Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

"WHO'S WHO AT LAVERTON. From Camels to Aeroplanes

Because a pal of his in the Flying Corps enjoyed the daily morning luxury of a shower bath from an inverted kerosene tin and because he had a tent, and a table, and a lamp, and a field cot. Garfield Finlay transferred his allegiance from camels to aeroplanes. That was in the days of the last war and Finlay is back now in uniform as Flying-Officer Finlay, D.F.C., adjutant of the training depot at Laverton. Between the two wars he has been "in" advertising, and for 10 years he was in the United States. Finlay went away at the beginning of the last war with the 12th Light Horse, and served with the 7th Light Horse on Gallipoli. He was regimental sergeant-major at 21, and was among the last 25 to leave Gallipoli. He obtained his commission, and it was when he was in the machine-gun section of the Camel Corps that he visited his friend in the Flying Corps and came under the spell of the inverted kerosene tin shower-bath. When applications were invited for observers for Palestine, Finlay applied and was accepted. "Dicky" 'Williams was in charge, and we used DE2E's, which were flat out at 70 miles an hour." Flying-Officer Finlay says. "There was one machine-gun, and the observer stood up to use it. They could have shot us down as they wished, but the German is an overrated soldier, and even when they had an advantage of 20 miles an hour over us, and had front machine-guns, they rarely willingly interfered with us."

There were many highlights in Finlay's career. He was wounded twice on one patrol. Another time he and Lieutenant A. R. Brown attempted to rescue two airmen who had been shot down, but they could not get their machine through the heavy anti-aircraft fire. He figured again in a clash with six Albatross scouts.With Brown as pilot, Finlay located a well-camouflaged cavalry camp at Mukhalid. They fired on the camp and returned in the afternoon with another machine. They broke the horse lines into confusion, and then flew up and down the beach, where several hundred men and horses were bathing. Despite fire from the cliffs, the two planes raked the beach and the cliffs' where the men had taken refuge. Together they fired 2,350 rounds, and one machine came home with 27 bullet holes in it.

A Great Victory

It was this same Brown-Flnlay combination, with an accompanying plane, that began the rout of a huge force of Turkish troops late in September, 1918. Allenby's army was steadily driving the Turks northward, and one dawn, when Brown, Finlay, Nunan, and Conrick were on patrol, they found the Balata-Ferweh-Shibleh-Jordan road crowded with enemy transports for eight or nine miles. The road was an old Roman highway through, the mountains, with a precipice on one side and almost impenetrable hills on the other. Brown sent a radio message back to the aerodrome for help, and the two planes closed both ends of the road by bombing the rear and the leading transports. There was no escape for those in the middle. They had to wait, powerless, while the two planes returned with squadrons of bombers. All day the bombers and machine-gunners were at work. One squadron alone made six heavy bombing raids. Forty-four thousand rounds of machine-gun ammunition were fired. The road became a shambles, and in one day the huge force of enemy troops was practically wiped out. Nearly 90 guns, 50 motor-lorries, half a dozen cars, 75 carts, and more than 800 four-wheeled wagons, as well as water-carts and field kitchens, were found on the road when ground parties reached it later." - from The Argus 24 Feb 1940 (nla.gov.au)