An Essential Ally

By Noel Tunny

Why was the ABDA Command created to defend Java? Were the losses of people and planes justified?
Why were the United States’ largesse, leadership and luck alone not enough to win the war against Japan?
Where and when was this war won and how did luck make this possible?
What was it like living in Australia during the war against Japan?
These and many other previously unanswered questions are all answered in An Essential Ally.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781528989855

Noel Tunny

Noel Tunny, a retired consulting engineer, was born in Mareeba in 1930 and educated at Mount Carmel College, Charters Towers, and the University of Queensland (B.E. Civil). His father, William Henry “Harry” Tunny, a railway station master, died in 1936. Harry’s father was Patrick “Paddy” Tunny from Roscommon, Ireland, who started work in Australia as a labourer on the railway line west of Charters Towers and retired as a publican with the Mansfield hotel in Townsville. Noel’s mother was Gladys Mather, the granddaughter of Thomas Close, the son of a soldier from Wisconsin, USA. Tom Close came to Australia as a gymnast in an equestrian circus. He worked as a miner at Eureka and drove Cobb and Co coaches before settling in Mitchell as a publican. He retired after operating a mine and crushing plant at Woolgar, 80 miles north of Richmond. Gladys’ father was Thomas Mather, in 1891 a shearer and later a dam sinker, fencer and wool carrying contractor with two German wagons. His grandfather, also Thomas Mather, was a cotton spinner from Manchester who came with his family under contract to David McConnell on Cressbrook, Esk, where he learnt to shear sheep. At the end of his contract in 1845, he bought land in Grey Street, Brisbane where his wife and sons ran a hostel. Thomas worked in the country as a shearer until he was speared and mutilated near Woodenbong when walking to a shearing job on the Richmond River. From 1942, Noel served as a cadet, as a corporal and as a cadet lieutenant with training at Sellheim and Enoggera Army camps. With the University Squadron in the RAAF General Duties flight he trained as a pilot at Archerfield and trained at Amberley before two years with the RAAF Reserve.

Book preview

An Essential Ally

Noel Tunny

Austin Macauley Publishers

An Essential Ally

About the Author

Dedication

Copyright Information ©

Acknowledgement

Foreword

Preface

Chapter One: Fortress Australia

Chapter Two: Something More

Chapter Three: Java and ABDA Command

Chapter Four: Intelligence

Chapter Five: The Brisbane Line

Addendum One: A-24 and Other Dive Bombers

Addendum Two: SS Rufus King

Addendum Three: Furlough, Rest and Recreation

Sources

Bibliography

About the Author

Noel Tunny, a retired consulting engineer, was born in Mareeba in 1930 and educated at Mount Carmel College, Charters Towers, and the University of Queensland (B.E. Civil).

His father, William Henry Harry Tunny, a railway station master, died in 1936. Harry’s father was Patrick Paddy Tunny from Roscommon, Ireland, who started work in Australia as a labourer on the railway line west of Charters Towers and retired as a publican with the Mansfield hotel in Townsville.

Noel’s mother was Gladys Mather, the granddaughter of Thomas Close, the son of a soldier from Wisconsin, USA. Tom Close came to Australia as a gymnast in an equestrian circus. He worked as a miner at Eureka and drove Cobb and Co coaches before settling in Mitchell as a publican. He retired after operating a mine and crushing plant at Woolgar, 80 miles north of Richmond.

Gladys’ father was Thomas Mather, in 1891 a shearer and later a dam sinker, fencer and wool carrying contractor with two German wagons. His grandfather, also Thomas Mather, was a cotton spinner from Manchester who came with his family under contract to David McConnell on Cressbrook, Esk, where he learnt to shear sheep. At the end of his contract in 1845, he bought land in Grey Street, Brisbane where his wife and sons ran a hostel. Thomas worked in the country as a shearer until he was speared and mutilated near Woodenbong when walking to a shearing job on the Richmond River.

From 1942, Noel served as a cadet, as a corporal and as a cadet lieutenant with training at Sellheim and Enoggera Army camps. With the University Squadron in the RAAF General Duties flight he trained as a pilot at Archerfield and trained at Amberley before two years with the RAAF Reserve.

Dedication

This book is dedicated to the memory of:

Captain T.E. Eric Nave RAN and RN.

Major Beryl Stevenson (nee Spiers), WAAC.

Mr W.S. Robinson, Mining Company expert.

Who before and during the war, individually played a more crucial and more significant part in Australia’s contribution towards the eventual victory than any other Australian.

Copyright Information ©

Noel Tunny 2022

The right of Noel Tunny to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781528989848 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781528989855 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgement

To write this book, I have needed the help and support of many good people with the facilities and knowledge that I do not have.

To all these friends, I offer my sincere appreciation and thanks.

Staff at NARA (still pictures), College Park, Maryland, USA.

Peter Dunn and his website Oz at War.

Four year SW Pacific veteran, the late Jack Heyn of Des Moines, Iowa. Gerry Kersey and his website The 3rd Attack Group.

Staff at the US Air Force History Agency, Maxwell Air Force Base. Rosslyn Evans at the Library of Congress, Washington.

Bataan Death March survivor, the late Sam Moody.

Foreword

Noel Tunny is a remarkable Australian who spent his formative teenage years experiencing his country’s fears of occupation and the eventual victory of 1945, later pursuing his professional career as a civil engineer but keeping abreast of military affairs, political argument and academic debate.

He is well qualified to challenge statesmen, military leaders and historians where necessary, and he provides stimulating discussion on all major war issues, such as the supposed Brisbane Line, the Java Campaign and the justification for dropping atomic bombs, besides supplying a wealth of factual information and statistical detail.

His most significant contribution is the Australian perspective that he brings and his determination that the Australian role should not be underestimated.

Australia, long accustomed to being used by Britain, had some sense of being used by the United States, but the author demonstrates that the country was far more than a stepping stone to American success.

The response to the crisis throughout society, copiously examined and illustrated in this text, ensured a positive role and pride for Australia and its people, and played no small part in the creation of a sense of national identity.

Readers of this text will have plenty on which to reflect when they have survived the excitement of reliving these turbulent years.

Emeritus Professor Malcolm I. Thomis M.A., Ph.D., D.Litt.,

Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Preface

Winning the war against Japan required something more than the leadership, largesse and luck of the United States of America.

This was provided by the Australian contribution that was both supplementary and complementary to the Allied campaign plans that defeated Japan.

When the United States decided to establish Fortress Australia, they were influenced by the advantages they would enjoy.

Foremost were Australia’s location, its size with many natural ports and its existing defence facilities.

These advantages came with disadvantages, like inadequate roads, a fragmented railway system and commitments for its servicemen to serve overseas.

How the people of Australia worked to overcome most of these problems, is a telling reason why Australia should be given due credit for its contribution to the recapturing of lost territories and to winning the war.

Today, it is necessary to clarify two aspects of the use of the atom bomb. One is to answer the question of who gave the approval to the Air Force bombers at standby on Tinian Island to take off on the missions.

The other is the question, was the use of the atom bomb justified?

Without diminishing the importance of the United States of America’s contribution to winning the war, this book will describe the Australian contribution which was the something more.

It is important to recognise and describe some of the mistakes that were made by the Allied coalition early in the war.

It is also important to recognise that some of the published history is inaccurate and in some cases it is untrue.

What is untrue will be discussed and while some of these bad histories are minor, they have been recorded and they need correction.

I hope the book will be recognised as a memorial to those who gave so much and also as a fair description of what it was like to be living in Australia at that time.

Chapter One

Fortress Australia

In Winning from Downunder, I wrote that the Allied leadership, largesse and luck ended Japan’s expansive ambitions. But I realise now that something more had been needed. When an account of what Australia contributed beyond the importance of its location, its size and the location of its existing defence facilities, what this something more was is apparent. It was what Australia gave to make victory possible.

The leadership was often inadequate as was evident in Singapore and Java where, in hindsight, faulty tactical decisions can be recognised. However, eventually the Allied air force, navy and army had generals and admirals who were by then experienced and capable leaders.

Largesse was mainly the capability of the United States to produce the planes, the tanks, the ships and the weapons quickly, and to supply the men and women to use them.

Having acquired these assets, a credible base was needed where they could be marshalled and from where they could be put into action.

Luck initially was mostly with the Japanese, and there are three events that demonstrate that fact.

The first was the happenstances at Pearl Harbour that enabled the Japanese to destroy most of the US Navy battleships.

The attack coincided with the expected arrival time in Hawaii of a B-17 Flying Fortress heavy bomber group from the USA and the change-over of a short-staffed warning radar station.

In a similar situation, an inexperienced junior officer with a key responsibility in the operations room at the Far East Command Headquarters lost what would have been a forty-five minute warning of the air attack on Singapore.

On February 19th 1942, Father Wright, a mission priest on Bathurst Island, made a radio report that a large formation of aircraft was heading towards Darwin. This was a sighting of the Japanese attack on Darwin, but it was wrongly assumed to be a squadron of US P-40 Kittyhawks returning from a planned ferry flight to Java.

In all these cases, the Japanese advantage yielded considerable damage.

This was not the case after December 1940 when the Chief of Staff’s appreciation of the British Empire’s strategic inadequacy in the Far East fell into enemy hands.

What they could or should have done when they got the Chief of Staff’s document found on the SS Automedon, is conjecture.

The Allies enjoyed lots of luck, but one bit of good fortune was paramount and that was the assumption by Lieutenant Commander Clarence McCluskey that led to the sinking of all four Japanese aircraft carriers in the Battle of Midway Island. The loss of these ships has been described as the beginning of the end for Japan.

McCluskey leading the Douglas Dauntless dive bombers from the USS Enterprise found that the Japanese fleet were not where he was sent. He guessed that it had changed course to the north and he did likewise. Twenty-five minutes later, just five minutes before his fuel supply would have required him to return to Enterprise, McCluskey saw through a break in the clouds, the wake of a destroyer, and shortly after three of the Japanese aircraft carriers were sighted.

USS Enterprise and USS Hornet dive bombers sank Kaga and Akagi.

One hour later, USS Yorktown dive bombers sank Soryu.

At dusk, combined dive bomber flights from Enterprise, Hornet and Yorktown sank the Hiryu. That was the end of the Japanese naval strength as well as many experienced pilots, and it can be argued that this bit of luck won the war.

If we accept this judgement, we have to know and to consider why did Admiral Nimitz have his three aircraft carriers and their dive bombers waiting for the Japanese invasion fleet coming to occupy Midway.

We know the answer to this question because Rusbridger and Nave in their book Betrayal at Pearl Harbour tell us that he knew Admiral Yamamoto’s plans because we were reading and decrypting Japanese radio traffic.

Accordingly, we can claim that American cryptologist Mrs Agnes Driscoll, known as Miss Aggie, and Australian code breaker Eric Nave, who separately cracked the Japanese navy code designated JN25,deserve to be credited with a major contribution towards winning the war.

Nave, an Australian naval officer, had been working in London for the civilian GCCS (Government Code and Cypher School) operated by the British Foreign Office.

When the Australian Navy, who did not know what he was working on, requested that he be returned to Australia, the Admiralty made attractive offers to Nave and in November 1930, he was transferred to the Royal Navy as a Commander by special order of King George V.

Miss Aggie was with HYPO, the US Navy code breaking office at Pearl Harbour in Hawaii.

They certainly made the holding of Midway possible and that stopped the Japanese cutting Australia’s supply line from the United States.

That isolation would have ended Australia’s role as the fortress from where the Allied war machine could be marshalled and sent to war.

When the Pensacola Convoy on its way to Manila was diverted at Hawaii to Australia, the Allies did not have an achievable war plan.

General MacArthur, still hoping to save the Philippines, sent his good friend Brigadier General Henry Clagett to Australia to expedite the transfer of the Pensacola equipment and troops to the Philippines.

When MacArthur sent the pilots to Australia, to ferry the A24 dive bombers and the P-40 pursuit planes to the Philippines, he was not thinking Fortress Australia, he was trying to win his war with Japan on the Bataan, peninsula in the Philippines.

General Wavell and the Dutch were trying to hold Java without an effective air force, with an inferior army and a navy without aerial protective cover, and apparently, only Lt. General George Brett realised that the fightback had to be from Australia.

Brett arrived in Darwin on January 1st 1942 and on January 4th, he and US Generals Brereton and Barnes met with the Australian Chiefs of Staff and United Kingdom and Dutch Service representatives.

Brett called the meeting to get Allied endorsement of his requirements.

He wanted a headquarters in Brisbane, a fighter aircraft depot with a workshop and maintenance facility at Townsville, an operations airfield at Charters Towers and a bomber base in Darwin. He got agreement.

At this meeting, Brett detailed his plan for the establishment of the seven Service of Supply Base Sections that operated throughout the campaign. He requested immediate action on the bases and other facilities which were mainly centred around Townsville the Base Section 2 headquarters.

1. United States Service of Supply Base Sections in Australia.

On that day, Fortress Australia was established and the fightback began. Brett was now the Commander of all United States Forces in Australia, but all he had was the remnants of Operation PLUM intended for the Philippines and a fortress not yet ready for that fight.

The US Air Force had the seventeen B-17 Ds parked at Batchelor, eighty miles south of Darwin, and the fifty-two crated 27th Bomb Group Douglas A-24 dive bombers and 50 crated Curtis P-40 Kittyhawk fighters. Also in Australia were the ground echelon of the 7th Bomb Group accommodated in tents at Camp Ascot, the former Eagle Farm racecourse.

The twenty-seven pilots sent from the Philippines to fly the dive bombers for combat on Bataan were living in luxury at Lennon’s Hotel, waiting for the crated aircraft to be assembled.

Brett also had two field artillery regiments who were on the Pensacola convoy ship USAT Meigs bound for the Philippines until the Japanese occupation of Timor caused their disposition to Java.

The complete air and ground echelons of the 27th Bomb Group had arrived in the Philippines in November on the USAT President Coolidge. Their crated Douglas A-24 dive bombers were in Brisbane on the USAT Meigs that had been diverted from Hawaii on December 13th 1942.

Before leaving the United States, the 27th Group had been in Louisiana flying support for both General Eisenhower’s war games armies (the blue army and the red army).

This involved many hours of flying their A-24s and they increased those hours when they flew them to the west coast for shipment overseas. They arrived in Australia without many important items and not all of these shortages had been overcome before they went to war immediately after the planes were assembled.

The problem faced by the provisional fighter squadrons was that their pilots had almost no experience flying the P-40 and like their four experienced pilots, they had never been in action.

After short training courses, they went to war to protect the B-17 bombers that had been deployed to war as part of ABDACOM’s attempt to halt the Japanese southward advance and to save Java.

To do this, they had to fly from Brisbane to Andir in Java via Darwin in Australia and Kupang in Timor. Many did not make it to Java.

The US Air Force in Java went to war with inexperienced pilots flying out of dated heavy bombers, tired old fighters and dive bombers all overdue for service and maintenance.

As a result, they achieved very little and the air force