Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

R.A.A.F. Release No. 682                           July 20, 1944 

DUKE HEARS HOW DAMAGED LANCASTER BOMBED NAZI OIL PLANT

Two of the Australian bomber men the Duke of Gloucester (Governor General Designate of Australia) met when he shook hands with nearly 250 of them at an English airfield this afternoon were former schoolboy friends from Thursday Island who today fly together in Lancaster "A for Aussie".

The Duke heard how they brought "A for Aussie" back from the attack on the Scholven-Buer synthetic oil plant in the small hours yesterday morning with two holes in two of the elevators big enough to crawl through and numerous other smaller cannon and flak holes, the result of hits by A.A. guns and an enemy fighter.

The two men from Torres Strait are Flying Officer Harry Wills (26) who used to trade for his father among the islands in civilian days, who pilots "A for Aussie"; and his mid-upper gunner, Flight Sergeant Noel Carseldine (19) whose father, now an inspector at Townsville, Queensland, was a police sergeant on Thursday Island. Until they came to the veteran Australian squadron with which they now fly, Mills and Carseldine had not met for 11 years.

On the run into the target they were coned by searchlights and Mills was just beginning to take evasive action when a burst of flak between the inner port motor and the fuselage and another burst in the tail plane threw the Lancaster upside down and sent it hurtling 10,000 feet toward the ground.

"That," said Mills this afternoon, "probably saved us, because it took us out of the searchlights."

Mills straightened the aircraft, and then, although the rest of the bomber stream was above, and heavy bombs must have been raining down all round "A for Aussie," went in over the target again and dropped his bonds.

Over the Dutch coast, homeward bound, while Mills fought with the sluggish damaged controls, suddenly there was a burst of cannon fire from astern. An enemy fighter had the Lancaster silhouetted against the sky and was pouring cannon fire into the already damaged tail unit.

Wills's gunners replied, and saw their tracer bullets hitting the twin-engined fighter, which looked like a Ju.88.

"The tail gunner yelled, 'Dive!', and I corkscrewed to port. The fighter broke away upwards, and we lost him," said Mills. The man from Thursday Island landed a badly yawing Lancaster at home base, full of praise for his crew's calm and workmanlike behaviour throughout the ordeal.

Mills must be well remembered in Cairns and Townsville, with whose swimming clubs he often competed in championships during holidays from Thursday Island.