WWII Morotai (con't)

[jmfabio]

Hi all,

I am getting closer. Research is ongoing which necessitates moving things around and rethinking as I find new photographs. But I want to share some screenshots (not edited) as things stand now.

I am continuing to paint AI. Currently working on RAAF B-24s of 24 and 21 Squadrons. I am searching for actual aircraft codes but only found a few in pictures. B-24s of 5th BG of 13th AAF also need to be done.

Here are some screenshots:

This is a view of the US 155th Station Hospital looking west with Halmahera on the horizon. FreeMesh Asia is used for terrain.

View of airfields looking west. Wama is on the left and Pitoe is on the right. Airdrome was moved about 2 miles to the east (toward viewer) to better match reality. Wama hardstands were also increased in number to reflect changed conditions for RAAF 22 Squadron accommodation.

Tank farm, dock and bivouac area on shore looking west with Halmahera in background.

Keep looking!

 

[jmfabio]

More screen shots:

307th BG USAAF HQ and bivouac at southern end of Gila peninsula.

Approaching field from the east showing tank farm and one of the dock areas.

Australian 2/25 General Hospital. Dirt road to left (as near as I can tell) is what was called route 5 and leads back to the airfield if you travel west (toward viewer).

Keep looking

 

[PRB]

Wow, that looks nice!

 

[jmfabio]

Two final ones:

This is at the extreme southern end of the Gila Peninsula. It represents the Advance Land Signals unit of the Australian Army. Below is an actual photo:

Thanks for looking, I appreciate the support!

 

[jmfabio]

Wow, that looks nice!

Thanks Paul! Appreciate the look and comment.

Joe

 

[docjohnson]

Sweet! Adding the B-24s would be good too!

 

[Pips]

Absolutely brilliant!

 

[BendyFlyer]

This will be very nice looking good. Will be good to have a faithful rendition of Morotai in the sim.

This place was infamous for the RAAF and the cause was the alleged 'Morotai Mutiny', it seems the crews there thought they were being killed off doing useless and wasteful mop op operations away from the main action and the senior officers all fronted the top brass about it in typical Aussie fashion, led to a few court martials and trumped up charges against some very prominent and decorated aces, Clive Caldwell being one of them.

 

[Timmy74]

Hi all,

I am getting closer. Research is ongoing which necessitates moving things around and rethinking as I find new photographs. But I want to share some screenshots (not edited) as things stand now.

I am continuing to paint AI. Currently working on RAAF B-24s of 24 and 21 Squadrons. I am searching for actual aircraft codes but only found a few in pictures. B-24s of 5th BG of 13th AAF also need to be done.

Here are some screenshots:

This is a view of the US 155th Station Hospital looking west with Halmahera on the horizon. FreeMesh Asia is used for terrain.

View of airfields looking west. Wama is on the left and Pitoe is on the right. Airdrome was moved about 2 miles to the east (toward viewer) to better match reality. Wama hardstands were also increased in number to reflect changed conditions for RAAF 22 Squadron accommodation.

Tank farm, dock and bivouac area on shore looking west with Halmahera in background.

Keep looking!

Looking very good Joe.

This may be useful for you in regards to RAAF B-24 serials...?

http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/

Then click on "RAAF Series Two"

Then scroll down to "A72-Consolidated B-24/J/L/M Liberator"

This website is fantastic for Australian,NZ and PNG too, military aviation history. Lots of photo's too.

Martin Edwards and the team at ADF Serials have done an outstanding job on their history and website.

Cheers,
Tim.

 

[jmfabio]

Sweet! Adding the B-24s would be good too!

Thanks Doc,

So far I have close to 40 AI B-24s 868th Snoopers, 307th BG (3 squadrons plus AC not assigned to a specific squadron) am working on 24 and 21 Squadrons RAAF and 5th BG. All will have AI FPs
Far more bombers than fighters but I am also pursuing the fighter avenue.

Joe

 

[jmfabio]

This will be very nice looking good. Will be good to have a faithful rendition of Morotai in the sim.

This place was infamous for the RAAF and the cause was the alleged 'Morotai Mutiny', it seems the crews there thought they were being killed off doing useless and wasteful mop op operations away from the main action and the senior officers all fronted the top brass about it in typical Aussie fashion, led to a few court martials and trumped up charges against some very prominent and decorated aces, Clive Caldwell being one of them.

Thanks BendyFlier,

I will render it as best I can. PTO bases were not as well documented as those in the ETO . No photo I have been able to find of Morotai shows it directly over head in Hi Res. They are oblique, low res (taken my crew not by Photo Mapping) and don't located bivouac areas of specific units.
Lots of pics taken at ground level but no location on the island. hard to glean info from that.

On the Australian War Memorial site I found pictures of a 1500 man demonstration against the point system set up to determine rotation back to Australia. Apparently soldiers with high numbers of points weren't being rotated back and protested.

Joe

 

[jmfabio]

Looking very good Joe.

This may be useful for you in regards to RAAF B-24 serials...?

http://www.adf-gallery.com.au/

Then click on "RAAF Series Two"

Then scroll down to "A72-Consolidated B-24/J/L/M Liberator"

This website is fantastic for Australian,NZ and PNG too, military aviation history. Lots of photo's too.

Martin Edwards and the team at ADF Serials have done an outstanding job on their history and website.

Cheers,
Tim.

Hi Tim,

I have taken a look at that site and yes I would agree that is an outstanding site.
I have perused the B24 page and that looks to be a happy hunting ground and will be extremely useful.
Thanks for the link,

Joe

 

[BendyFlyer]

Joe interesting re AWM treatment of the Morotai incident, standard bureacratic cover up, it could fill several threads and then some. Let me just say as a serious student of the RAAF in WW2, RAAF High Command in WW2 (and now actually) was basically hopeless and they were only made to look reasonably good by the officers and men in the field. They presided over debacle after debacle or one calamitous indecision after another and they were regularly removed and changed, all I can say is while the men of the RAAF flew and fought with distinction all over the world their attitude to their men was indifferent and they were tactically and strategically inept. They were were adept at covering their backsides. Clive Caldwell (Group Captain, DSO and DFC with bar, 28 confirmed kills) was basically fingered as the ringleader at Morotai it was not about leave but stupid wasteful operational tasking. The senior officers all resigned so they made an example of Clive, who was charged with running a bootleg operation into Morotai and elsewhere, why he was open about using empty aeroplanes to bring a few goodies in for the troops and basically busted back to the ranks, he then resigned from the RAAF. Like their indifference and refusal to challenge and go into bat publicly for Bomber Command crews during the 'white feather' campaign in Australia (started by a now defunct tabloid) alleging Australian Bomber Command crews were cowards and slackers living the life of luxury in the UK (They had the highest casualty rate of any Australian service arm in WW2, except the POW's.) Imagine getting anonymous letters sent to you from Australia in the UK with a white feather in it after a night over Germany in a Lancaster.

Anyhow sorry to distract from this thread. Some places are more than significant I guess and Morotai is one of them. Keep up the good work. I am sure diagrams of the area exist but they will be in paper form either in RAAF unit records or the AWM.

 

[BendyFlyer]

jmfabio, not sure if you have seen these but these are all aerial shots of Morotai:

Alas no diagram but his may help, the second last one is the signals HQ, there st are of the aerodrome and dispersal areas.

Morotai was a very large logistics point, so they regularly off loaded a hell of a lot of equipment which was stored about the island and later shipped off again with troops to other operational areas, it also had a large field hospital, a POW holding unit and an Allied POW recovery and care unit. Probably almost a mini city at some time, most troop stuff was tents or makeshift buildings and the place was covered with telegraph poles and wires and there were a few large platforms that had water tanks on them here and there.

Anyway a small contribution.

 

[jmfabio]

jmfabio, not sure if you have seen these but these are all aerial shots of Morotai:

Alas no diagram but his may help, the second last one is the signals HQ, there st are of the aerodrome and dispersal areas.

Morotai was a very large logistics point, so they regularly off loaded a hell of a lot of equipment which was stored about the island and later shipped off again with troops to other operational areas, it also had a large field hospital, a POW holding unit and an Allied POW recovery and care unit. Probably almost a mini city at some time, most troop stuff was tents or makeshift buildings and the place was covered with telegraph poles and wires and there were a few large platforms that had water tanks on them here and there.

Anyway a small contribution.

Thanks BendyFlyer,

I have all those pics except the last two. Any contribution helps. I believe in information.

Morotai was like a small city. One figure I saw was 67,000 personnel. The invasion of Borneo by the Australians was staged there. The surrender of the 2nd Imperial Japanese army happened there. And concerning POWs, yes I saw pics of repatriated Australians and pics of the Australian war cemetery all courtesy of the AWM. Fabulous site. Japanese war crime trials were held there also I believe.

Interesting note concerning Japanese fanaticism ( if you will permit me to call it that): The last Japanese holdout from the war, Private Teruo Nakamura (Amis: Attun Palalin), was discovered by the Indonesian Air Force on Morotai, and surrendered to a search patrol on December 18, 1974. (Wikipedia).

Interesting place that Morotai.

Joe

 

[jmfabio]

Imagine getting anonymous letters sent to you from Australia in the UK with a white feather in it after a night over Germany in a Lancaster.

Anyhow sorry to distract from this thread. Some places are more than significant I guess and Morotai is one of them. Keep up the good work. I am sure diagrams of the area exist but they will be in paper form either in RAAF unit records or the AWM.

BendyFlyer, It is no distraction.

I can't imagine the impact of the Bomber Campaign on those that flew it. No cowards there. My uncle was a command pilot and flew daylight B-17 with 303rd BG out of Molesworth England. I flew once in a B-17 to help me connect, I guess you would say, with his experience. It was a just a plane ride for me. Still can't imagine the terror all aircrew felt.

I have had missiles shot at me and I have been under gas attack and I still can't imagine.

Regards,

Joe