Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Denham was the son of James Hood HARDIE & Mary Ivy Victoria JOHNSON and was born on the 27th of September 1917 in Warrnambool, VIC.

He was the youngest child born into the family of 3 children.

His parents were married on the 21st of April 1909 in the Presbyterian Church, Richmond, VIC.

His mother was the daughter of Benjamin Jonathan JOHNSON & Emily Agnes Burgess HODGSON and was born on the 4th of July 1882 in Bairnsdale, VIC.

His father was the son of Rev. Andrew HARDIE & Eliza Denham HOOD and was born on the 29th of June 1879 in Richmond, VIC.

By 1919 they family were living at 20 Canterbury Road, Warrnambool and his father was a manager of the Australian Mutual Provident Society.

1928 the family were transferred to Bendigo.

Denham was educated at Bendigo High School and was described by a friend as a “brilliant student”.

After leaving school Denham commenced his career as a bank clerk.

In September 1940 Denham announced his engagement to Miss Judith BRONSDON.

Denham married Judith Lesley BRONSDON before June 1941 in VIC.

Judith was the daughter of Charles William BRONSDON & Blanche Alice HOPKINS and was born on the 3rd of September 1920 in Wallingford, Berkshire, England.

When Denham & Judith married they lived at 76 Rowan Street, Bendigo.

At the age of 24, Denham enlisted into the RAAF on the 22nd of June 1941 in Sydney and was allotted the service number 408834.

Denham was trained in Canada as a part of the EATS (Empire Air Training Scheme).

He was then transferred to No. 86 Squadron RAF as a navigator and assigned to a Liberator Crew, piloted by another Australian, Bruce Furze GASTON DFC_406646.

February in the UK is generally cold and bleak and in 1943 it was no exception. Bruce was with 86 Squadron RAF flying VLR (Very Long Range) 4 engine Liberator aircraft on Coastal Command anti submarine operations over the Bay of Biscay and the North Atlantic.

For the long flights, two extra 1000 gallon fuel tanks were fitted in half the bomb bay to enable the Liberator to cover the mid Atlantic (commonly known as the Atlantic Gap). It was an area of ocean that previously had been out of range to aircraft based in Northern Ireland or Iceland, and where German U-Boats considered themselves safe from allied air attacks.

The VLR Liberator flights could span up to 20 hours away from base and during that time weather conditions change considerably and generally for the worse.

It was a grey, cold, bleak, wet February day in 1943 when his crew was scheduled to "take off" at 0400 hours to cover a convoy of 30 merchant ships with a Royal Navy escort en route from UK to Africa. They were to meet the convoy at dawn and stay with it in the area of the outer Bay of Biscay until midday.

Aircraft of that period were not pressurised, air-conditioned or soundproofed so they were dressed in their winter woollies with wool lined high boots and leather jackets. At midday they were looking forward to being relieved by another aircraft, but instead received a radio message from Group control that weather conditions in the whole of the UK had deteriorated to such a degree that no airfields were open for landing, and instead of returning to Ireland they were to proceed to RAF Base Gilbraltar.

This diversion would have sounded good as the crew missed the Australian hot weather, but to some of the English crew, with wives waiting at home, and single ones with girl friends and appointments, it was not greeted with such enthusiasm.

Luckily for the crew, Denham carried charts of Gibraltar as well as Iceland and Newfoundland, as all three areas were possible diversion airfields depending upon the aircraft position in the Atlantic.

Denham instructed F/O GASTON to head East, strike the coast of Portugal, turn right, go south and then follow the southern coast of Spain around and look for a big rock. F/O GASTON did this and they viewed the Spanish countryside as they flew about 2000 feet, just outside territorial space.

Spain and Portugal were neutral and allied aircraft were not supposed to fly over such areas at the time.

Apart from Debham and Bruce, the rest of the crew were from England, Canada, Scotland and Northern Ireland. None of the UK members had been outside their country before and they were amazed at the dry looking land of southern Spain and wondered how people could live in such areas.

For the two Australians it looked like home, but was far removed from the small very green fields of the UK that they had been flying over for the past 18 months. Eventually they found Gibraltar, but it was only now that their troubles began rather than ended.

Firstly Gibraltar is a small isthmus with a huge solid 13% foot high rock stuck out into the Mediterranean. The landing strip was built at right angles to, and across, the main (and only) road linking Gibraltar to La Linea in Spain. Moreover, this one runway extended out into the sea similar to a jetty or rock groyne. In fact it was still being built to take the larger four engine aircraft such as theirs.

Another complication was that you must fly a circuit around the rock as to do otherwise would have taken them over Spanish territory which was not permitted, as often the Spanish were trigger happy. Furthermore, the road crossing the runway appeared to be in full use with donkey carts, bicycles and trucks meandering across the middle of the landing strip. Yet another problem was that the wind socks at each end of the runway pointed towards one another as the wind swept around each side of the Rock.

By radio contact they were told to fly first along and over the runway at 1000 feet to give a warning, then to make a circuit and land. Disappearing around the Rock they hoped road gates would stop the traffic before they made their final approach. All was OK as the runway appeared and after landing they were directed to a parking bay. The ground that met them were dressed in tropical khaki shorts and little else, so you can imagine how ridiculous they must have looked climbing out of their aircraft in glorious sunshine dressed in our long Arctic woollen and leather wear.

Fortunately they had two days billeted in Gibraltar and were able to borrow appropriate clothes, have a swim and taste some night life and shop for goods which were not available in England.

As RAAF officers, Denham & Bruce were able to withdraw some pay from the base, but unfortunately the RAF crew members were not so lucky.

The eight RAF sergeant crew members borrowed as much money as Bruce GASTON could obtain and at that stage Bruce was unaware of the reason, but to his dismay he found out 3 days later.

Returning from Gibraltar they were briefed to proceed to a search and patrol area in the Bay of Biscay and then return to their base in Northern Ireland. All 10 aboard for a return journey, after a really good change and holiday from a UK winter and wartime restrictions. Throttles were opened for take off speed down the runway, but for some strange reason the plane would not lift off as usual and it was necessary to hurriedly adjust trim, flaps, boost, etc. To complicate things further the wind had changed within the previous half hour and a Royal Navy destroyer had swung on its moorings so that its mast appeared sticking up at the end of the runway. They missed the Navy, gained a little height and set a westerly course.

It was only then all was revealed to Denham and Bruce by the RAF crew. Apparently they had found that Amontillado and Tio Pepe sherry, which was expensive and almost unobtainable in the UK, was comparatively cheap and plentiful in the shops in Gibraltar. Hence the borrowing of money from Bruce was to purchase dozens of bottles of sherry for distribution and favours back in UK. In order to hide the booty from RAF guards, customs, etc, the crewmen had removed their pack type parachutes from the canvas outer bags and then refilled each bag with two dozen bottles of sherry. These bags had then been hidden and stacked down at the rear of the aircraft and that weight resulted in the strange tail-down attitude experienced during take off.

The story does not end here as then Bruce had strict instructions from the crew not to fly back above 2000 feet as the plane was not pressurised and the corks would pop out due to reduced air pressure.

Not only would the sherry be lost, but so too would Bruce’s chances of being repaid the borrowed money. The price of the sherry was about 4/ - a bottle in Gibraltar and in the UK it was worth ten times that amount, when available.  All was well until we started our operational area search for a submarine in the Bay of Biscay.

The radar operator reported a contact on the screen about 20 miles 30 degrees starboard so they altered course and, flying at about 1000 feet, headed towards the then unknown object. All eyes were peering ahead hopeful of finding a U-Boat on the surface. Preparations were made to drop depth charges. On closing, however, in a surface mist they found the cause of the contact was a small ship belching smoke and big letters on her sides spelt EIRE, a neutral ship not to be attacked.

They did a circuit and the crew relaxed, disappointed. The calm, however, did not last long as an excited voice over the aircraft intercom reported two German JU88 fighters were circling above and now coming down to attack them. No doubt the neutral ship below had attracted other large slow aircraft such as theirs and the German fighters only had to circle high above, watch for RAF aircraft to "home in" on the neutral ship and then swoop down for the kill.

Their first radio operator, "Dusty" Miller from Cumberland, hurriedly sent out a coded message to HQ advising them that they were being attacked. If they had dived down to sea level they would have gained extra speed, but also would have become a splash target for the fighters. Instead they turned and flew towards them on each attack to double the closing rate and give themselves more room to manoeuvre.

F/O Bruce GASTON commented that it was amazing that whereas normally the mixed broad accents of the Scot, Yorkshire, Lancashire, Canadian and Australian crew were hard to decipher, at this time the talk on the aircraft intercom positioning the attacking aircraft was clear and understood by all.

As a result, with some luck, plus no doubt the incentive of the load of sherry and with intelligent instruction from the crew, they were, after about 30 minutes, able to escape the attacking aircraft and take cover in some cloud at about 3000 feet and 50 miles further out to sea. One fighter had been damaged by their air gunners in forward and rear turrets and, also, the German fighter aircraft could not afford to go too far out from the coast because of their limited range.

They had used extra fuel with manoeuvring at full revs so, after their panic subsided, the engineer was asked to transfer the extra fuel from the bomb bay tanks to the wing tanks. Now they were well out in the Atlantic and a shaking engineer said, "I have something serious to report." "Not another crisis," they thought, but sure enough it was.

Being a special plane with two 1000 gallon extra fuel tanks in the forward bomb bay, the ground crew at Gibraltar (not having serviced that type of long range aircraft before) had not fuelled those extra tanks. The engineer crewman, who should also have checked before leaving Gibraltar that they were filled, was so preoccupied with his booze booty that he failed to do so.

Denham did some very quick calculations and showed if they set a direct course for the south coast of England they could perhaps just make land with the fuel left. With fingers crossed they did make it to Cornwall where they took on enough fuel to return to their base in Northern Ireland.

They became a very popular crew back on the Squadron with sherry, oranges and bananas (and silk stockings for favoured WAAF’s). Not one bottle was hit or broken during their encounter with the JU88’s.

Bruce GASTON was paid back his loaned money by all but one member, whom he caught up with some 25 years later and the loan repaid.

On the 15th of May 1943 in their VLR (Very Long Range) Liberator, they were patrolling the Bay of Biscay looking for German submarines.

They spotted a submarine and the attack was made as it dived in position 47°45' North and 26°57' West.

After about 5 minutes a large oil slick appeared on the surface of the sea but no other indication of the fate of the U Boat was evident. On returning to base, details were given to the intelligence officer and facts duly related to RAF and RN Command Headquarters. The first official assessment was "possible damage". A week later further intelligence reports from others classed it as "probably sunk" as no further radio transmissions had been picked up from that particular submarine.

It was surprising for the crew to read a book 30 years after this attack and to be given details not only of the positive sinking of U266, but the Captain's name and his war history. From German held records it was established that U266 was a Type VII C submarine built in 1942. The Commander was Rolf von Jessen and the crew numbered 44. Kapitanleutnant von Jessen had previously served on an auxiliary cruiser which had sunk eight British merchant ships. Submarine U266 was based at St Nazaire and on its first cruise sank the 4000 ton Greek steamer Polyktor. On this operation, it had already torpedoed three of 13 ships sunk from Convoy ONS5 sailing between Halifax and Liverpool.

It was satisfying for the crew to learn in the long term that the sinking was more than justified due to the damage that U266 had caused merchant ships and cost the many lives of men serving under the British flag.

Whilst Denham was overseas his brother; Norman Clyde, enlisted into the RAAF on the 15th of June 1943 and was allotted the service number 142693.

Denham returned to Australia and was discharged on the 9th of July 1945

In 1949 they lived at 72 Union Street, Malvern and Denham had returned to his career in the bank.

By 1954 they had moved to 129 Canterbury Road, Camberwell North and they remained here until the late 1970’s when they moved to 94 Lake Road, Blackburn.

Denham died on the 2nd of August 2002 in Mont Albert, VIC, aged 84. He was cremated and interred in the Fawkner Memorial Park

They had 3 daughters