William Bostock
William Dowling Bostock, was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force. During World War II he led RAAF Command, the Air Force's main operational formation, with responsibility for the defence of Australia and air offensives against Japanese targets in the South West Pacific Area. His achievements in the role earned him the Distinguished Service Order and the American Medal of Freedom. General Douglas MacArthur described him as "one of the world's most successful airmen".
A veteran of World War I, Bostock first saw combat as a soldier in the Australian Imperial Force at Gallipoli, then as a pilot in the Royal Flying Corps on the Western Front, where he earned the Belgian Croix de guerre. He joined the newly formed RAAF in 1921 and by 1941 had risen to become its third most senior officer, serving as Director of Training from 1930 to 1931, commanding officer of No. 3 Squadron from 1931 to 1936, and Director of Operations and Intelligence from 1938 to 1939.
The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff at the outbreak of World War II, Bostock was considered a leading candidate for the position of Chief of the Air Staff in 1942 but was passed over in favour of Air Commodore George Jones, a friend of twenty years. Appointed Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command soon after, Bostock became involved in a bitter and long-running dispute with Jones over control of the Air Force in the South West Pacific. Following his retirement from the RAAF in 1946, he became a journalist and later a Federal Member of Parliament.
Early life and World War I
Bostock was born in Surry Hills, an inner-city suburb of Sydney, to an English father, also named William, and a Spanish mother, Mary. He was educated at The School, Mount Victoria, in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales, where he completed his junior certificate. The family later moved to Burwood, in Sydney's Inner West. After leaving school Bostock was employed as an apprentice with the Marconi Company for two-and-a-half years, and spent time at sea as a wireless operator.In November 1914, Bostock joined the 2nd Signal Troop of the Australian Imperial Force as a sapper. He landed at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, serving there until August, when he was evacuated suffering from dysentery. He returned to active duty in January 1916, and was promoted to lance corporal the following month. Raised to sergeant, Bostock was posted to Egypt with the ANZAC Mounted Division in April 1916, and saw action against Turkish forces in the Sinai Peninsula.
Bostock transferred from the AIF to the Royal Flying Corps Special Reserve on 18 February 1917, and was commissioned as a probationary second lieutenant. He was posted to No. 48 Squadron in August, following pilot training in Egypt and England. Bostock fought on the Western Front and was awarded the Belgian Croix de guerre. He was invalided back to Britain in March 1918, after which he transferred to the newly created Royal Air Force.
Inter-war years
Bostock married his Australian fiancée, Gwendolen Norton, in Southampton on 6 March 1919. The couple had two daughters, one of whom, Gwendolen Joan, would serve as a cipher officer in the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force during World War II. Bostock retired from the RAF and returned to civilian life in Australia that October. In September 1921, he joined the recently formed Royal Australian Air Force and was commissioned a flying officer. He became a friend and mentor to Flying Officer George Jones, another World War I veteran, who had flown with the Australian Flying Corps and had joined the Air Force in March. By mid-1922 Bostock had been promoted to flight lieutenant.Having served at No. 1 Flying Training School, Point Cook, since entering the RAAF, Bostock was posted to Britain in 1926 to attend RAF Staff College, Andover. While there he was admonished by the college's commandant, via letter, due to the particular school he had chosen for his daughter and because he did his own gardening; Bostock was said to have returned the letter marked "noted and ignored". On his return to Australia as a squadron leader in 1928, he took charge of No. 1 FTS, and became Director of Training at RAAF Headquarters, Melbourne, in December 1929. From 1931 to 1936 Bostock was commanding officer of No. 3 Squadron, flying Westland Wapitis and, later, Hawker Demons. At the time, his position as No. 3 Squadron commander doubled as CO of the unit's base, RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales. A wing commander from 1934, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the King's Birthday Honours on 31 May 1935. Following a two-year posting in Britain on the staff of No. 1 Bomber Group, Bostock was promoted to group captain on 1 September 1938 and made Director of Operations and Intelligence. Within a year he had become Deputy Chief of the Air Staff.
World War II
Deputy Chief of the Air Staff
The Deputy Chief of the Air Staff position that Bostock occupied at the outbreak of World War II was a new one that initially augmented, and later supplanted, an existing Assistant Chief of the Air Staff role. Unlike the Assistant Chief, the Deputy had the authority to act in place of the Chief of the Air Staff if required. This increased status saw Bostock given a place on Australia's Joint Planning Committee. He was the RAAF's delegate to a defence conference in Singapore in October 1940; the Australian contingent found the local forces ill-prepared for an attack by the Japanese and recommended significant increases in air capability, both in Australia and the Pacific Islands, to meet the threat. Bostock rose rapidly in rank during this period, becoming acting air commodore on 1 June 1940 and substantive air vice marshal on 1 October 1941. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the 1942 New Year Honours.Third in seniority in the RAAF after Air Marshal Richard Williams and Air Vice Marshal Stanley Goble, and considered, in the words of historian Chris Coulthard-Clark, to be "among the Air Force's best brains" at the time, Bostock was a prime candidate for the position of CAS in May 1942. He was also first choice of the incumbent CAS, Air Chief Marshal Sir Charles Burnett, whose two-year term was coming to an end. Bostock's closeness to Burnett, who had made no secret of his contempt for John Curtin's Federal Labor government, damaged his chances for selection and his friend, George Jones, then only a substantive wing commander and acting air commodore, took the position. Although he had expected to be made CAS, Bostock warmly congratulated Jones, possibly expecting that his new role as chief of staff to the Commander of Allied Air Forces, Lieutenant General George Brett, with responsibility for air operations in the South West Pacific Area, would prove the more important appointment in a time of war.
Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command
In August 1942, General Douglas MacArthur, Supreme Commander SWPA, replaced Lieutenant General Brett with Major General George Kenney. Kenney created two new formations subordinate to Allied Air Forces Headquarters: the US Fifth Air Force and RAAF Command. Bostock was chosen to be Air Officer Commanding RAAF Command, with twenty-four Australian squadrons at his disposal plus one each from the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States. The only Australian air combat units in the SWPA not under Bostock's command were those based in New Guinea as No. 9 Operational Group RAAF, controlled by Fifth Air Force. RAAF Command was charged with defending Australia, except in the north-east, protecting the sea lanes to New Guinea, and conducting operations against Japanese shipping, airfields and other installations in the Dutch East Indies.By the end of 1943, No. 9 OG, originally the RAAF's mobile strike formation, had effectively become a static garrison force in New Guinea. Bostock proposed that it be renamed Northern Area Command to better reflect its current function. Kenney asked Bostock to raise a new RAAF mobile formation, which led to the establishment of No. 10 Operational Group on 13 November 1943 at Nadzab, under the command of Group Captain Frederick Scherger. In February 1944, RAAF Command took over many of the units of No. 9 OG, as well as responsibility for the Port Moresby and Milne Bay sectors. Bostock again recommended changing No. 9 OG's name to Northern Area, and also proposed changing No. 10 OG's name to Tactical Air Force, RAAF, in view of its increased strength from the infusion of new squadrons. No. 9 OG became Northern Command on 11 April. On 14 September, Bostock had an audience with Prime Minister Curtin, wherein the latter outlined his preferences for the deployment of RAAF Command, particularly that it should be represented in forward Allied operations, and employed primarily in the support of Australian ground forces. Bostock concurred; Curtin meanwhile authorised changing No. 10 OG's name to First Tactical Air Force, with effect from 25 October. RAAF Command's complement had now swelled to forty-one Australian squadrons.
File:OG2415RAAFCommand.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.28|Bostock with Australian I Corps commander Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead and Rear Admiral Forrest B. Royal of the US Navy, following a meeting at Morotai in April 1945|alt=Three men in light-coloured military uniforms walking from tent, with palm trees in background
On 15 March 1945, Bostock established a forward headquarters on Morotai Island to directly control No. 1 TAF for the upcoming Oboe operations, the reoccupation of Borneo. Kenney gave him responsibility for all Allied air operations south of the Philippines, and the Royal New Zealand Air Force units which were based in the Solomon Islands to support the Bougainville Campaign were assigned to RAAF Command. Bostock wrote to Kenney, "I am particularly anxious that the 1st Tactical Air Force should continue to be employed as a forward offensive formation rather than in a garrison role." In April, Kenney's Allied Air Headquarters issued an order that Bostock would be named Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief RAAF Command, because he had several Air Officers Commanding reporting to him. Bostock duly passed on this change of nomenclature to his subordinate units but Air Force Headquarters in Melbourne vetoed the change in June.
Bostock had control of the USAAF Fifth and Thirteenth Air Forces, as well as No. 1 TAF, during Operation Oboe One, the invasion of Tarakan, commencing 1 May 1945. By this time RAAF Command comprised some 17,000 personnel. On Operation Oboe Six, the invasion of Labuan–Brunei in June, Bostock also had at his disposal aircraft based in Australia under Western and North-Western Area Commands. For Operation Oboe Two, the invasion of Balikpapan in July, Bostock marshalled forty Allied squadrons. His aim, in concert with that of Kenney and I Corps commander Lieutenant General Leslie Morshead, was to deliver the heaviest aerial bombardment possible against enemy targets, to enable Australian assault forces to land with minimal casualties. Together with a naval barrage, this resulted in what the official history of the RAAF in World War II described as a "scene of indescribable ruin" on the battlefield, and allowed seventeen waves of troops to disembark their landing craft without loss. MacArthur called the Labuan air offensive "flawless", and General Sir Thomas Blamey, Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Military Forces, congratulated Bostock on his "high order of control" and "ready and full cooperation" throughout the Borneo campaign.