Brigadier General Donald Wilson

BRIGADIER GENERAL DONALD WILSON
CHIEF OF STAFF FOR GENERAL GEORGE C. KENNEY
IN AUSTRALIA DURING WWII

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, Donald Wilson was called back to Washington D.C. where he was told he would be assigned as Chief of Staff, 3rd Air Force under General Walter H. "Tony" Frank. They rounded up assets scattered throughout the south of the US and prepare to fly them to Africa, the Middle East and India. There were many problems with B-17 Flying Fortresses - everything was a rush order. Engineers were busy fixing problems. Two months later Wilson was ordered back to Washington D.C. again.

He was appointed as Assistant and Deputy to the Chief of Personnel in the War Department General Staff. His commanding officer was John Hilldring, “an aggressive fellow with an impressive voice.” He was there while the Womens Army Corps was formed, the decision to draft students “for the duration” was taken, Clark Gable was inducted and lists of officer candidates were compiled for General George C. Marshall. His new role had nothing to do with flying which disappointed him. Then Hilldring got an Infantry division, and Wilson was made a Brigadier General.

When Wilson heard that General Douglas MacArthur by then in Australia had said “I shall return” instead of “I will return”, he was convinced it was an invention of the press. The General would not have said “shall.”

President Quezon called on Wilson one day when he was out of his office. Presidential displeasure was noticeable; no little man should make a big man wait.

After three months Wilson ran into General “Hap” Arnold, Air Force chief, in a hallway. “George Kenney down in Australia wants a Chief of Staff – I think General Marshall might release you if you want to go. How do you feel about it?” Wilson was “only too glad to grasp this ray of sunshine.” He took a Commercial flight to Los Angeles then on to San Francisco's Hamilton Field, where he boarded an aircraft for Australia on the evening of 9 September 1942.

There were 4 or 5 officers and a lot of freight in the rear of the fuselage. They could stand or sit, if they could find a place. Someone found a bunk, and as Wilson was the senior officer he got the bunk. He used a parachute pack for a pillow and slept with his “Mae West” on. When he woke up they had arrived in Hawaii. When they disembarked, there were 23 men on the plane; the others had slept on boxes, or wherever. The flight tied the record for speed -- 10 hours and 15 minutes in an LB-30, (B-24 Liberator variant). The aircraft was serviced for a few hours and then they flew to Christmas Island, which was assumed to be beyond the reach of the Japanese. They stayed overnight there with “a minimum of comfort”.

Next day they had a “crossing the equator ceremony.” The captain was acting as King Neptune so Wilson got to fly the aircraft part of the leg into Nadi, Fiji. There they slept in huts; he bunked with Colonel “Bromo” Selzer. Wilson was shaving as they passed over the international date line; he began at noon on 12 September, and finished shaving at 12.30 on 13th. They landed at New Caledonia, where he met an old friend, Mill Harmon. They departed New Caledonia and landed at Archerfield Airfield on the south side of Brisbane in southern Queensland. He commented it had taken three weeks to get to France in WWI, and now only 5 days to get to Brisbane from Washington D.C.; only 3 from San Francisco.

Wilson's first day on the job in Brisbane was a Sunday; General George C. Kenney came into his office, threw a leg over a corner of Wilson’s desk and started talking about the war. As ever, he was sure of success. "All we had to do was get more planes and more crews, more ammunition and bombs from American factories, then fly them halfway around the world or bring them on carriers, and find enough ships to bring the men and their supplies, that’s all!"

Then General Douglas MacArthur walked in to Wilson's office – the only time he ever did. Wilson stood up, but Kenney remained perched on the desk. He introduced Wilson to MacArthur, but the General had something on his mind, and began pacing and talking for about 15 minutes. Wilson could no longer remember what MacArthur had talked about, but thought it was trivial, but delivered in such a deep, almost oratorical voice, so pontifical that it seemed profound at the time. He says he spent the rest of his time studying MacArthur – he came to admire the man, but when he tried to tell his friends back in Washington D.C. about him, “my friends would cling to their artificial knowledge and reject my first-hand observations.”

Wilson’s office, next to General Kenney's office, was in the northwest corner of the 4th floor of the AMP building, with windows on two sides and an expanse of about 14 x 25 feet. In one corner of this room a walk-in safe provided an excellent place for the storage of their cigarettes. Kenney smoked ‘Fatimas’ and Wilson was addicted to ‘Lucky Strikes’. Kenney received about 20,000 cigarettes each shipment and Wilson about 10,000.

In Kenney’s room, his large wall, opposite windows facing west, was filled with a large-scale map of the territory of their interest. A door led to an entry room where their female secretaries did their typing and filing and screened their visitors. Visitors used a hallway which avoided going through Kenney’s office.

Intelligence Section A-2 operated a War Room on the same floor. This A-2 Section combined both American and Australian assistants under the direction of Group Captain Hewitt RAAF and his principal helper, an American, Lt. Col. Benjamin Cain. In this room a realistic map representation of the combat zone occupied a floor area about 30 x 30 feet. On one side a gallery accommodated spectators, and on the opposite side there was a platform and several sliding display boards. This area was utilised by the officers presenting the situation. Models of soldiers, airplanes, and ships were placed and moved about the floor while the presentation was in progress. Auxiliary maps and chart were placed on the sliding boards for display as needed during the talk. Most every day at 1000 hours this briefing was given to sum up the happenings of the past 24 hours. Any important events were presented immediately to Kenney or Wilson at any time of day or night.

Two Australian women worked as secretaries for Air Force. They were both “cheerful, capable and accommodating.” Mrs. Beryl Stevenson was in charge. Wilson could not get on with the other woman and she was reassigned to Brig. Gen. Kenneth Walker in Townsville. She was replaced by a male stenographer, a pleasant and capable fellow named Wedeman. Then another woman was found. She was quite an addition to their office until Mrs. Stevenson convinced Kenney she should not be retained. This shift brought Wedeman back, until some of the boys, solicitous as to Wilson's needs, found a small young woman who was a junior officer in the Australian equivalent of the Womens Army Corps. She stayed on and took care of many of Wilson's needs until she became Mrs. Jackson by marrying an anxious young officer just back from the jungle fighting. The wedding was held in a little church at Southport. Wilson marched down the aisle, and gave away the bride and they held a reception at Wilson's beach house in nearby Surfers Paradise.

Wilson became good friends with locals John and Kate Kelly, the Netherwoods, Maitlands, and two or three other families. Joie Kelliher, a sister (nurse) in the Australian Army (not listed in the WWII Nominal Roll - perhaps she was Lieutenant Johanna Mary Keliher, QFX51707, AANS, AIF) and a special friend of the Kellys often rounded out the party as his companion. Her Irish wit, pleasant disposition and overall good companionship made his sojourn “out of the ordinary.” He found that Aussies drank rum, but Wilson stuck to beer. His party trick was to play “Pistol Packing Mama” by beating pots and pans with a couple of serving spoons.

Wilson had a single room with private bath in Lennons Hotel, with a back street exposure to the outdoors. He ate most of his meals there. Wilson lived there four or five months until an officer vacated quarters in a residential apartment building overlooking the city. His rooms were then at the rear of the building, overlooking workers’ dwellings. His apartment was partly furnished. No heat. Also had a Buick assigned to him with driver Sgt Andrew J. Wajts. Except in the very worst weather, Wilson walked to and from GHQ in the AMP building so Andy, the driver, had little to do. Andy did help furnish the apartment, did the food shopping and washed up after meals. He always had fresh flowers in the apartment!

A room allocation for Lennons Hotel in George Street, Brisbane from the Billeting Office dated 28 September 1942 showed the following entries for personnel with the surname Wilson:-

Walking out for lunch became an ordeal because everything was so crowded. He went to lunch one day with Lt. Col. Ben Cain and they were accosted by a large, black man calling excitedly, “Mister Ben, Mister Ben!” He had worked for the Cains back in Virginia before the war. This story contradicts the belief that African Americans were only allowed on the south side of the Brisbane River.

Wilson's driver, Sgt Andrew J. Wajts married an Australian that he met in Brisbane.

Wilson had a hemorrhoid operation at the 105th General Hospital at Gatton Agricultural College “some miles outside of Brisbane”.

Wilson flew on a combat mission with 3 B-25 Mitchells. Wilson was in Major Ralph Cheli’s aircraft. They clobbered Lae. Cheli later got the DFC for the Battle of the Bismarck Sea and a posthumous Medal of Honor. When they returned to base, Wilson commented “Your boys sure did sock ‘em” but Lt. Col. Brian O’Neill, 38th Medium Bombardment just said, “The photos will show what you did.” Often two sets of photos were required to try to confirm claims.

The December 1942 edition of the GHQ SWPA Telephone Directory shows shows entries for Brigadier General Donald Wilson as follows: -

The October 1943 edition of the GHQ SWPA Telephone Directory shows shows entries for Brigadier General Donald Wilson as follows: -

The May 1944 edition of the GHQ SWPA Telephone Directory shows shows entries for Brigadier General Donald Wilson as follows: -

In May 1943, Wilson flew around the edge of Australia with Captain Ray Elsmore in a C-47 cargo plane. Took 9 days – Brisbane to Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Forest, Kalgoorlie, Perth; Potshot (Exmouth Gulf) Port Hedland, Derby, Wyndham, Darwin, Daly Waters, Thursday Island, Iron Range, Cairns, Townsville, and Brisbane.

In May 1944, Brigadier General Donald Wilson, Chief of Staff of the Allied Air Force, SWPA from September 1942, was awarded the American Distinguished Service Medal DSM.

In late May 1944, Brigadier General Wilson was appointed as Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in charge of personnel in Washington D.C.. He had been the Chief of Staff of the Allied Air Force since September 1942. He then flew from Brisbane to Washington D.C. via Perth, Potshot, Colombo, Bangalore, New Delhi, Kharagpur, Calcutta Chittagong, Cox’s Bazaar, Feni, Kurmitola, Comilla, Hailakande and Labachat all around Burma and CBI theatre then to Agra, Karachi, Abadan, Cairo, Malta, Bari Italy, Cassino, Naples Sicily, Algiers, Oran Casablanca, London, Prestwick to Scotland – in a little over a month.

In 1945, Wilson was on Arnold’s staff again for a while. He returned to the Pacific, with the US Navy on Saipan preparing for the assault on Iwo Jima. Liaised with Rosie O’Donnell (radar while still secret) getting ready for the invasion of Japan. Sailed from Saipan on 14 February to return to the war. He finished his service as a two star General.

Donald Wilson went around the world by cruise ship in 1956-58, and visited Brisbane again.

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