North-Western Area Command
North-Western Area Command was one of several geographically based commands raised by the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II. Its wartime sphere of operations included the Northern Territory, adjacent portions of Queensland and Western Australia, and the Dutch East Indies. The command was formed in January 1942, following the outbreak of the Pacific War, from the western part of Northern Area Command, which had covered all of northern Australia and Papua. Headquartered at Darwin, North-Western Area Command was initially responsible for air defence, aerial reconnaissance and protection of the sea lanes within its boundaries.
In the official history of the RAAF in the Pacific theatre, George Odgers described the North-Western Area Campaign as "almost entirely an air war, with raid and counter-raid". From 1943, North-Western Area Command's role became increasingly offensive in nature, as the Allies began to advance in New Guinea and the Dutch East Indies. Its combat aircraft ranged from single-engined fighters to heavy bombers, and were flown by Australian, British, American and Dutch squadrons. The area command continued to operate following the end of the war, but its assets and staffing were much reduced. Its responsibilities were subsumed in February 1954 into the RAAF's new functional commands: Home, Training, and Maintenance Commands. The area headquarters was disbanded the following year.
History
World War II
Formation
North-Western Area Command was formed at RAAF Station Darwin, Northern Territory, on 15 January 1942, taking over the western portion of what was Northern Area Command. Northern Area had been established on 8 May 1941 as one of the RAAF's four geographically based command-and-control zones, and covered northern New South Wales, Queensland, the Northern Territory, and Papua. The roles of the area commands were air defence, protection of adjacent sea lanes, and aerial reconnaissance. Each was led by an Air Officer Commanding responsible for the administration and operations of air bases and units within his boundary.The outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941 was the catalyst for Northern Area being split into North-Western Area and North-Eastern Area, to counter distinct Japanese threats to Northern Australia and New Guinea, respectively. NWA's inaugural AOC was Air Commodore Douglas Wilson. His senior air staff officer was Group Captain Frederick Scherger. Headquarters staff numbered 137, including 24 officers.
On 15 January 1942, an Allied supreme command for South East Asia and the South West Pacific, American-British-Dutch-Australian Command, was formed with headquarters at Bandung in Java. Five days later, the Australian War Cabinet officially transferred the operational control of northern Australia between Onslow in Western Australia and the south-east edge of the Gulf of Carpentaria to ABDACOM. The Darwin area become an Allied air sub-command known as AUSGROUP, under ABDACOM's air component, ABDAIR. Following reports on 27 January that the formidable Japanese combined carrier fleet had entered the Flores Sea, Wilson ordered the dispersal of assets at RAAF Darwin. Repair and maintenance equipment and staff were moved to Daly Waters, almost further south, but when Wilson also directed that five obsolescent CAC Wirraway armed trainers move to Daly Waters, he was overruled by the Deputy Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal William Bostock. In early February 1942, Air Commodore George Jones, soon to be appointed Chief of the Air Staff, inspected NWA and found the morale and serviceability of its combat units—Nos. 2, 12 and 13 Squadrons—to be lacking.
1942–1943: Raids and counter-raids
On 19 February 1942, NWA's complement of aircraft included seventeen Lockheed Hudson light bombers of Nos. 2 and 13 Squadrons based at Darwin and Daly Waters, fourteen Wirraways of No. 12 Squadron based at Darwin and Batchelor, and ten P-40 Kittyhawk fighters of the United States Army Air Forces that were transitting through Darwin to Java. Half of the Hudsons were without crews, five of the Wirraways were out of service, and the Kittyhawk pilots were considered inexperienced. Wilson was attending meetings at ABDACOM headquarters in Java, and Scherger was acting AOC. Just before 10 am, Darwin suffered its first air raid by the Japanese, a force of 188 aircraft that bombed the harbour and town. A further attack by fifty-four bombers, directed mainly at the RAAF airfield, followed at around midday. The raids on 19 February destroyed civil and military infrastructure, twenty-three aircraft and ten ships, and killed approximately 250 people; 278 RAAF personnel deserted Darwin in an exodus that became known as the "Adelaide River Stakes". "There was", in Scherger's words, "an awful panic and a lot of men simply went bush". The Kittyhawks and anti-aircraft gunners were credited with shooting down five Japanese aircraft and probably destroying five others.In the wake of the disaster, NWA headquarters moved to a bush camp south of the RAAF Station, and the senior leadership was changed. Wilson and Scherger were posted out, the latter in spite of being praised for his actions during the attack by the Federal government's commission of inquiry. ABDACOM was dissolved on 25 February, following the collapse of Allied resistance in Malaya and the Dutch East Indies. Air Commodore Frank Bladin took over as AOC NWA on 25 March, his initial objectives being to restore morale and deal with the perceived threat of an imminent invasion, tasks complicated by poor communications, transport and early warning systems. Proceeding to instigate more intense combat training and construct new satellite airfields with which to disperse his forces, Bladin became, in the words of Air Force historian Alan Stephens, "the RAAF's outstanding area commander of the war", and the first Australian in the Pacific theatre to be decorated by the Americans when he was awarded the Silver Star for gallantry after personally leading a raid by USAAF B-17 Flying Fortresses on Celebes in the Dutch East Indies. Despite northern Australia's obvious vulnerability to attack, NWA was without a garrison of interceptors until the arrival in March and April of three squadrons of USAAF Kittyhawks comprising the 49th Pursuit Group under the command of Colonel Paul Wurtsmith. The Darwin area suffered sixty-four air raids between February 1942 and November 1943.
As of 20 April 1942, operational authority over all RAAF combat infrastructure, including area commands, was invested in the newly established Allied Air Forces Headquarters under South West Pacific Area Command. NWA's boundaries were fine-tuned in August: as well as covering the Northern Territory, the command took responsibility for the portion of Western Australia north of a line drawn south-east from Yampi Sound to the Northern Territory border, and part of Queensland adjacent to the Barkly Tableland. The 49th Fighter Group flew its final sorties in August and transferred to New Guinea the following month, having claimed seventy-nine Japanese aircraft destroyed for the loss of twenty-one Kittyhawks. NWA's two Hudson squadrons had meanwhile conducted unescorted bombing missions against Japanese bases and shipping in the Timor and Arafura Seas, and in support of Sparrow Force on Timor. Three RAAF fighter squadrons—Nos. 76 and 77 equipped with Kittyhawks and No. 31 equipped with Bristol Beaufighters—arrived in September and October. September also saw the formation of RAAF Command under Bostock, to oversee the majority of Australian flying units in the SWPA. Bostock exercised overall control of air operations through the area commands, although RAAF Headquarters continued to hold administrative authority over Australian units. Bladin's remit was to defend the Northern Territory, the northern coast of Western Australia, and the Torres Strait, protecting the flank of General Douglas MacArthur's offensives in New Guinea. Bostock was to coordinate operations when they involved more than one area command, for instance when the fighter squadrons of both NWA and NEA were required to repulse a major attack.
By December 1942, NWA's flying units included six RAAF squadrons operating mainly Kittyhawks, Beaufighters, Hudsons, and Vultee Vengeance dive bombers, as well as No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit, which flew Wirraways, Brewster Buffalos, P-38 Lightnings and P-43 Lancers, and operated out of the Darwin area for the rest of the war. These units were soon augmented by one squadron each of Australian-Dutch East Indies B-25 Mitchell medium bombers and USAAF B-24 Liberator heavy bombers, with which NWA was able to conduct heavier strikes against Japanese forces north of Australia. Also in December, No. 34 Squadron, which had been formed under NWA's control in Darwin four days after the first air raid, transferred its aircraft to the newly formed No. 6 Communications Unit, which remained in the Northern Territory until disbanding shortly after the end of hostilities. No. 44 RDF Wing was formed under NWA at their Advanced HQs at 57 Mile near Coomalie Creek on 14 December. It was responsible for the radar stations that provided early warning of Japanese attacks. The wing coordinated air defence in the region with No. 5 Fighter Sector Headquarters.
As raids continued into 1943, Bladin placed his bombers inland and his fighters close to the coast, where they could intercept the attackers. No. 61 Wing was responsible for airfield construction squadrons and their support units. Works squadrons constructed or improved airfields at Cooomalie, Millingimbi, Fenton, Long, and Darwin. According to historian Chris Coulthard-Clark, NWA was "one of the few areas where the RAAF was free to run its own show" in World War II. Bladin often employed his own judgement in selecting targets for offensive strikes, as detailed directives from superior headquarters were not always forthcoming. On 27 February, acting on intercepted radio transmissions, he launched a raid on Penfui airfield near Koepang, destroying or damaging twenty-two Japanese bombers that were expected to make a major raid on Darwin.
To help protect northern Australia from ongoing air attack, three squadrons of Supermarine Spitfire fighters were transferred from the United Kingdom and became operational in March 1943 as No. 1 Fighter Wing RAAF under Group Captain Allan Walters. A major engagement over Darwin on 2 May resulted in the loss of five Spitfires during combat, and several others in forced landings owing to fuel starvation or engine failure, for the destruction of one Japanese bomber and five fighters. Bladin immediately ordered a retaliatory Beaufighter strike led by Wing Commander Charles Read against Penfui airfield, on the assumption—which proved to be correct—that this was where the Japanese raiders were based; four enemy aircraft were destroyed on the ground. Between March and May 1943, the number of sorties flown by NWA's combat squadrons rose from 211 to 469. The Allies claimed a total of forty-six Japanese aircraft destroyed for the loss of thirty of their own on operations, seventeen to enemy action and thirteen from other causes. On 17 June, under the command of Group Captain Clive Caldwell, No. 1 Wing recorded NWA's most successful interception to date, claiming fourteen Japanese raiders destroyed and ten damaged, for the loss of two Spitfires. The same month, the USAAF's 380th Bombardment Group, consisting of four squadrons of Liberators, came under NWA's control, enhancing its strategic strike capability. By this time, NWA headquarters staff numbered 385, including 96 officers.