36TH FIGHTER SQUADRON
8TH FIGHTER GROUP
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII
The 36th Fighter Squadron of the 8th Fighter Group, USAAC anchored off Brisbane on 5 March 1942 and the unit started to disembark in Brisbane early on 6 March 1942 with the rest of the 8th Fighter Group. They had sailed to Australia on an old cattle boat called "Maui", leaving San Francisco on 31 January 1942. 2,200 men were crammed on board the Maui. There were two Signal Warning Companies, an Infantry unit, the ground echelon of a Bombardment Squadron and the rank and file of the Eighth Fighter Group.
The 36th Fighter Squadron men were taken to Camp Ascot in Ford trucks. They stayed at Camp Ascot for 7 days.
The 8th Fighter Group were equipped with P-39's assembled at Eagle Farm airport. These P-39's assembled at Eagle Farm were originally intended to go to the Philippines but the convoy was diverted to Brisbane. The 35th Fighter Group had earlier been equipped with P-39's assembled at Eagle Farm.
The men of the 36th Fighter Squadron were transported 60 miles inland to the RAAF Training School at Lowood airfield on 13 March 1942. The following entry is from the History of the 36th Fighter Squadron:-
"The camp was sprawled out in an open field, widely dispersed, and a thirty minute ride from the town, which offered one cafe, three pubs and two street lights as a relaxation after the heat of the field. The flies, the mosquitoes and the terrific heat of Lowood's winter and fall, the buzzing of the Tiger Moths as the RAAF cub pilots maneuvered in their first turns and landings, the right angled dispersal of the ships over the rolling field, - guard after dusk, and the lights winking back in the hills so consistently that one began to believe there might be body to the rumours of Fifth Column Activity on the district, a mysterious plane, without lights, coming over the field early in the morning, circling and heading back to the coast, - all this was the 36th for three weeks, as the pilots and the men worked against the day they would first go up against the enemy."
Two transport aircraft arrived one morning and took off again with the advance echelon headed for Townsville in north Queensland. The Airacobras took off for Townsville that morning and the ground echelon, comprising the main body of the Squadron, went to Townsville by train, a journey of 42 hours. They arrived at Antil Plains located about 15 miles south of Townsville on Easter Saturday 4 April 1942. There were two airfields at Antil Plains.
Drinking water for the camp was trucked in from the edge of Townsville. They used a small creek at the edge of the camp for bathing until it went dry. "Grayish-brown, crusty anthills rose by the hundreds out of the parched ground, often to heights of three and four feet or more, and in some paces they dotted the aisles of the dust-green forest so thickly as to give the effect of sparsely cobbled streets."
The 33rd Bomb Squadron equipped with B-26 Marauders was based in another camp on the other side of the runway. They would do bombing raids to New Guinea from Antil Plains. Their aircraft "would return with bullet and cannon holes and shrapnel scars as mute evidence that they had met the enemy. One day a flight of our P-39s went up to Seven-mile on a mission along with the bombers. Lts. Meng, Bevlock, Harriger, Taylor, Falletta and Schwimmer made the flight, and came back talking of things new to us, - but soon to be all too familiar."
On Sunday 26 April 1942, the first section of the Advance Detail of sixty-odd men flew to Port Moresby in two transport aircraft. A second group left 24 hours later. The second unit of the Air Echelon landed at Seven Mile Airfield at 6pm on 27 April 1942. The transport aircraft taxied down the runway and stopped 50 yards from the tail of a burned B-17 Flying Fortress. Further along they could see two wrecked P-40s lying in the tall grass at the edge of the airfield. They were met by some Australians and the 36th Fighter Squadron men who had arrived the previous day. The latter asked the new arrivals "When will the Cobras be here?"
On 7 May 1942 at 5:30 pm, the ship "Tarooma" docked in Port Moresby, after a three day journey from Townsville. On board were the 35th Fighter Squadron and the 36th Fighter Squadron. It was too late to travel to Seven Mile Airfield, so the men slept on teh floors of the hotels.
The 36th Fighter Squadron later returned to Townsville area on 30 June 1942 for various rest and re-equipment tasks.
The History of the 36th Fighter Squadron shows that ground elements of the 36th Fighter Squadron arrived back in Townsville on the ship Tasman on 30 June 1942. They boarded a train and were taken to Antil Plains airfield. They boarded trucks and were taken to the camp formerly occupied by the 40th Squadron. They were met by the pilots and the men who had returned from Port Moresby by air transport and the men who had been on duty at Horn Island since 1 April 1942. The 36th then moved to Ross River airfield, arriving there on 2 August 1942 where they used the new runway that was nearing completion on the edge of Townsville..
They moved to Milne Bay in New Guinea on 18 September 1942.
Then on 22 February 1943 they moved to Mareeba airfield in north Queensland and moved to Port Moresby in New Guinea on 22 May 1943.
Officers of the 36th Fighter Squadron
Armament Department, 36th Fighter
Squadron
John R. Watts is 2nd from left in front row
While at Gurney Field, at Milne Bay Kenneth Meriam of the 49th Service Squadron took the photo in Feb 43 of a memorial to Tojo, the Mascot for the 36th Fighter Squadron. The memorial signs reads:- "Here Lies Tojo April 20 - Oct 3 1942 AD / Killed in Action." Across the top of the grave, and in front of the vertical post the sign is on, appears to be five cartridge cases pushed open end down into the dirt. Apparently the dog was killed by strafing.
Photo:- Kenneth Meriam via Jeffery
Meriam
Grave of Tojo, the 36th Fighter Squadron mascot
which was killed at Gurney Field on 3 October 19 42.
Photo:- Kenneth Meriam via Jeffery
Meriam
Grave of Tojo, the 36th Fighter Squadron mascot
which was killed at Gurney Field 3 October 19 42.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank Bruce Graham for his assistance with this home page.
I'd like to thank James R. Watts, Lt Col, USAF, for sending the above two photographs. His late father, Lt Col John R. Watts, was an armament officer in the 36th Fighter Squadron.
Can anyone help me with more information?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
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This page first produced 5 July 1998
This page last updated 13 July 2021
