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Published: July 11th 2014
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Morotai Island 1944 RAAF Airfield Construction Squadron 14S 14
This group photo was taken soon after landing on Morotai approx. 20th September, 1944. July 11, 2014
A long-held dream is about to become reality.
On August 20 2014 my brother Rob and I start our meandering way from Melbourne's Tullamarine airport to Daruba, Morotai Island, North Maluku, Indonesia, to commemorate an historic event that occurred 70 years ago, during World War 2.
The founding of this travel dream began on September 18, 1944 when our father landed on Morotai Island's palm studded coast with Airfield Construction Squadron No 14, Royal Australian Air Force. The landing was alongside United States troops and Engineers and was part of MacArthur's South West Pacific island-hopping push to eventually claim back the Phillipines from Japanese control.
Our Dad was a19 yo lad when he joined the RAAF June 3, 1943 and went to serve his country in the tropics of the Northern Territory, at Batchelor and Melville Bay. He served in and around this area until early June 1944. At this time in outback Northern Territory there were mobs of Indigenous Australians who were not used to seeing white people, and one of Dad's fellow servicemen was speared through the leg. This was one of very few stories we heard from Dad as he was very reticent about his war service. I think this has a great deal to do with our need to discover some more of his history and what better way than to be able to stand in the very spot that he occupied on his 21st birthday. We can only surmise what this day would have been like for him and hope that his comrades helped him celebrate in some way.
On June 3, 1944 his unit was enroute to Hollandia, now Jayapura, West Papua. This would have been a real adventure for a young lad from Pascoe Vale and I wonder what he made of it. West Papua at this time was an outpost of Dutch imperialism and would have been very different to suburban Melbourne.
In early August, 1944 Dad's unit embarked on American "Landing Ship Tanks" loaded with all the equipment needed for construction of not only the 2 airstrips, Wama and Pitoe, but everything else as well, and included the "kitchen sink"! Their arrival at Morotai's "Blue Beach" was on August 18, 1944 and again this was country with conditions very different from Pascoe Vale and I would love to have known his first impressions. They found that conditions on the beach head were not as the initial American and RAAF surveys had shown and getting heavy equipment, dozers and tractors, ashore in the boggy waterlogged terrain became a feat of some difficulty. However ingenuity and well-planned preparation prevailed and shortly after landing the hungry Servicemen were lining up for a well earned meal.
This then was the start of Dad's sojourn on a tropical island and although Rob's and my "landing" will be very different 70 years on, I'm sure it will be no less exciting and emotional for us as it was for Dad.
~ ~ ~ ~
The US force that ACS14 RAAF landed with -
The assault force, named Tradewind
Task Force, was mostly comprised of the 31
ST 'Dixie' Infantry
Division plus the 126
TH Regimental Combat Team of the 32
D Division. MG Charles P. Hall, CO of XI Corps, would be
the task force commander.
The 126
TH RCT was assigned as the task
force reserve and consisted of the 126
TH Inf. Regiment, the 120
TH FA BN, plus detachments from 32
D Division engineer, quartermaster,
ordnance, signal, medical and military police units.
(Source http://www.32nd-division.org/history/ww2/32ww2-9.html)
July 30 2014
Well...the last few days have been just a tad stressful. On Friday evening an email from Garuda Air (our airline from Melbourne to Jakarta) appeared in my inbox letting me know that our flight departure date has been changed from Wednesday 20th to Thursday 21st. Panic stations for a bit as I'm fairly sure Rob has already booked his flight from Mildura for Tuesday 19th and he is currently out of mobile range in Thailand. Taking calming breaths I decided not to panic and to check on Garuda's website to see what was happening. Seems they have changed our direct flight to the Thursday but there are still flights going via Denpassar on Wednesday, which just means having to haul our bags off at Denpassar, check through customs and reboard the flight from Denpassar to Jakarta. No problems, just makes the trip another 2 hours longer. So after calling Garuda's Melbourne Customer Centre our flight has been changed back to Wednesday via Denpassar at no extra cost! So I say a very big Thank You! and top service from the lovely Customer Service ladies at Garuda 😊
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