Post by Dave Homewood on Mar 1, 2024 23:05:44 GMT 12
£45,000,000 BASE
GREAT AIRCRAFT DEPOT
WORK IN AUSTRALIA
HELPED TO TURN TIDE
(Special Australian Correspondent) (Recd. 5.35 p.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 29
Hidden in scrub "somewhere in Northern Australia" are huge camouflaged buildings covering many hundreds of acres. They house the United States Fifth Air Force service command depot, the largest installation of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The equipment and machinery alone are valued at more than £45,000,000. Probably more than any other single factor, these repair workshops helped to turn the tide of the South-west Pacific aerial war in Allied favour.
The depot, the existence of which is now officially revealed for the first time, was established in the dark days of 1942, when the Japanese were driving toward Port Moresby and the issue on Guadalcanar was still in doubt. Then only a thin stream of sorely-needed aircraft was trickling into the Pacific theatre and the future looked uncertain.
Move from South Australia
It was at this stage that Lieutenant-General George Kenney, Commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, made a decision that changed the aerial fortune of the Allies in this theatre. Since the greatest use must be made of every available machine, he decided to transfer the command's main plane repair base from the south of Australia to the north. Such a move would result in a saving of from three to four days in ferrying damaged planes to workshops and back to the combat area.
It was in November, 1942, that the work of constructing the new base began. Every man was expected to work up to 18 hours daily. Later this was slackened off to 14 hours, but work was pushed ahead seven days a week.
Every Type of Work
Only 30 days after the ground had been broken a new engine-overhaul shop turned out its first completed job. Today the mammoth workshops undertake every type of aircraft repair and reconstruction. The base has also been developed as an important centre for the improvement of fighter aircraft in the Pacific. Machines are modified and altered for enhanced performance in this theatre. Many of the improvements made have become part of the standard design.
There is no part of a plane which cannot be supplied from the depot's ordnance stores or manufactured in its workshops. The warehouses which form part of the establishment list 155,000 separate items of stock. The driving force behind the rapid development of this Allied centre was Colonel Victor Bertrandias, vice-president of the Douglas Aircraft Company, who flew with the famous American ace of the last war, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 1 MARCH 1944
GREAT AIRCRAFT DEPOT
WORK IN AUSTRALIA
HELPED TO TURN TIDE
(Special Australian Correspondent) (Recd. 5.35 p.m.) SYDNEY, Feb. 29
Hidden in scrub "somewhere in Northern Australia" are huge camouflaged buildings covering many hundreds of acres. They house the United States Fifth Air Force service command depot, the largest installation of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere. The equipment and machinery alone are valued at more than £45,000,000. Probably more than any other single factor, these repair workshops helped to turn the tide of the South-west Pacific aerial war in Allied favour.
The depot, the existence of which is now officially revealed for the first time, was established in the dark days of 1942, when the Japanese were driving toward Port Moresby and the issue on Guadalcanar was still in doubt. Then only a thin stream of sorely-needed aircraft was trickling into the Pacific theatre and the future looked uncertain.
Move from South Australia
It was at this stage that Lieutenant-General George Kenney, Commander of the Allied Air Forces in the Southwest Pacific, made a decision that changed the aerial fortune of the Allies in this theatre. Since the greatest use must be made of every available machine, he decided to transfer the command's main plane repair base from the south of Australia to the north. Such a move would result in a saving of from three to four days in ferrying damaged planes to workshops and back to the combat area.
It was in November, 1942, that the work of constructing the new base began. Every man was expected to work up to 18 hours daily. Later this was slackened off to 14 hours, but work was pushed ahead seven days a week.
Every Type of Work
Only 30 days after the ground had been broken a new engine-overhaul shop turned out its first completed job. Today the mammoth workshops undertake every type of aircraft repair and reconstruction. The base has also been developed as an important centre for the improvement of fighter aircraft in the Pacific. Machines are modified and altered for enhanced performance in this theatre. Many of the improvements made have become part of the standard design.
There is no part of a plane which cannot be supplied from the depot's ordnance stores or manufactured in its workshops. The warehouses which form part of the establishment list 155,000 separate items of stock. The driving force behind the rapid development of this Allied centre was Colonel Victor Bertrandias, vice-president of the Douglas Aircraft Company, who flew with the famous American ace of the last war, Captain Eddie Rickenbacker.
NEW ZEALAND HERALD, 1 MARCH 1944
