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9 Air Missions over the Coral Sea and Beyond The mood around the Charters Towers airfield in April 1942 was vastly different for the pilots than the previous four months of the war. For the most part, the 27th Bombardment Group men spent the first 113 days of the war fighting a losing battle with the Japanese. When they merged with the 3rd Bomb Group, they were going on the offensive. The success of the air missions over Gasmata, Lae, and Mindanao made the pilots all stand a bit taller. There was a swaggering bounce to their step for the first time in months. General MacArthur, in Melbourne, now knew who they were, and he had plans for them. After the success of Royce’s Raid, the Japanese knew who they were too. Queensland and the War In March and early April, there were ominous signs that Japan had designs on landing troops on Australian shores. In early April several unidentified aircraft were spotted over the Babinda area of Queensland and elsewhere. Many believed them to be Japanese reconnaissance aircraft. The most logical invasion spot appeared to be in northeastern Australia on the beaches just east of Babinda, approximately forty miles south of Cairns, where there is an opening in the Great Barrier Reef, which runs parallel to Queensland’s coast. To do that, the Japanese first wanted to control Port Moresby in southeastern New Guinea and the Coral Sea. The Royal Navy’s Eastern Fleet commander, Adm. Sir James Somerville, was told on March 8 by his deputy, Vice Adm. Sir Algernon Willis, that a Japanese invasion of Australia “must be expected” after Java and New Guinea have been mopped up. Likewise, the Australian military chiefs of staff expected Port Moresby to be invaded in mid-March, Darwin in early April, and the island of New Caledonia soon after. Then they expected an invasion in May on the more heavily populated east coast of Australia. Over the Coral Sea and Beyond 211 There were not many American or Australian troops in Queensland north of Brisbane in April 1942, though there was an American military presence at Townsville. The only U.S. troops of any significance in or near Charters Towers were the 3rd Bomb Group. With their men gone away to war, many Australian women took over the family businesses—shops, restaurants, and farms—in addition to raising the kids. Some families in northeast Queensland , fearing a Japanese invasion, even sent their children west away from the coast or south to Sydney or Melbourne to live. Allan Wakeham, who was nine at the time, remembered that of the seventy students in his grade school, only forty remained behind that April. Local governments even brushed open some of the old aboriginal trails leading west and lined them with supplies because of the expected evacuation. Most of the families in the Charters Towers area experienced shortages of food, medicine, and gasoline. Fortunately, they were too busy to notice or complain much about the situation. Although threatened by the expected invasion, their biggest worry in 1942 was still whether or not their own men would return safely from their overseas war. The townspeople gradually got used to the 3rd Bomb Group being around. They were glad to have at least a small contingent of soldiers in the area, though many also worried that the new airstrip might attract Japanese bombers. The civilians, however, went about their daily business as best they could, even though they did take notice of the area’s increased military preparations , including the concrete bomb shelters being built in the middle of downtown streets. Everywhere you looked in Queensland in April 1942, there was every indication that the war with Japan just might be coming to them soon. At the Charters Towers airbase too, this notion was taken very seriously. Upon Glen Stephenson’s return from Melbourne, he was temporarily assigned to Capt. Ron Hubbard’s 90th Squadron. Although a West Pointer and a captain, which made him one of the two highest-ranking officers in the squadron, Stephenson faced stiff competition for flight-line status with the throttle jockeys because, unlike some of the other original 27th pilots, he probably had not piloted a plane for at least three months. The first thing he likely wanted to do when he joined his new squadron was to get some flight time. Harry Mangan recalled that when Stephenson came to Charters Towers , he...

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