Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Harold Stanley Goodchild was born in Leederville January 1925 to Stanley and Ivy Goodchild of Mukinbudin, Western Australia. Harold was the middle child with an older and younger sister. In August 1928 Harold’s mother died, she was only 25 years of age.

Harold enlisted on 23rd January 1943 with the Royal Australian Air force (RAAF) at the Number 4 Recruiting Centre Perth. He was appointed an armourer, assigned to a training school. In March 1944 he attended Air Gunnery School for flying boat crew in West Sale, Victoria. His report card was marked as “above average”. Following this training he was re mustered to “Aircrew” placed on the reserve list. By July 1944 he was assigned to 43rd Squadron RAAF based in Darwin. The squadron was equipped with Catalina flying boats, known as “The Black Cats”. These fly boats flew countless missions during World War 2 conducting mine laying, bombing, reconnaissance and rescue operations. Harold was assigned to Catalina A24-64 nicked named “The Dabster” by its crew. Dabster means “the best”.

The Dabster had just returned from a mine laying operation at Morotai, Philippines when it was assigned another operation to mine the Balabac Strait and the Mouth of Manila Bay, Philippines. The operation was to commence on the night of the 14th December 1944 with the operation to disrupt Japanese Naval Forces from attacking the allied forces who were landing on the island of Mindoro the following day.

Twenty-four “Black Cats” took off from Darwin to participate in the operation. The target area was known to be well defended by the Japanese, with the exact number of artillery emplacements unknown. The Japanese had established an anti-aircraft gun emplacement to the entrance of Manila Bay which was unknown to the Black Cat crews. This was a target area for Black Cat Catalina A24-64 that Harold was assigned as an air gunner.

A24-64 never returned from their mission, vanished without trace with all the crew listed as “missing in action”. At the completion of the mission it was reported by other Black Cat crews that an explosion had been observed in the approximate position of the target area, which may indicate the Dabster had been hit by anti-aircraft fire. It was concluded that there was no likelihood of recovering the Dabster or the crew’s bodies, it was probable that the Dabster with its crew were lost at sea. The only son of Stan Goodchild was officially recorded as missing in action.

It was in 1947 that Harold’s father built the memorial entrance for Harold to the Goodchild wheat farm, north of Mukinbudin. The entrance is constructed of brick with Stan installing electric lights on each pillar of the gateway. It is said that Stan had placed the lights to the entrance of the farm to act as beacon to guide Harold home. A sign of a very heart broken father. Harold was only 19 years of age.

It has now come to light that in March 2019 personnel from the RAAF conducted an inspection of a World War 2 crash site south east of Cape Calavite on Mindoro Island. This area was in the Dabsters assigned target area. Several artefacts at the location came to light in 2014, consisting a small metal tube with the aircraft’s manufacturers logo, a brass crown identified as RAAF cap badge and .303 ammunition. Recent visits and subsequent items have been located unique to the Catalina flying boats, Black Cats that were flown by Australian crews. A recovery mission has been planned to visit the crash site in 2020 to attempt to confirm if the crash site is the Dabster with its missing crew.