Woy Woy RAAF Airfield WW2

Woy Woy Aerodrome
During the early years of the Second World War an aerodrome was constructed on the Woy Woy peninsula by the Australian Army for the RAAF.
Originally the airfield was designated as a dispersal airfield for the Schofields air base at Quakers Hill in Sydney, in the event of an enemy attack aircraft from this base could be deployed to the Woy Woy strip.
The Schofields air base was home to the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm for the duration of the war, the aircrews and aircraft were from visiting British aircraft carriers that rotated in and out during the war years.
As the threat of invasion diminished at the end of 1942 the airfield was relegated to become an Emergency Landing Ground, part of a network of coastal airfields that ran along the coast.
The airfield at Woy Woy was originally designed to accommodate 8 medium sized bombers that were housed in "hideouts" at various locations around the main runway.
A typical bush hideout consisted of a U shaped soil wall and suspended camouflage nets above the bays.
For camouflage purposes the taxiways leading to the runway would utilise existing local streets, some new streets were constructed for this purpose, other roads had the telegraph poles removed to accommodate the wingspan of a large aircraft.
Fuel dumps , anti aircraft positions and slit trenches were also planned for the area, earlier maps show plans for a second intersecting runway crossing the main strip from east to west.
The main runway ran north to south from McMasters Avenue to roughly Oxford Street and alongside Trafalgar Avenue
The strip was built in early 1942 by the Australian Army engineers firstly by bulldozing the area then laying down a base of crushed local sandstone , the main landing strip was then topped with a red gravel.
Early documents hint that at least 4 of the proposed hideouts had been completed by the time it was inspected by the army camoufluer at the end of 1942, locals have also reported the existence of slit trenches dug in the area of McMasters Avenue at the time.

RAAF plan for Woy Woy airfield

Wartime use
During the war the strip was used by aircraft travelling up and down the eastern seaboard for stop overs refuelling and emergency repairs.
Locals recall large Americam bombers regularly landing at Woy Woy which would attract the local ladies much to the delight of the American aircrews , one such crew was so taken by the local hospitality that 3 of the men deserted the aircraft and stayed in town for several weeks at at house in Umina before being rouded up by the military Police, evidently they had sold their uniforms to the locals !
Locals also recall many aircraft stopping fo repairs and there are a series of photos held by the local Ettalong RSL showing an Australian Lockheed Venture meduim bomber configured for submarine hunting undergoing repairs at the strip in 1943.

Lockheed Ventura with experimental YAGI submarine hunting radar array undergoing repairs 1943

Interesting to note that there have been 2 large radial type aircraft engines dug up in the area over the years that may have been from these aircraft, it was army practice to bury such items after they had been removed and replaced with new parts.
The land used by the army for the airfield was eventually returned to the original owners or sold off by 1949
Post War use
After the war the runway was used by the locals for a variety of purposes, there were horse races and an annual motorbike race, many locals also used the strip to learn to drive on.

Runway looking south towards Sydney 1949

Aircraft also continued to use the strip, some local real estate agents would fly up prospective customers from Sydney and in the 50's Marshall Airways from Bankstown would also bring up aircraft on the weekends for tourist joy flights.

Marshall Airways aircraft at Woy Woy 1950's

As the area became more populated there were more houses and the landing of aircraft started to become hazardous, in 1950 a Tiger Moth biplane was trying to land in heavy crosswinds and was blown onto the roof of a house in Nelson St, the pilot and occupants of the house (who were not home) were unharmed , the pilot did injure himself when he fell of the roof of the house unfortunately.

Tiger Moth crash 1950 Nelson St Umina

Co-incidently at that precise moment a delegation from Gosford had arrived by boat at Woy Woy Shire Council chambers to petition the council to retain the runway for public use.
The runway was eventually incorporated into Trafalgar  Avenue and remaining land subdivided and sold off
The blocks were a curse and a bonus for buyers as they were well drained and level but near impossible to dig into for they were still topped with the red gravel and sandstone base.
The Mystery Fuselage
Locals recall the remains of a medium sized passnger plane that had been stripped down to the fuselage that lay in the bush blocks near Australia Ave until the early 60's, some have identified it as an aircraft similar to a DC 2, there is no knowledge of the fate of this plane.
The Drop Tank
Locals also remember as children in 60's the existance of a large military type aluminium drop tank (disposable fuel tank) that had been split into its 2 halves and used by kids to paddle about in the Everglades lagoons, this may have been a left over relic from the airfield.

Little remains of the airfield today as housing has now fully covered the strip, small park at Trafalgar Avenue between Alma Ave and Waterloo Avenue is basically the original runway surface, skirting the edge of the car park  are remnants of the red gravel that can still be seen today.

In 2016 with the assistance of the Umina Community Group and myself the small park on Trafalgar Avenue is to be re named Runway Park , new play amenities will be added and it is hoped a small plaque with historical details of the site will be added in the later stages on construction

S.Spillard

Latest models

Return to days of old

You may have noticed me posting pics of the odd tank every now and then , I am collecting the Deagostini Combats Tanks Collection which consists of over 100 1/72 scale model armoured fighting vehicles dating from WW2 onwards.
I joined the collections'forum and have been amazed by some of the static models that the members build , back when I was a kid my favourite hobby was to save up $2.50 and go to Ettalong newsagents or the toy store at Woy Woy and buy a good old Airfix model.
I built models for years and some of the last ones I built in the 70's were Star Wars ones.
Then I discovered girls and surfing , a couple of weeks back I was in the toy store at Erina and decided to buy a few kits and have a crack at it again.
I had already been working on a large scale remote control tank , I have 2 of these and they are a large scale at 1/24.
This project is the conversion of a VS Tanks Abrams M1A2 to and Australian M1A1 AIM , I decided to build Australian armour as there are few if any ready to build examples on the market and I enjoy the research that goes with it.
The Abrams required removal of some pieces and addition of some sfter market accessories , I am still waiting on some red kangaroo decals for it before I finish painting the model , here's a pic of it so far



Next project was the making of a diorama for the 1/72 scale German " Maus " , I bought the Maus as a pre made model ( Easymodels ) and painted it up , as all my other small scale tanks are in plastic display cases I decided to whack this one in one as well , found some at the model shop for a reasonable price.
As the case was rather largish I decided to make a diorama and bought a packet of tiny German ( Italeri Anti Tank Crews ) soldiers to go on it as well.
The Maus was the largest tank built during WW2 and 2 of them were made , both broke down before they got into battle and were blown up by their crews , the Russians nicked one and it is on display at the Kubinka Tanks Museum



Back to the Aussie theme my next project was the Crusader Mk 11 , these tanks were used by the Aussies in WW2 in North Africa ,so it is painted up in desert colours , it is a 1/72 scale kit from Hasegawa and was fun to build , I had to modify the turret a bit as it was a Mk III.
I plan on doing another diorama for this and have ordered an Stuart Light Tank to accompany it as there is plenty room.



This weekends project was the Matilda Mk 11 ( 1/72 Italeri ) as used by the Aussies in New Guinea in WW2 , again I had to modify it a bit to represent the type we had and I am quite happy with the result , this one will go in a diorama as well and I have something cool in mind this time.



Next project will be the ASLAV-25 , this is a current vehicle and I think I will do the version that was used early on in Iraq and it is in a bigger scale of 1/35 which will give my poor old eyes a break



I was thinking of doing another blog just for the modelling , can I be arsed tho ?

While on tanks , my story called Grandads Tank helped out Mike from the USA who owns a shell casing similar to mine

More Tanks !

Latest additions to the armoury , I've been meaning to post them as I get them , but time slips by .........

M2 Bradley (USA 1991)


Cromwell Mk. IV (UK 1944)



Flakpanzer Gepard



M13/40 1942


M26 Pershing (USA 1945)


Full collection here

Combat Tanks Collection

NOTICE
I am updating this collection on my new blog - for updated Combat Tanks Collection information go to my other blog Anzac Plastic



The British Churchill Mk.VII

The latest update on the collection order , 120 issues and models are planned at this stage , as of last year due to request from CTC Forum members models from the Deagostini Panzer Collection are being merged into the CTC , the Panzer collection comprises of some 60 AFV's


Useful Links:

The Combat Tanks Collection UK
DeAgostini UK

The Combat Tanks Collection Australia
Bissett Magazines Australia

The Combat Tanks Collection NZ
Combat Tank Deliverys for New Zealand Subscribers

DieCast72 Panzer

DieCast72 Combat Tanks Collection

Altaya Panzer (France)

Altaya Chars de Combat (CTC Fance)

Combat Tanks Collection Forum

NOTICE
I am updating this collection on my new blog - for updated CTC pics go to Anzac Plastic

Coast at War

I'm working on a new Google Maps tour thingy titled The Coast at War - this will give you a tour of military sites along the coast between Sydney and Newcastle listing coastal fortifications , airfield and radar installations , sites of plane crashes / forced landings and shipping losses.
In compiling this information I have come across several fascinating stories like :

The laying of mines along the coast by German submarines which resulted in several ships being sunk.

The stalking of merchant vessels by a Japanese submarine over a period of 2 months , this vessel fired upon Newcastle and Sydney as well as sinking a number of ships

Secret coastal forts with giant naval cannons only 10km from Woy Woy peninsula

The fatal crash of a Spitfire fighter off the beach at Wamberal

Survivors from ships attacked by the Japanese turning up on the beach at The Entrance

Secret landings on the coast by Japanese and German seamen during the war.

The last days of the 3rd mini sub that attacked Sydney Harbour , Fort Records from Brooklyn note the sub in the area in the week after the sinking of the Kuttabul , at one stage it was even stuck on the mud flats at Patonga before disapearing again , were the crew still alive ?

I will go into detail on each story as the year goes by , so much info to sort through yet , I must thanks the lads at Fishraider forums for helping with some fort locations , an inspired peice of detective work if I must say so myself lol
How would I find these hidden bunkers along the coast ? Who would know ? The National Parks mob don't divulge much info as they want these sites protected and the National Archives won't let go of info easily without me having to actually visit them and fork out some cash.
So after a bit of a brainwave I'm thinking the local fishos would know because they spend the time in the water looking at them quite often , so after a quick post on the forum I had the info I needed within 48 hours !

When it gets cooler me and the bro will be visiting some of these coastal forts and getting some pictures , it will involve a bit of bush bashing and detective work , should be fun.
First visit will be to Brooklyn where I think I have spotted the hexagonal foundations of a gun emplacement on Brooklyn Point , Brooklyn Battery is mentioned in a few old Fort Records books at the National Archive , apart from that there is no mention of it anywhere else.
Also planned is a run to the Sport and Rec camp at Brooklyn to visit the site of the Juno Point gun battery , this is just around the headland from Patonga , and after that we will head to West Head at Pittwater to locate the extensive fortifications that watched over Broken Bay

Tanks Traps at Stockton Beach NSW
During WW2 thousands of concrete tank traps were placed along the length of Stockton Beach near Newcastle to thwart any atempt by the enemy to land there , today many are still there hidden in the sand dunes and under the water causing hazards to local surfers and fishos.
Weird to see this sign on an Aussie beach in 2010 ....

Grandad's Tank

When I was about 10 I was staying at my grandparents place in Sans Souci while mum was in hospital having a major operation , I was in an alien world away from my mates and my town , there was no beach nor block of bush to go play in nearby.
The only solace was when grandad came home from work , he was an Ambulance driver for St John's , while not saving lives he liked to tinker in his sheds and make wooden toys for kids , many hours were spent in those sheds gazing at the variety of tools and gadgets , one day while going through some boxes of junk ( treasure to me ) he handed me this object.
" What is it grandpa " I asked
" It came out of a French tank in World War 1 , keep it and don't ever lose it ok ? "
It was a spent shell casing about 16 cm long and I did manage to hold onto it all these years , nearly lost it at school once and had the Bomb Squad called by an over cautious teacher until I explained how real ammo doesn't have the bullet part in it once its been fired.

Recently I have been collecting the Combat Tanks Collection via my newsagent , a fortnightly magazine that comes with a 1/72 scale model die cast tank each issue , I decided to have another look at the shell casing and see if I could use the internet to verify grandads story.
Firstly I took some pics of it and posted them on a couple of online forums , there are a variety of markings on the base of the shell which should be enough to ID it :





Markings as follows from top: K 10 JUNE 1918 ( maybe 13 ) Sp 255 119A and on the firing pin 6 or G Kp

Starting with the date June 1918 , I looked up what French tanks were on the battlefield at that time in WW1 , the FT-17 had just come into service that year and fielded a 37 mm Puteaux cannon as main armament , the shell casing is 37mm

The first replies to my forum enquiries were coming in , one guy had Googled the specs and gave me a link to this page

DE-ACTIVATED 37 mm MAXIM SHELL DATED K 19 AUG 1918.
Here we have a re-assembled shell for the famous 'Quick-Firing' 37 mm MAXIM GUN. Known as the POM-POM.
The dates on the bottom of the ...(Fired)...shell case tell us the story......They read......K 19 AUG 1918 Sp 255 119A.
"Quartermaster's Comment" The Maxim was a 'Dual Purpose' Quick Firing Gun......Often used on ships against Aircraft. This Shell is some 16 cms long and weighs in at around 550 grams. The Shell Head would appear to have been taken from a shell that had not been fired......(and is in very good condition)......but the base of the shell shows firing......in that the pin has struck the cap.
All Round a Nice Item.

Not the result I wanted but it got me closer to what I was looking for , surely grandpa wasn't telling me a porky pie.

Another reply pointed out that this type of ammo was commonly used by most armies and in a variety of guns over 2 wars and led me to this site

The first pair in this PHOTO: 37mm Hotchkiss/Maxim (37x94R), Vickers 1 Pdr Mk III (37x69R).
The Hotchkiss round is the daddy of them all in terms of automatic cannon development. Following the Declaration of St Petersburg of 1868, which banned explosive shells weighing less than 400g, it was calculated that 37mm was about the right caliber for a weapon firing shells at least this big. Hotchkiss first developed a 40mm six-barrel rotary gun (based on the Gatling but using a refined mechanism), but rapidly switched to a five-barrel 37mm and achieved huge commercial success. It was the first fast-firing shell gun in the world. Larger weapons in 47mm and 53mm followed, but they never matched the 37mm in popularity. So it was natural for Maxim, when he decided to scale up his machine gun to make a shell-firing "pom-pom", to choose the same 37x94R ammo. It was also used in a variety of small manually-loaded guns, including the ones fitted to the French FT light tanks. It was STILL used in some small French tanks in 1940, albeit with a better loading with a hard-core projectile with a much higher velocity.

Here were pics of 37mm Hotchkis type ammo used by the German and French armies ,this ammo was also used in the FT-17 Renault tanks and then the story took another twist ...

The markings on the base explained :

K means it was made in the German city of Karlsruhe and Sp255 means it was inspected in Spandau , the Kp on the detonator plug means it was made by Krupp another German manufacturer

So what do I have ?
It looks like I have a shell from a French FT-17 tank circa 1918 using captured German 37mm rounds , a scenario not entirely unfeasible as this kind of thing happened during the fog of war.
German had used captured Allied tanks in the battle on the Western Front on a few occasions .
The FT-17 was the first tank with a revolving turret and they proved effective in battle , I can imagine a young soldier wanting to souvenir a piece of this wondrous new weapon back in 1918.

Which led me to another question, where did grandpa get it from ? , he worked as a carpenter in the Peace Corps in WW1 and never left the country.
A late night phone call to mum answered the question , grandpa's brother was stationed in France during WW1 near Passchendaele , scene of some of the most desperate and bloody battles against the German forces.

This battle is remembered by the New Zealand Division in particular as a slaughter. Wire remained uncut before stoutly defended German positions and the New Zealanders were killed and wounded in hundreds. The mud of a small river valley below Passchendaele bogged most of the Third Australian Division and German machine-gun fire delayed the centre of the attack. A trench manned by 35 Germans and four machine-guns was charged by Captain Clarence Jeffries and a dozen men of the 34th Battalion (New South Wales) which allowed the advance to continue for a while. Captain Jeffries led several more attacks on machine gun emplacements until he was killed. He was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
Between the beginning of August and the end of November 1917 the five Australian divisions suffered 38,000 casualties out of a total for all British forces of 475,000. More than 11,200 Australians were killed in action or died of wounds, 6,405 of them in October alone. Indeed, October 1917, with its more than 26,000 Australian battle casualties was the worst single month of the war for Australia. The struggle for Passchendaele, because of the awful conditions in which it was fought, became notorious and the entire ‘Flanders Offensive’ is more popularly called ‘Passchendaele’. In the spring of 1918, the Germans attacked at Ypres and all the ground gained in late 1917 was given up.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

From John McCrae, ‘In Flanders Fields

I can imagine my uncle grabbing this off the battlefield for his brother who loved his gadgets , a small souvenir from a place far far away , I shall keep it forever and pass it down to my nephew when the time is right

Lest we forget.

Tanks for dropping by

Been a tad slack on the blog front lately , time gets by some times.
Last few weeks have been a drama as my landlord has decided to sell and I have to fucking move camp.
Some of the dumps I have looked at so far are terrible , I'm determined to get a nice place this time , this brothel I live in now is soul destroying.
I could even end up in Ettalong , things are that bad lol , I won't live east of O.B road ever again - promise ! I'd really like to get back onto the strip ( Trafalgar Avenue ) my karma is good there.

Computer blew up finally and I was offline for another week , I took it into the shop and expected to wait another week or 2 for it to be repaired.
2 hours later on a Saturday morning the shop guy rings up and informs me the p.c is ready to rock , they even cleaned all of the dog hair out of it !
Big thanks to Albatross Computers across the road from Woy Woy Station - highly recommended !

Small pleasure is the magazine I have began buying called Combat Tanks , each issue comes with a die cast model tank , evidently there is some 100 issues and about 60 or so tanks to collect , I joined the obligatory site forum and smartened some poms up for good measure ( hehe )







10 Points to my boss who decides on the 2 coldest days in fuck knows when , to waterblast a 2 story house on the edge of the cliff at Killcare.
/facepalm

Back probably after i move shop and go thru the dramas of waiting weeks to get back online - wish me luck

Also I'm after a cheap fridge :)

Spears Family - Gosford

Recently I recieved a call from Craig Spears , he had read my article on the Woy Woy WW2 airfield and in particular noticed the mention of the top secret Bombi radar installation.
Craigs family has been in the area since the early 1800's , they lived in Gosford and one of the decendants was the licensee of the Pier Hotel in the 1900's which was located next to the Police station.
Prior to that the family had lived where the railway line now passes through Gosford town , George Spears had passed away long before the line was put through , Mr's Spears would not be moved from their home and bluntly told all " I will not shift until I am carried out ! "
The navvies working on the track continued blasting the sandstone near the residence with her permission " they can blast " she said.
One day rocks came through her roof at landed at the foot of the bed , poor old Elizabeth Spears died not long after.
Over a cup of tea Craig told me about his father who had worked for the old Brisbane Water County Council as an electrician during WW2.
One day they were told to report to the Bombi Radar installation to work on the site , after passing a checkpoint with armed guards they made their way down a long track to the facility.
As for telling of what went on there you must understand that in those days it could be considered an offense to discuss in public matters concerning Bombi.
But being a small town , it was no secret and Craig recalls local kids saying to his father " Hey aren't you the guy working at the secret radar station ! "
Craig says that the radar did register an enemy presence on at least one occasion.
Craigs mother told of seeing a prisoner of war train pull up at Gosford station one day and she saw dozens of strange faces peering out of the wagons " they looked like little monkeys " she recalls.
She also remembers air raid sirens going off on at least 2 occasions during the war.
Thanks Craig for the interesting chat and insight into old time Woy Woy

Merchant ship losses WW2

A recent ceremony in Wyong last week in memory of a sunken merchant navy vessel off Norah Head during WW2 got me searching for more info , read all about this very secret part of the war here

The Ghost Plane

In the early 80's an aircraft engine washed up on the beach at Umina , It was reported in the local paper at the time and the motor was dumped at Woy Woy Tip.
I decided to do some research at ADF Serials and see if I could find a list of aircraft crashes in that area and stumbled across this most amazing story.........
It was Tuesday the 5th of August 1955 and Anthony Thrower had just landed his Auster J/4 Archer at Bankstown airport when his motor stalled at the end of the runway , he decided to hop out and manually start the engine by hand turning the blade ( a push start for a plane ) . the engine kicked into life and the plane moved off with a bump - trouble was Tony was not in the cockpit but running alongside trying to grab a wing strut !
Much to his horror the plane gathered speed and started down the runway and took off , it circled the field in tight banks and at one stage the control tower was evacuated as the plane swooped close by before heading off into the sky towards the coast........
At 9.30 am a call was sent out to the R.A.A.F to assist in bringing the aircraft back to earth as it was now headed towards Sydney , a Wirraway trainer was sent up to shoot the plane down once it had reached the ocean and it was found about 5 miles off the coast at 9000 feet , the pilots hands were so cold in the Wirraway that he was unable to operate its guns so it turned back
In what was now becoming something from a Monty Python movie a second aircraft was deployed - a Meteor jet fighter was sent to shoot it down but it's guns jammed.
At 10.15 a.m 2 Sea Furies on loan from the Royal Navy were sent out to bring down the rogue aircraft , guided by the radar installation at South Head they intercepted the plane at 10.000 feet about 7 miles east of Broken Bay and it was shot down into the sea.
The Civil Aviation Authority later described the incident as a billion to one happening !