Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Frank Gubbins, DFC, Pilot Officer 460 Squadron RAAF

(this extract from the Obuituary published in the Adelaide Advertiser, 21 May 2016)

Born to Herbert and Myrtle in Maylands, a suburb of Adelaide, on 1 October 1924, Frank Gubbins grew up in Norwood and Prospect, attending Nailsworth Primary and later gaining a bursary to Adelaide Boys High School. With his family living in poverty,  he left school to train as a junior telephone mechanic with the Postmaster General's Department.  

War had broken out at which time Frank was not yet 15.  As soon as he turned 18 in 1942, he enlisted in the RAAF.  He trained as a navigator bomb-aimer and after elementary training, he went to the United Kingdom via New York where he spent Christmas 1943.  In the UK he completed training and 'crewed up' with a mainly Australian crew and proceeded through the final stages of training.  At one point their Wellington aircraft crashed after a brake failure on landing.

They were assigned to 460 Squadron, flying Lancaster heavy bomberrs, in June 1944.  Their primary aircraft was J for Jig.  The crew comprised Bill Olley the pilot from Quirindi NSW, F/Lt Fred Maynard, the Navigator; F/Sgt Allan Hogan, the Wireless Operator; F/Sgt Frank Gubbins, the Bomb Aimer; F/Sgt Vic Porrill, Rear Gunner; F/Sgt Mac Mckane, Mid-Upper Gunner (all RAAF); and the only 'foreigner' F/Sgt Ronnie Sharpe, the Flight Engineer from Swallow, Hertfordshire.

They went on to fly 30 missions; a raid on Cologne in October 1944 resulted in heavy flak damage and Frank's bomb aimers cupola at the bottom of the nose of the aircraft was samshed and Frank's head grazed.  In November, they had a very near mioss when an engine failed on take off with a full fuel and bomb load.  There was no 'drill' for this occurrence, as no one had successfully landed a Lancaster in this condition. Bill Olley managed to ease the aircraft to sufficient height to complete a half-circuit before landing much to the relief of everyone.  They leapt out of J for Jig and into H for Harry and flew the mission.  Both Bill Olley and Frank Gubbins were awarded the DFC, and Bill Olley earned a coveted 'Green Entry' in his log book for exceptional courage and devotion duty in saving the aircraft and the crew with excpetional flying skills.

Frank later  said it was only in his later years that that he learned of the horrific loss rate of Bomber Command crews. 

After their tour was complete and some leave, they were not re-rostered as the war was almost at an end.

After returning to Australia, he rejoined the PMGand completed his engineering degree in telecommunications in time to play a leadingrole in the rapid expanision of telephone services throughout the nation.  He eventually became Chief Engineer of SA / NT with a staff of 2,400.  He also provided telecommunications and remote monitoring for the Woomera and Maralinga weapon ranges.

Under the Colombo Plan he spent four years in Sumatra 1972-76 establishing telecommunications.

Frank was a talented sportsman playing A Grade football for Walkerville when he met his future wife Betty.  They wed in 1950, the start of a 55 year union. They had three children,  Anne Richard and Bill.  Tragically Bill died at age 31.  Betty passed away in 2005, aged 80.  In 2011, Frank married Dawn O'Toole and the two travelled the world.

In the 1970s' like many of their colleagues, the J for Jog crew began to search each other out and held a reunion.  Over the following years one by one, the men began to pass away.  When he was the only one left, Frank who had never taken part in an Anzac Day Parade decided he should march to honour the memory of his colleagues.  Frank like the surviving personnel who had fought in and overr France in WW2, was awarded the Legion d'Honeur in 2014.

Retired in 1983 as Chief Engineer of SA/NT Telecom Australia