About This Unit
RAAF Nowra – A Brief History with mention of 107 Squadron RAAF and No. 2 RAAF Medical Rehabilitation Unit
Nowra’s Royal Australian Navy Air Station, HMAS Albatross, has been the home of the Fleet Air Arm since 1948. Yet, HMAS Albatross commenced its service with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and it was here during the Second World War that highly secret and demanding training was carried out by servicemen and women of the RAAF (WAAAF) and later the Royal Navy.
The airfield is eight kilometres south of Nowra and was planned by RAAF as one of a “chain” of bases along the east coast. With the Second World War, urgent work developed the airfield into an operational but unmanned base. RAAF commenced use of the airfield on 21 July 1941. On 7 May 1942, RAAF Nowra was manned, and one Reconnaissance and one Torpedo Bomber squadron accommodated. The first RAAF Commanding Officer of the base was Group Captain John Lerew, who had performed distinguished service as the defender of Rabual. He is remembered for his use of the Gladiator’s phrase “We who are about to die salute you” when advising his headquarters of his likely success against the Japanese invaders.
The Torpedo Bomber Squadron was amongst the first operational units equipped with the recently introduced-to-service and Australian-produced Bristol Beaufort torpedo bomber. Training of crews for torpedo attack was Nowra’s primary role. The United States Army Air Corps (USAAC) had also contributed substantial resources to establish torpedo training at RAAF Nowra and were the first to undergo the training provided with their B-36Martin Marauder aircraft. Training of US crews ceased at Nowra after the first course. But the USN presence as technical managers of the Mk 13 torpedo continued until RAAF and RN use of the weapon ceased in 1944.
The RAAF’s Beaufort aircraft was a British design built in Australia by the Department of Aircraft Production (DAP). The Beaufort was designed to carry the British MK XII torpedo, but in 1942 Britain could not provide any torpedoes to Australia due to their own requirements. At this threatening time in the war, the urgent requirement for torpedoes was eventually met by an allocation of torpedoes from United States authorities (after initial refusal).
The US torpedo was the Mark 13, which did not fit in the Beaufort’s bomb bay. So critical carriage and release parameters for the unique USN torpedo and DAP Beaufort combination were developed at Nowra. Much of RAAF’s work at Nowra was towards improving the performance of this initially unreliable weapon, often while training was conducted.
RAAF Nowra was the only RAAF base providing a torpedo attack capability to the Allied war effort in the Pacific. At Nowra torpedoes were serviced and maintained to provide for ongoing airborne training and also for deployed torpedo support units. RAAF Nowra was only a brief flight away from the Torpedo Dropping Range in Jervis Bay and the bombing range on the Beecroft Peninsula. 3 recovery boats with divers and a fleet of over 30 vehicles supported the training.
Torpedo training commenced on 9 July 1942 and was assumed by the Base Torpedo Unit (BTU) from 7 September 1942 and later No. 6 Operational Training Unit (No. 6 OTU). Attacks were conducted on passing ships (by prior arrangement) and the HMAS Burra-bra, a converted Sydney ferry, using practice torpedoes (i.e. without explosives). And HMS Lewes, an ex-USN destroyer, was also a target ship. The practice of the accurate delivery of air-launched torpedoes was intense and hazardous. Training during day and night was as realistic as practicable, with aircraft often flying in close formation and at very low altitudes. One instructor recounted, "The attacks were as spectacular as they were dangerous. We flew so low that the slipstreams threw up great rooster tails of water behind us." Not unexpectedly, inexperienced crew and the intensive nature of the training led to numerous accidents, causing the deaths of many crew.” 60 RAAF Nowra and Royal Navy personnel were killed during the war while operating from or with the base. 35 of these are interred in Nowra’s War Cemetery.
At its busiest period, RAAF Nowra based 36 aircraft. Some 1500 personnel worked on the base, including approximately 100 WAAAF members. The base accommodated RAAF 7 and 100 Squadrons’ Beauforts and RAAF 73 Squadron’s Avro Ansons (for coastal anti-submarine warfare patrols). During the initial weeks of training in mid-1942, the RAAF’s No. 18 Netherlands East Indies Squadron, flying Mitchell B-25 aircraft, and the USAAC’s B-26 aircraft were operated.
Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) coastal patrols were considered vital. Some 20 ships and over 200 mariners were lost off the NSW coast due to submarine activity during WW2. After the closure of RAAF Nowra, this task was assumed by RAAF 107 Squadron operating Vought Kingfisher floatplanes from St Georges Basin. 107 Squadron conducted anti-submarine coastal patrols from St Georges Basin between 1JUL44 and 29AUG45. During that time two of the unit’s number were killed as a result of ground accidents.
To provide technical training of RAAF personnel, approximately 30 USN technical personnel were based at RAAF Nowra for the duration of the weapon’s use by RAAF. RAAF Nowra initially also hosted USAAC’s 22nd Bombardment Group (BG). The 22nd’s B26 was a most demanding aircraft to fly from Nowra’s then short and unsealed runways. On 1 June 1942, BG B26 was the first aircraft to crash at RAAF Nowra. Fortunately, the crew survived, although one member was severely burned.
In late 1943 the RAAF discontinued the operational use of the Beaufort in the torpedo attack role, and the requirement for torpedo training at RAAF Nowra reduced accordingly and by September 1944 had ceased. However, intensive trials of the Australian-produced torpedo continued at BTU and increasingly involved the RAN Torpedo Establishment. The local production of an effective torpedo was considered an outstanding technical achievement by Australian industry.
In late 1944 the RAAF Nowra base was occupied by the Royal Navy (RN) and renamed HMS Nabbington. The airfield and the satellite airfield at Jervis Bay (named HMS Nabswick) functioned as ashore support bases for RN Fleet Air Arm operations in the Pacific with the British Pacific Fleet. The BTU continued its trials role and also supported the RN’s Grumman Avenger aircraft, which was armed with the US Mark 13 torpedo. The RN departed Nowra on 15 March 1946. On 15 Dec 1947 the RAAF handed over the airfield to the RAN, and in August 1948 the base was commissioned as HMAS Albatross.
No. 2 RAAF Medical Rehabilitation Unit operated at today’s HMAS Creswell from 1MAR44 to 31JUL46, providing treatment for injured RAAF personnel, and from OCT45, the rehabilitation of POWs. Some RAAF and RN from the adjacent JB airfield were also accommodated.
Today, little evidence remains of the RAAF’s presence around the airfield of HMAS Albatross, although a number of concrete ordnance bunkers associated with the BTU are hidden in the bush. While HMAS Albatross remains integral to the RAN’s continuing service to Australia, the RAAF’s historically most significant legacy with Nowra is largely unremembered.