No. 76 Squadron RAAF

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No. 76 Squadron RAAF
Sqn Ldr Keith "Bluey" Truscott, CO of 76 Squadron, taxiing along Marston Matting at Milne Bay in September 1942
Active	1942–current
Country	Australia
Branch	Royal Australian Air Force
Garrison/HQ	RAAF Base Williamtown

No. 76 Squadron is a Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) training squadron and operates Hawk 127 aircraft from RAAF Base Williamtown. It was formed as a fighter unit in 1942.

The squadron saw extensive combat, flying Curtiss P-40 Kittyhawks in World War II, in and around Milne Bay, New Guinea. The Japanese, trying to capture Port Moresby, made several major attacks simultaneously. These included two attacks by ground forces:

over the Owen Stanley Ranges where 10,000 Japanese troops clashed with 2,000 Australian Troops with very heavy casualties on both sides, in the Kokoda Track campaign

landing about 2,000 troops near the Easternmost tip of Milne Bay to advance by foot to Port Moresby. It was here that the Japanese troops were defeated and turned back on the 5th of September 1942. This became known as Battle of Milne Bay.

Milne Bay was the first time in several years that the Japanese had been defeated by military force. It was a small battle, as far as battles go and only lasted a short time, but the conditions in both campaigns were nothing short of atrocious — wet, humid, muddy conditions; mosquitoes, malaria, dysentery, to name a few — played havoc on both sides.

The ferocity of the Milne Bay campaign required a massive team effort. Pilots didn't have the luxury of leaving the aircraft to their ground crews to maintain as they had in the UK - they had to pitch in and help and rank structure gave way to first name basis. There was no time or place for autocratic Officers and it was not needed.

76 Squadron ground crews (mechanics, fitters, armourers, cooks, anti-aircraft gunners, and so on) were also lauded, because of the conditions they worked in, the equipment they had and the improvisation skills they showed, their input to the success of this campaign was every bit as much as the pilots. No. 76 Squadron RAAF was nicknamed "The Hydraulic Squadron" — they would "lift" anything to keep their machines working and their beer supplies adequate".^[1]

76 Squadron had some very distinctive names flying in it: Squadron Leaders Keith "Bluey" Truscott and Peter Turnbull, Flight Lieutenant Clive "Bardie" Wawn, Flying Officers Pat Tainton and Johnny Elphick, all of whom had flown combat missions in Europe, the Middle East or North Africa. This was the first taste of combat for all the other pilots of 76 Squadron, all of whom proved themselves exceptionally good pilots.

76 Squadron later formed part of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan after the war.

During the Cold War No. 76 Squadron was based in Malta between 1952 and 1955. The Squadron relocated to Williamtown in 1960.

Since 1989 No. 76 Squadron has been responsible for providing introductory fighter training to RAAF pilots who have been trained to operate jet aircraft by No 79 Squadron. Upon completing their training pilots are posted to either No. 2 Operational Conversion Unit or No. 6 Squadron to convert to either the F/A-18 or F-111 aircraft before being posted to an operational squadron.

A No. 76 Squadron Hawk 127 in special "cougar" colour scheme.

[edit] References

Ivan Southall, Bluey Truscott.
Clive Wawn Jr (collection of memorabilia and documents)

[edit] Footnotes

^ Milne Bay 1942 - The story of 'Milne-Force' and Japan's first military defeat on land, Baker and Knight, 1991.

[edit] External links

Royal Australian Air Force flying squadrons

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