aardvark” Cockpit Simulator. Photo: Julian Tennant
Link Trainer Type 03. . Developed in the USA by Edwin C. Link to fill the need to train pilots safely (on the ground) in the skills of flying an aircraft blind, in cloud or at night using only instruments on the control panel. The instructor sat at the desk, communicating with the pilot by microphone and headphones whilst conducting various training exercises. Photo: Julian Tennant
RAAF Aermacchi MB326H Macchi training aircraft and pilot. Photo: Julian Tennant
Patch detail of the RAAF fire fighting and aviation rescue teams. Photo: Julian Tennant
3 Control Reporting Unit Patch and Disruptive Pattern Desert Uniform (DPDU) worn by a RAAF airman when he arrived at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan on Christmas Eve of 2008. Photo: Julian Tennant.
Patch detail from a baseball cap used by the RAAF Airfield Construction Squadron. Photo: Julian Tennant
1960’s era RAAF Medical Operational Support Unit patch. Photo: Julian Tennant
Bell UH-1 Iroquois (Huey) Helicopter of 9 Sqn RAAF. Photo: Julian Tennant
Selection of metal dies from the insignia manufacturer Sheridans, Perth that were used to make various aviation badges. Photo: Julian Tennant
Selection of metal dies from the insignia manufacturer Sheridans, Perth that were used to make various aviation badges. Photo: Julian Tennant
In addition to the two display hangars the museum also has a separate library, photo archive, model aeroplane club room and of course a gift shop which features a good selection of aviation related books, including some out of print, second-hand publications, models and other related memorabilia.
The museum is easily accessible by car, or if using public transport by train with Bull Creek train station located approximately 500m away. It is open every day, except Good Friday, Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s Day from 10:00 until 16:00 and along with theArmy Museum of Western Australia, should definitely be one of the museums you see when visiting Perth.
RAAF Squadron patches and reproduction pilot’s wings on sale in the Museum shop. Photo: Julian Tennant
The Aviation Heritage Museum Air Force Memorial Estate 2 Bull Creek Drive, Bull Creek WA 6149 Australia
If you like what you see here, please FOLLOW this page via email or by using either the buttons below or in the column on the right. I try to post NEW content every second Sunday (at least) and knowing that somebody is looking at this gives me the encouragement I need to set aside time to go through my archives and collection in order to develop the content for the page. And of course, feel free to contact me here, via email or by visiting my Facebook or Instagram pages
Without a doubt one of the best military museums in the Normandy region. If you’re an airborne collector, the D-Day Experience is a must see.
5 June 1944. Lt. Col. Robert Lee “Bull” Wolverton, CO 3/506 PIR, checking his gear before boarding the C-47 “Dakota”, 8Y-S, “Stoy Hora” of the 98th Troop Carrier Squadron, 440th Troop Carrier Group at an airfield in Exeter, England. Original US Army press release photograph colourised by Johnny Sirlande.
On the evening of 5 June 1944, Lt. Col. Robert Lee “Bull” Wolverton, Commanding Officer of the 3rd Battalion, 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division, gathered his men in an orchard adjacent to what is now Exeter airport, and said:
“Men, I am not a religious man and I don’t know your feelings in this matter, but I am going to ask you to pray with me for the success of the mission before us. And while we pray, let us get on our knees and not look down but up with faces raised to the sky so that we can see God and ask his blessing in what we are about to do.
“God almighty, in a few short hours we will be in battle with the enemy. We do not join battle afraid. We do not ask favors or indulgence but ask that, if You will, use us as Your instrument for the right and an aid in returning peace to the world.
“We do not know or seek what our fate will be. We ask only this, that if die we must, that we die as men would die, without complaining, without pleading and safe in the feeling that we have done our best for what we believed was right.
“Oh Lord, protect our loved ones and be near us in the fire ahead and with us now as we pray to you.”
Then, his ‘stick’ of 15 paratroopers boarded a C-47 “Dakota”, nicknamed “Stoy Hora” for the flight to France. The invasion of Normandy had begun. But, within hours of that famous speech, Wolverton (aged 30) was dead. His feet had not even touched French soil. He was killed by ground fire around 00:30 hrs and left suspended by his parachute in an apple tree just north of Saint-Côme-du-Mont.
Paratroopers of the 506th PIR prepare for their flight aboard the C-47, 8Y-S ‘Stoy Hora’ at Exeter airfield. 05 June 1944. Of the 15 paratroopers in the ‘stick’ that flew in this aircraft, 5 were killed in action on D-Day, 8 were captured and 2 were missing in action. Photo colourised by Paul Reynolds
In 2015, Dead Man’s Corner Museum curators Emmanuel Allain and Michel De Trez, opened the next section of their museum in a large hangar just behind the original Dead Man’s Corner building. Previously called the D-Day Paratrooper Historical Center, the now renamed D-Day Experience encompasses both museums. Co-curator, Belgian collector, historian and owner of D-Day Publishing, Michel De Trez is well known in the collecting fraternity. He is the author of several collector reference books on WW2 US airborne equipment, assisting Steven Spielberg with Saving Private Ryan and the HBO mini-series Band of Brothers. This second exhibition space reflects those interests and looks at the campaign from the perspective of the US paratroopers.
The D-Day Experience Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Upon entering the museum, visitors are briefed by a 3D hologram of Lt. Col. Wolverton at an airfield in Exeter on the day before the invasion. They then board the “Stoy Hora”, a C-47 Dakota of the 98th Troop Carrier Squadron, 440th Troop Carrier Group for the ‘flight’ across the English Channel to Drop Zone D, south of Vierville on the Cotentin (Cherbourg) Peninsula.
C-47, 8Y-S ‘Stoy Hora’ flight simulator that ‘transports’ visitors to the drop zones of the Cotentin Peninsula in the D-Day Experience. Photo: Julian Tennant
General Dwight D. Eisenhower addresses American paratroopers from E Co. 502nd PIR, on the afternoon before D-Day. The paratrooper with the number 23 around his neck is Lt Wallace C. Strobel who was the jumpmaster for that aircraft number in the packet. U.S. Army photograph. No. SC 194399
Insignia detail on the jacket of 2nd Lt George N. Wirtanen. 304th Troop Carrier Sqn, 442nd Troop Carrier Group. Photo: Julian Tennant
Pilot of the IX Troop Carrier Pathfinder Group just before departing England. Photo: Julian Tennant
Sgt. Joseph F. Gorenc from Sheboygen, Wisconsin, the assistant S3 of HQ/3, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division climbing aboard the lead transport aircraft C-47 Dakota 8Y-S “Stoy Hora” of the 440th Troop Carrier Group at RAF Exeter Airfield, Devon, UK on the night of 5/6th June 1944. Sgt. Gorenc was taken prisoner on June 8th at St. Côme-du-Mont and reported as MIA. He escaped from a Prison train on 20 July and he was in action again at ‘Operation Market Garden’. Photo: US Signal Corps.
Thompson sub-machinegun and copy of ‘Yank’ magazine featuring Sgt. Joseph F. Gorenc of HQ/3, 506th PIR, 101st Airborne Division climbing aboard the lead transport aircraft C-47 Dakota 8Y-S “Stoy Hora” of the 440th Troop Carrier Group at RAF Exeter Airfield, Devon, UK on the night of 5 June 1944. Photo: Julian Tennant
The seven minute ‘flight’ in the “Stoy Hora” is a great introduction to the exhibition space. Whilst, I am more of an ‘old-school’ kind of guy, more interested in examining original artifacts, the ride was a nice entry point which definitely appealed to the missus and the other visitors on board the simulator with us, particularly those with kids. The idea was born out of the Band of Brothers when Spielberg had transformed a real C-47 into a studio-space for the making of the series. The result is a high-tech simulator with 3D window screens, sound and amplified movements as the aircraft departs England for the bumpy ride, avoiding flak as it crosses into France to deposit its passengers into the exhibition space.
Unfortunately in real life, Lt. Colonel Wolverton did not survive his jump, he was killed by ground fire and left suspended by his parachute in an apple tree just north of Saint-Côme-du-Mont. The exhibition, however continues in his voice. He describes the men, their training, fears and (as all paratroopers would know, sense of immortality, giving a very human and somewhat sobering perspective to the exhibits.
The white scarf and armband identify this paratrooper as a member of the 3rd Battalion 502nd Parachute Infantry Regiment. Photo: Julian Tennant
Pfc. Jack N. “Hawkeye” Womer. HQ Co. 506 PIR. 101 Abn Div. A member of the ‘Filthy 13’, Jack landed in a swamp near St-Come-du-Mont and after extracting himself would end up fighting with the 501st PIR at Hell’s Corner. Photo: Julian Tennant.
Pfc. Jack N. “Hawkeye” Womer. HQ Co. 506 PIR. 101 Abn Div. A member of the ‘Filthy 13’, Jack landed in a swamp near St-Come-du-Mont and after extracting himself would end up fighting with the 501st PIR at Hell’s Corner. Photo: Julian Tennant.
Paratroopers Clarence C. Ware and Charles R. Plaudo from HQ Co. 506 PIR. 101 Abn Div, painting each other’s faces on the afternoon of June 5, 1944. This phot was printed in Stars and Stripes, and helped form the legend of “The Filthy Thirteen. US National Archives Accession Number: 111-SC-193551
Sleeve from the jacket worn by Pfc. Jack N. “Hawkeye” Womer, one of the legendary ‘filthy 13’ of HQ Co. 506 PIR. The sleeve is from the actual jacket he can be seen wearing in Carentan in the photo on the caption panel. He decided to keep the sleeve as a souvenir of his first combat experience. The signalling ‘cricket’ (no.2) also belonged to Womer, whilst the glove (no.3) belonged to another member of the ‘filthy 13, Pfc. John Agnew. Photo: Julian Tennant
Pathfinder of the 82nd Airborne Division. These men jumped in to mark the DZ northwest of Sainte-Mere-Eglise, one hour after the 101st drop. At the time there were around 300 qualified pathfinders and according to the caption, the Pathfinder camo suit that this individual is wearing is the only original of its type left in the world. Photo: Julian Tennant
An example of the exhibit captions, written in the voice of Lt. Col. Wolverton. This one featuring the Pathfinder brevet of Captain Frank L. Lillyman of I Co., 3rd Bn, 502nd PIR. Lillyman was the first American paratrooper to hit French soil. Photo: Julian Tennant
US Airborne Pathfinder qualification badge. Photo: Julian Tennant
The layout of the museum is superb, captions are bilingual (French/English), making it easy to navigate with good contextualisation of the content. For decades prior to the opening of Dead Man’s Corner Museum and the D-Day Experience, Michel de Trez had been travelling to the USA, interviewing and cultivating relationships with US Airborne veterans. This long-term engagement with the subjects of the museum has resulted in exhibits that are both unique and personal. Visitors can view objects and also discover the identities of the soldiers that used them. Unsurprisingly there are several items attributed to Dick Winters and his ‘Band of Brothers’ of Easy Company, 2nd Battalion, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, but also several other unique pieces such as a leather jacket worn by General Eisenhower, items from Pfc. Jack N. “Hawkeye” Womer, one of the legendary “Filthy 13” and a jacket worn by 1st Lt. Wallace C. Strobel who featured in the famous pre-invasion press photo talking to Ike just prior to boarding the aircraft.
Leather jacket worn by General Eisenhower whilst a 4 star General from 1943 until December 1944. Note the rank insignia detail. Photo courtesy of the D-Day Experience management team.
Nose of a Waco CG-4A of the 434th Troop Carrier Group piloted by Lt. Col. Michael C. Murphy as part of a 52 glider flight serial named “Chicago” which carried the only 101st Airborne Division glider troops to enter the battle via glider on the morning of 6 June 1944. Photo: Julian Tennant
Detail of a Waco CG-4A glider that has been stripped of it’s canvas skin to reveal the support struts, control cables and cargo of the glider. Photo: Julian Tennant
US 101st Abn Division paratrooper and C-47 Dakota transport crew member. Photo: Julian Tennant
M42 paratrooper jacket of Maj. Richard D. “Dick” Winters, CO of the 2nd Battalion, 506 PIR. Photo: Julian Tennant
Jacket of Maj. Richard D. “Dick” Winters, CO of the 2nd Battalion, 506 PIR. Photo: Julian Tennant
Pathfinders of the 101st Airborne Division. Photo: Julian Tennant
Display featuring objects belonging to Francis L. Sampson, the 501st PIR’s “Parachuting Padre”. Photo: Julian Tennant
Various uniform and personal items belonging to paratroopers of the 101st Airborne Division at the D-Day Experience museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Waco CG-4A Glider pilot. Photo: Julian Tennant
Detail of the jacket belonging to Lt James C. Cox. 1st Pl, C Co. 326th Airborne Engineer Bn. His parachutist badge features both the ‘invasion arrowhead’ and combat jump star. Photo: Julian Tennant
Parachute badge with rigger’s “R” worn by Staff Sgt. Russell F. Weishing leader of the parachute maintenance & rigger section of the 1st Platoon, C Company, 326th Airborne Engineer Battalion. Photo: Julian Tennant
Exhibit detail at the D-Day Experience Museum, Normandy, France. Photo: Julian Tennant
American paratrooper James Flanagan (2nd Platoon, C Co, 1-502nd PIR), among the first to make successful landings on the continent, holds a Nazi flag captured in a village assault. Marmion Farm at Ravenoville, Utah Beach, France. 6 June 1944. Source: US-Army history images
The selection of exhibit material supported by good informative (and at times blunt) explanations makes this a really engaging museum for collectors. If your interest is airborne militaria, I suggest setting aside at least half a day to visit both exhibitions on the site. If you have a car, the museum’s Historical Trail map outlines a 40km circuit featuring 13 key sites in the battle for Carentan and takes about 3 hours to cover. When combined with the time spent at the museum, this is a good one day itinerary for the area. But, regardless, if you are planning to visit Normandy, the D-Day Experience should be high on your agenda, it is, in my opinion, the outstanding museum that I visited on my trip, surpassing even the Airborne Museum in Sainte-Mère-Eglise, which was another ‘must see’ and will be covered in the near future.
D-Day Experience
2 Vierge de l’Amont
50500 Carentan les Marais
France
Open: Every day. From October to March, the museum is open from 10h00 till 18h00 (the ticket office closes at 17h00). From April to September, the museum is open from 9h30 till 19h00.
If you like what you see here, please FOLLOW this page via email or by using either the buttons below or in the column on the right. I try to post NEW content every weekend and knowing that somebody is looking at this gives me the encouragement I need to go through my archives and collection to develop the content for the page. And of course, feel free to contact me here, via email or by visiting my Facebook or Instagram pages
D-Day Experience Historical Trail map covering 13 key sites related to the fight to secure Carentan. It can be downloaded from the museum website, see the main body text above for the link.
A Horsa glider near the Caen Canal bridge at Benouville, 8 June 1944. This is glider No. 91, which carried Major John Howard and Lieutenant Den Brotheridge with No.1 Platoon, ‘D’ Company, 2nd Battalion Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry. It was one of the six gliders that carried 6th Airborne Division’s ‘coup de main’ force – commanded by Major Howard – which captured the bridges over the Orne and Caen Canal in the early hours of D-Day. Photograph: Sergeant Christie. No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit Imperial War Museum Catalogue Number: B 5232
Pegasus Bridge, 9 June 1944. Vehicles including a Royal Signals jeep & trailer and a RASC Leyland lorry on ‘Pegasus Bridge’ over the Caen Canal at Benouville. The signallers are fixing telephone lines across the bridge. Photograph: Sergeant Christie. No. 5 Army Film and Photo Section, Army Film and Photographic Unit Imperial War Museum Catalogue Number: B 5288
On the night of 5 June 1944, six Airspeed AS 51 Horsa gliders carrying 181 men from the 2nd Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry and 249 Field Company (Airborne) Royal Engineers departed RAF Tarrant in Dorset. Under the command of Major John Howard, their mission, code-named Operation DEADSTICK was to capture two road bridges near Normandy across the River Orne and the Caen Canal. This was the first action of D-Day in the British sector and would allow the allied troops landing on Sword Beach to exit and advance east of the Orne.
One of the six gliders went astray and landed a dozen kilometers from the objective, but the other five landed within meters of their objectives. The bridge over the Orne was guarded by only two German sentries and was captured without firing a shot. The more heavily guarded Bénouville bridge over the Caen Canal was taken after a short but intense firefight. Both bridges had been captured within 10 minutes. Reinforced by soldiers from the 7th Battalion Parachute Regiment during the night, Major Howard’s men held the bridge despite repeated counterattacks until they were joined in the early hours of the afternoon of 6 June, by the commandos of the 1st Special Service Brigade, who had landed at dawn at Sword Beach.
Imperial War Museum Video – Operation Deadstick The Airborne Assault on Pegasus Bridge
Shortly after the engagement, on the 26 of June 1944, the Caen Canal bridge was renamed Pegasus Bridge as a tribute to the British airborne troops involved in the action. In 1974 the Airborne Forces Museum was opened on the west bank of the canal, opposite the glider landing site and close to the original Bénouville bridge but closed in 1997. A campaign started for a new museum and on 4 June 2000 Memorial Pegasus was opened by HRH Prince Charles, Colonel-in-Chief of the Parachute Regiment.
Pegasus Bridge and memorial plaque to Lieutenant H.D. Brotheridge who was the first British soldier to be killed in action on D-Day when he led his platoon across the bridge. Photo: Julian Tennant
Fullsize replica of an Airspeed AS 51 Horsa Glider as used by the British troops in Operation DEADSTICK and the assault on D-Day. Photo: Julian Tennant
Glider Pilot of the Army Aviation Corps. Photo: Julian Tennant
Exhibits at the Memorial Pegasus museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
Heavily laden 6th Airborne Division jeep as transported by glider on D-Day. Photo: Julian Tennant
Weapons, including a ‘Liberator’ pistol and other objects relating to the clandestine operations undertaken by the French Resistance and SOE operatives. Photo: Julian Tennant
Objects relating to the Royal Ulster Rifles. The Dennison smock was worn on D-Day and during the Battle of Normandy by Captain Bob Sheridan, Adjutant of the 1st Battalion Royal Ulster Rifles. Photo: Julian Tennant
German parachutist’s Gravity Knife, rare British Beaded & Ribbed’ pattern Fairbairn Sykes commando dagger and other 6th Airborne Division objects on display at Memorial Pegasus. Photo: Julian Tennant
Spread over three acres, the museum grounds contain the original Pegasus Bridge, which was purchased from the French authorities for just one Franc in 1999, along with a full size replica of a Horsa glider. The main exhibition building features a very interesting selection of artifacts related to the British 6th Airborne Division and the D-Day landings. There are guided tours of the museum conducted in both French and English which last for about an hour and a half. These are worth doing in addition to taking your time to browse the exhibits. Visitors can also scan the QR code panels to get information about the exhibits in ten languages, French, English, German, Dutch, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Swedish, Danish and Czech.
Unofficial beret badge worn by Sergeant Jeremy H. Barkway (3rd Kings Hussars) 6th Airborne Armoured Reconnaissance Regiment. On D-Day, Barkway commanded a “Tetrach” light reconnaissance tank which had been transported by a Hamilcar glider. He subsequently saw actions in the Ardennes and on the Rhine crossing. Photo: Julian Tennant
Unusual one-piece, printed, Airborne and Pegasus patch on display at Memorial Pegasus. Photo: Julian Tennant
Battledress jacket and beret of Lieutenant John Hughes of the 1st Canadian Parachute Battalion. Photo: Julian Tennant
British paratrooper kitted out for the jump into France in advance of the D-Day landings. He is wearing the British X-Type parachute over the 1942 Pattern Parachutist Oversmock and Mk1 Parachutist helmet. Photo: Julian Tennant
British military chaplain’s dress uniform. Note the bullion Glider Pilot qualification wing. Photo: Julian Tennant
Canadian Parachute Battalion soldier wearing the 2nd pattern Dennison smock and Canadian parachutist qualification wings. Photo: Julian Tennant
Cloth insignia of the ‘Forces Navales Francaises Libres” (Free French Naval Forces) worn on the sailors jackets and commando’s green berets until May 1944. Photo: Julian Tennant
Beret worn by Guy de Montlaur who served with the French No. 4 Commando. Photo: Julian Tennant
Beret belonging to bagpiper Bill Millin who landed at Sword Beach with the 1st Special Service Brigade on D-Day. Millin subsequently led the brigade, commanded by Brigadier The Lord Lovat, up to the town of Benouville where they linked up with the Airborne troops at Pegasus Bridge. Photo: Julian Tennant
Memorial Pegasus
Avenue du Major Howard
14860 Ranville
France
Open:The Memorial Pegasus is open everyday from 1st February to 15th December. A visit, with guide, lasts about 1h15.
1st February to 31st March from 10.00 to 17.00
1st April to 30th September from 9.30 to 18.30
1st October to 15th December from 10.00 to 17.00
Note that this site has NEW content posted every Sunday! If you like what you see here, please follow this page via email or by using either the buttons below or in the column on the right. Knowing that somebody is looking at this gives me the encouragement I need to go through my archives and collection to develop the content for the page. And of course, feel free to contact me here, via email or by visiting my Facebook or Instagram pages
Medals, badges, photographs and paperwork belonging to my uncle, 151283V,Farrier Corporal, Mervyn Tennant who served with the South African Veterinary Corps (SAVC) during World War 2. Collection: Julian Tennant
During a recent visit to my parents in Melbourne, I was given this group which belonged to my father’s uncle, Mervyn Tennant, who served with the South African Veterinary Corps (SAVC) during World War Two. The group consists of his medals, badges, some photographs and ephemera from his war service. It also included two booklets from the Springbok Legion, a Leftist anti-fascist, anti-racist organisation formed in 1941 to fight for the rights of South African servicemen during the war and which later became radicalised by members of the Communist Party of South Africa. Unfortunately, I know very little about Mervyn and nobody in the family is able to tell me about his life or war service.
I do know that he was a farrier corporal, involved in the transport of animals from Durban to Karachi after the Indian Remount Purchasing Commission commenced buying animals in South Africa for shipment to India. Between August 1942 and September 1945, 58 shipments were made, transporting 22016 mules, 3527 horses, 323 cows, 2259 pigs, 3 Angora goats and 1 zebra. One ship was lost when it was torpedoed in March 1943 with the loss of 737 animals on board, but all other shipments were successful (source: Journal of the South African Veterinary Association, Volume 17, Issue 2, Jan 1946, p. 69 – 80).
Studio photo of Mervyn Tennant taken at the “Astra Studios, 26 Bureau Lane, Pretoria”. In this photo Mervyn can be seen wearing the Union Defence Force cap and collar badges, so I am not sure if this was prior to or during his service with the South African Veterinary Corps (SAVC), but he does appear to be wearing his Farrier proficiency/trade badge on his right shoulder. Collection: Julian Tennant
I am not sure how many of these trips Mervyn participated in, but I do recall my father telling me about this when I was a boy and it is also supported by some of the India visitor booklets that are included in his group. His medal record indicates that he was awarded the 1939-45 Star, War Medal 1939-1945 and Africa Service Medal, but did not meet the qualification criteria for the Burma Star, so I assume that his service was restricted to the transportation journeys between South Africa and India.
Bi-lingual South African Union Defence Forces medal entitlement document indicating the medals awarded to 151283v Far/Cpl Mervyn Tennant of the South African Veterinary Corps for his service during World War 2. Collection: Julian Tennant
Bi-lingual South African Union Defence Forces letter of appreciation signed by General Smuts which formed part of every South African serviceman’s discharge kit. Collection: Julian Tennant
The badges that are included with the group include his cap and collar badges, plus some shoulder titles. One of the titles is the ZAVD variant identified in Colin Owen’s book The Military Badges and Insignia of Southern Africaas being worn from 1922 – 1926, whilst an article in the journal of The South African Military History Society states that it was the second brass title used by the South African Veterinary Corps and used up to 1922. I wonder if the information from both sources is correct as Mervyn was not in the army at that time. My only guess is that when the South African Veterinary Corps was resurrected for service during World War Two, older existing supplies of the insignia that were still in the military system were issued until those stocks were exhausted. Maybe a South African insignia specialist of this period can clarify why this anomaly may have occurred?
South African Veterinary Corps (SAVC) cap and collar badges, shoulder titles and farrier trade badge worn by my uncle Mervyn Tennant during his service with the SAVC during World War 2. Collection: Julian Tennant.
Photo of Mervyn Tennant (right) and another South African soldier taken in South Africa during the war. In this photo he can be seen wearing the South African Veterinary Corps badge on his cap and also has ribbons on his chest, so I assume that this picture was taken shortly before his discharge in 1946. Collection: Julian Tennant
Some photographs of Mervyn also show him wearing the Union Defence Force General Service cap and collar badges. Unfortunately I think that I may have traded these and some of his other Veterinary Corps insignia when I was young collector back in the 70’s. C’est La Vie.
Group photograph showing Mervyn (the short guy wearing a pith helmet on the left) with some army and air force mates. I don’t know where this photograph was taken or whether these are all South Africans, but it does show an interesting mix of uniform details. Collection: Julian Tennant
Picture ‘Letter Folder’ showing views of Durban (South Africa) and a couple of visitor booklets given to troops arriving in India that were among the things in the Mervyn Tennant group. Collection: Julian Tennant
Booklets from the Springbok Legion, a left of centre, anti-fascist, anti-racist organisation formed in 1941 to fight for the rights of soldiers during and after WW2. Over time the Springbok Legion became radicalised by members of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) who infiltrated it and took up various official positions within the Legion. Collection: Julian Tennant
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USN Submariner badge, type 2, “deep wave” variation made by Hillborn & Hamburger Inc. and engraved “To Audrey from Sidney Kelf 11.25.42”. Collection: Julian Tennant
Another item from my collection this week. This time it is a WW2 USN “deep wave” type 2 Submariner badge made by Hillborn & Hamburger that I acquired from a family here in Australia. The badge originally belonged to Lieutenant Sidney Alfred Kelf who served aboard the Salmon class submarine, USS Slipjack (SS-184) in 1941 and 1942.
The badge came from the estate of Audrey Beryl Hughson an Australian who was given it as a keepsake by Kelf whilst he was stationed in Australia during WW2. The badge is engraved “To Audrey from Sidney Kelf 11.25.42” which indicates the engraving was done at the conclusion of the boat’s 5th war patrol which took Skipjack from the submarine base at Fremantle in Western Australia to Pearl Harbor.
USS Skipjack (SS-184) off Provincetown, Massachusetts during sea trials, 14 May 1938. Photograph from the Bureau of Ships Collection in the U.S. National Archives.
USS Skipjack (SS-184) was laid down on 22 July 1936, launched 23 October 1937 and commissioned on 30 June 1938. It was one of the 29 submarines that formed the US Navy’s Asiatic Submarine Fleet that was based in Manila in the Philippines at the time of the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941. Skipjack left for her first war patrol off the east coast of Samar two days later. It ended on 14 January 1942 in Darwin, Australia and after 16 days in port, commenced her second patrol in the Celebes sea which concluded in March at the Fremantle base in Western Australia.
American Submarines at North Wharf, Fremantle, 1945. The ship in the background is submarine tender USS PELAIS, surrounded by her ‘brood’, which at that time included the subs BONEFISH, RASHER, BOWFIN, BLUEFISH, NARWHAL, TINOSA, CREVALLE and COD. Photo: Family of RAN photographer, Saxon Fogarty
On the 14th of April, under the command of Lt. Cdr. James Wiggins Coe, Skipjack left Fremantle for her third war patrol, this time in the South China Sea. The submarine had her first success on 6 May 1942 when it torpedoed and sank the Japanese transport ship Kanan Maru (2567 GRT) about 25 nautical miles north-east of Cam Ranh Bay, French Indochina. It followed this up on 8 May when it sank the Japanese transport ship Bujun Maru(4804 GRT) about 125 nautical miles east of Cam Ranh Bay and then the Japanese troop transport Tazan Maru (5477 GRT) near the Gulf of Siam on 17 May before returning to Fremantle on the 2nd of June.
On 18 July 1942, USS Skipjack left Fremantle for her 4th war patrol, this time in the Banda Sea and had her next victory when she torpedoed and damaged the Japanese fleet oil-tanker Hayatomo(14050 GRT) south-west of Ambon, Netherlands East Indies on 23 August. The patrol ended when she returned to Fremantle on 4 September.
I am not sure of when Sidney Kelf met Audrey or the circumstances of their meeting and the Audrey’s family could not provide me with any additional information about the relationship, but it would have occurred before Skipjack left for her 5th war patrol on 29 September 1942. Once again she was ordered to patrol in the Banda Sea, then work her way up north and end this war patrol at Pearl Harbor. On 14 October Skipjack had her next success sinking the Japanese transport ship Shunko Maru (6780 GRT) about 450 nautical miles west-south-west of Truk.
The Japanese Freighter S.S. Shunko Maru sinking in the central Pacific, after she was torpedoed by Skipjack (SS-184) on 14 October 1942. Photographed through Skipjack’s periscope. Shunko Maru’s back appears to be broken, and her hull bears traces of pattern camouflage paint. Photo: US National Archives # 80-G-33292
The submarine concluded her 5th war patrol in Pearl Harbor on 26 November 1942, before being ordered to Mare Island Navy Yard for an overhaul. It appears that Sidney Kelf did not accompany the submarine for refit to California but remained in Pearl Harbor and assigned to the Lapwing class Minesweeper, USS Seagull (AM-30)which was reclassified as a Submarine tender.
USS Skipjack returned to Pearl Harbor after her overhaul and completed another 5 war patrols, sinking Japanese destroyer Suzukazeand transport ship Okitsu Maru on her 9th patrol and damaging the Japanese motor sail ship Tatsu Maru No.6 on her 10th and final patrol in November 1944. The submarine was then retired to training duties before being sunk during Test Baker, the second of two atomic bomb tests conducted at Bikini Atoll on 25 July 1946.
Insignia of USS Skipjack (SS-184) during WW2
My research regarding the life and service of submariner, Lt. Sidney Alfred Kelf is far from complete and I do need to do a lot more research as my original records were lost when a computer hard-drive failed. I do know that he originally joined the navy as an enlisted man and was a Chief Torpedo-man before being commissioned. I also have a photograph of his grave headstone which indicates that he was born on May 8 1902, died October 31 1966 having served in the Navy in both World War 1 and 2.
In addition to his submariner ‘dolphins’ badge, Sidney Kelf’s participation in two successful war patrols would have qualified him for the Submarine Combat Insigniawith gold star. I am not sure what his medal entitlement is but as I intend to continue to research this individual, I’ll update this article as new information presents itself.
USN Submarine Combat Insignia qualification. This is one of two rare variations made by Sheridans of Perth to supply the submariners stationed at Fremantle during the war. Collection: Julian Tennant
EDIT: 01 May 2020.
Not directly related to Sidney Kelf, but I just found this amusing article from the National WW2 Museum in New Orleans relating the to frustration felt by the skipper, Lieutenant Commander James Coe, when the submarine’s request for toilet paper was denied. You can read the Skipjack’s battle for toilet paper on the museum website.
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Medals, insignia, photographs and documents belonging to World War Two Hungarian paratrooper, Sergeant Császár Vilmos. Collection: Julian Tennant
Featured this week is a very nice medal group to a WWII Hungarian paratrooper that I hold in my collection.
The group belonged to Sergeant Császár Vilmos. I still know very little about him but have learned that he served in the 3rd Parachute Company in 1941 as Lance-Corporal, was later promoted to sergeant and survived the war. His medals give clues to his service, but I am still in the process of researching his story so cannot provide a more comprehensive overview of his service at this stage.
His medals include:
The Silver Medal of Courage (Magyar Nagy Ezűst Vitézségi Érem).
The Fire Cross with Wreath and Swords (Tűzkereszt koszorúval, kardokkal) which was awarded for 3 months service in the front line as a combatant.
The Six years Long Service Cross (Legénységi Szolgálati Jel III. Osztálya)
The Upper Hungary campaign medal (Felvidéki Emlékérem)
The Medal for the Liberation of Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) (Erdélyi Emlékérem) and
The Medal for the Recapture of South Hungary (Délvidéki Emlékérem)
Hopefully the Hungarian names for the medals is correct, I have found several different translated names for these medals and so am not 100% certain if my titles are right.
Also included in this group are his railway pass, bullion NCO’s parachutist wings, his extremely rare ‘Master’ parachutist badge which was awarded for 25 (perfect) jumps, plus several photographs of him in uniform and conducting parachute jumps.
Studio portrait of (Sergeant) Császár Vilmos wearing his medals, the distinctive silver bullion embroidered Hungarian parachutist wing for NCO’s and the incredibly rare Master parachutist badge on the breast pocket. Collection: Julian Tennant
Sergeant Császár Vilmos’ Railway booklet dated 26 Jan 1944. When the photograph for the pass was taken it appears that Sgt Császár Vilmos had only been awarded the Upper Hungary campaign medal (Felvidéki Emlékérem), the Medal for the Liberation of Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) (Erdélyi Emlékérem) and the Medal for the Recapture of South Hungary (Délvidéki Emlékérem). He was subsequently awarded the ‘Fire Cross’ with wreath and swords reflecting at least 3 months in the front line as a combatant, the Silver Medal of Courage for bravery and Six Year Long Service Cross. Collection: Julian Tennant
Studio portrait of (Sergeant) Császár Vilmos and female, possibly wife or sister? The photograph shows that his arm is in a sling, indicating a wound or injury so I am guessing that this photo was taken whilst on recovery leave. Note that Császár Vilmos is also wearing the bullion NCO’s jump wing on the left side of his cap. Collection: Julian Tennant
One of Hungarian paratrooper Császár Vilmos’ photos showing a para exiting a Caproni ca.101 aircraft. These three-engined, already outdated Italian bombers were able to carry up to seven paratroopers and were nicknamed ‘Flying Coffins’ by the paras. Collection: Julian Tennant
One of Hungarian paratrooper Császár Vilmos’ photos showing a para exiting the aircraft. Collection: Julian Tennant
Császár Vilmos on the DZ after a jump. Collection: Julian Tennant
I have not yet been able to discover much about Császár Vilmos. The presence of the Liberation of Siebenbürgen (Transylvania) (Erdélyi Emlékérem) medal, which was introduced on the 1st of October 1940 to commemorate the incorporation of Northern Transylvania into Hungary indicates that Császár Vilmos became a paratrooper early in the war and possibly a member of the Royal Hungarian 1st Honvéd Parachute Company, before it was expanded to a Battalion in 1941.
When the 1st Honvéd Parachute Battalion was formed, Császár Vilmos was posted to the 3rd Company. My knowledge of the operations undertaken by the Hungarian paratroopers is weak, so I am not sure about exactly where he fought although the inclusion of the Upper Hungary and Southern Hungary medals in the group provides clues for my continuing research. At this stage of my research I am still largely ignorant of the qualification requirements for these medals and what role Hungarian paratroopers may have carried out in those operations. Hungarian researcher and historian, David Kiss, has written a very informative English-language article about the early history of Hungarian paratroopers which details some of the operations they were involved in, but I am still trying to ‘connect the dots’ between the historical records and the service of this soldier. However as new information comes to light I’ll continue to update this post to reflect a more complete record of Császár Vilmos military career.
Studio portrait of (Corporal) Császár Vilmos wearing the distinctive silver bullion embroidered Hungarian parachutist wing. Collection: Julian Tennant
Group photo of WW2 Hungarian paratrooper, Corporal Császár Vilmos (2nd from left) with fellow Hungarian paratroopers. Collection: Julian Tennant
Note that this site has NEW content posted every Sunday! If you like what you see here, please follow this page via email or by using either the buttons below or in the column on the right. Knowing that somebody is looking at this gives me the encouragement I need to go through my archives and collection to develop the content for the page. And of course, feel free to contact me here, via email or by visiting my Facebook or Instagram pages
Replica of a Supermarine Spitfire Mk VIII on display at the Darwin Aviation Museum. Photo: Julian Tennant
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