By Tom Lewis*
One of the last veterans who experienced the first WWII air raid on Darwin has died. Brian Winspear, a Hobart resident, was 104.
Brian signed up for the war from Tasmania in 1939. He said later he was sure the blue uniform of the Royal Australian Air Force would impress his girlfriends, a comment typical of a man who went through life with a sense of humour that carried him through some very dark hours. For Brian was a gunner in bombers, an extremely hazardous profession that saw the personnel of many Australian squadrons die in their hundreds. Brian kept a long list of those who died in his units, and he was later tireless in having a memorial plaque placed on Darwin’s Esplanade to his fallen comrades.
Serving in twin-engined Hudsons, Beauforts, and later in Vultee Vengeance divebombers, Brian Winspear was in one of the last aircraft to fly into Darwin on that fateful day the Imperial Japanese Navy arrived. The war that had spread to the Pacific with the Pearl Harbor raids of December 1941 was being fiercely resisted by the Allies as the Japanese war machine swept south. It was far more efficient than had been anticipated: the extremely capable Navy and Army of the enemy drove the Americans out of the Philippines; the Dutch out of South-East Asia, and conquered Singapore in a matter of weeks. The Allies had resisted but were steadily pushed back, and Brian’s Hudson, with him manning the machineguns in the rear turret, was packed with troops as it flew into Darwin.
One hundred and eighty-eight Zeroes, Val divebombers and Kate vertical bombers struck Darwin at 10 on the morning of 19th February. They were excellent aircrews, experienced from China as well as Pearl Harbor, and they sunk 11 ships that day, destroyed 30 aircraft, and killed 236 people. A second raid targeted the RAAF base, and Brian saw it all from a trench with his steel helmet on. It was not his first brush with death. He had seen many men die already in aircraft accidents, and he later wrote about it all in Tasmanians in the Air, which he co-edited, and My Back-Seat War.
Following the raid one of Brian’s duties was to guard Hajime Toyoshima, a Zero pilot who had been captured by a local Aboriginal, Matthias, and handed over to the Forces. Toyoshima, the first prisoner taken on Australian soil, was soon sent south to Cowra Prisoner of War Camp, where he became one of the leaders of the massive breakout in 1944.
Brian was recommended for officer training, and to be retrained as a navigator. The rest of the war saw him flying out of New Guinea as well as on coastal anti-submarine patrols around Australia’s coasts. He was demobbed in November 1945 as a flight-lieutenant.
Post-war Brian went into business with the same determination which had filled him in the war. He acquired a service-station in Bicheno, on Tasmania’s east coast, and then a hotel, which was the start of Innkeepers, a chain of hotels which spread to the mainland, eventually becoming 20 establishments in five states. He married Shirley, later a successful painter, and was awarded an Order of Australia in 1993 for services to the tourism industry and the community. A regular and much-loved attendee at the 19 February commemoration every year in Darwin, Brian wore his old uniform with pride, and spoke readily to the media about his service. Shirley predeceased him; he leaves behind six children, a host of their descendants, and a most grateful nation.
*Dr Tom Lewis OAM is a military historian. Brian Winspear’s stories features in several of his 23 books.
Captions:
Brian Winspear checks out a bomber gun turret – he flew as a gunner in Hudson bombers from the NT. (Great Southern Rail)
RAAF No. 23 Squadron Lockheed Hudson aircraft in 1940. (Colourized photo via Photographic Training Flight, RAAF Base East Sale)
RAAF recruiting poster WWII (Public domain)
Journeying to Darwin on the Anzac Ghan in 2012, WWII RAAF veteran Brian Winspear salutes the memory of fallen comrades at Adelaide River War Cemetery (Great Southern Rail)
