Unknown bit of War in the Pacific

Liberator · **Joined:** Mon Feb 28, 2011 3:11 am **Posts:** 837

RAAF and RAF units flew from Cocos Island and staged operations into South West Asia

http://www.ausairpower.net/Cocos-Islands-1945.html

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:16 am

great rare pics of a long ignored aspect of the pacific air war. my dad protected the main base on morotai for a few months prior to moving to the phillipines. morotai was a literal aircraft carrier island with all u.s. services operating out of their prior to the japanese. the raaf also flew sorties from their. raaf ace clive "killer caldwell" operated from their as well, balked at the wasted missions of ground attack, & his superiors charged him w/ mutiny!!

The Inspector · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:06 am

I've had friends in the past mention that when they were in the Air Force, there were veiled references to an Island called 'Planet X, in the middle of the Indian Ocean which is/was a top secret base. Could this be Planet X? :hide:

jdvoss · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:23 am

IIRC, the Collings Foundation's B-24 ("Witchcraft") was originally delivered to the RAF (KH191) and served with one of SEAC squadrons in the Cocos Islands.

Can anyone in WIX'er-land offer squadron info?

Django · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 1:38 pm

Very interesting!

I didn't understand the different Roundel, so I did a search. Didn't know that either.
http://www.raf.mod.uk/history/theroyala ... oundel.cfm

Dave Homewood · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 7:33 pm

A very interesting site, thanks for the link.

Question, you do realise that the Indian Ocean is not in the Pacific, right? :wink:

There was a hell of a lot of interesting air war action going on in South East Asia, around India, Burma and beyond. Just like the war on the ground there it gets largely overlooked. But there were big air battles between the RAF and the Japanese right through 1941-1945. I seem to recall that the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm had Corsairs and Hellcats, etc, in the Cocos too, didn't they?

PropsRule · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 9:35 pm

It sounds like the Mosquitoes had an attractive paint scheme. It would make a good subject for a model. I wonder how the wooden structure stood up in the humidity?

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Thu Feb 02, 2012 11:56 pm

PropsRule wrote:

It sounds like the Mosquitoes had an attractive paint scheme. It would make a good subject for a model. I wonder how the wooden structure stood up in the humidity?

with proper care i'd say they would have held up well. with the weather in the u.k. / europe with the extremes in climate change as apposed to the consistent arm pit sweat climate of the pacific / far east it would have been fairly easy. don't forget the glue / laminate technology came out in that era.

John Dupre · **Posted:** Sat Feb 04, 2012 7:54 pm

The Inspector wrote:

I've had friends in the past mention that when they were in the Air Force, there were veiled references to an Island called 'Planet X, in the middle of the Indian Ocean which is/was a top secret base. Could this be Planet X? :hide:

Sounds like Diego Garcia which is actually a British base but heavily used by the US since at least the 1980s. Isn't there are wrecked PBY there?

StudeDave · **Posted:** Sun Feb 05, 2012 5:58 pm

John Dupre wrote:

The Inspector wrote:

I've had friends in the past mention that when they were in the Air Force, there were veiled references to an Island called 'Planet X, in the middle of the Indian Ocean which is/was a top secret base. Could this be Planet X? :hide:

Sounds like Diego Garcia which is actually a British base but heavily used by the US since at least the 1980s. Isn't there are wrecked PBY there?

Yes- there ARE remains of a PBY on Diego Garcia. That part of the Island has VERY restricted access. You litterally have to have permission from the British Goverenment to get there!!! As such I did not get a chance to see it during my year-long 'vacation' on the Island, and have only seen it in pictures I found on Google...

tom d. friedman · **Posted:** Sun Feb 05, 2012 6:51 pm

StudeDave wrote:

John Dupre wrote:

The Inspector wrote:

I've had friends in the past mention that when they were in the Air Force, there were veiled references to an Island called 'Planet X, in the middle of the Indian Ocean which is/was a top secret base. Could this be Planet X? :hide:

Sounds like Diego Garcia which is actually a British base but heavily used by the US since at least the 1980s. Isn't there are wrecked PBY there?

Yes- there ARE remains of a PBY on Diego Garcia. That part of the Island has VERY restricted access. You litterally have to have permission from the British Goverenment to get there!!! As such I did not get a chance to see it during my year-long 'vacation' on the Island, and have only seen it in pictures I found on Google...

how much fuselage, etc exists,?? what should i google before i get buried in search mode...... google offers to much!! is that good or bad?? i just don't have the tolerance to take the time lately!!

StudeDave · **Posted:** Sun Feb 05, 2012 7:18 pm

tom d. friedman wrote:

how much fuselage etc, survives?? wha to google?

I never saw it, but this should help you out~

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&cp=7&gs_id=q&xhr=t&q=diego+garcia&gs_upl=&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&biw=1006&bih=458&wrapid=tljp1328486679252012&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=HBkvT5veG5LJiQKqqMHUCg#um=1&hl=en&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=diego+garcia+pby&oq=diego+garcia+pby&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&gs_sm=s&gs_upl=48106l49924l0l51441l4l4l0l1l0l0l390l470l2.3-1l3l0&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.,cf.osb&fp=8302c9953fb5048f&biw=1006&bih=458

There are a few pretty good pics to be found...

(sorry for the long link)

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Unknown bit of War in the Pacific

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