Latest / 360 with Katie Woolf / 101-year-old veteran Brian Winspear, who experienced the Darwin bombing, gives Katie a gripping account of the day

Transcript

101-year-old veteran Brian Winspear, who experienced the Darwin bombing, gives Katie a gripping account of the day · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: You're listening to mix one oh four point nine three
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: point sixty now. As we know, tomorrow will mark a
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: day of national observance to remember the day exactly eighty
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: years ago when World War II forced itself onto Australia's
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: mainland for the first time. The Darwin community will gather
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to pay their respects to the men and women who
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: fought during the war or during the Darwin air raids,
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: and the community who survived at the annual Bombing of
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: Darwin commemoration service. Just before ten am on the nineteenth
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: of February nineteen forty two, a formation of one hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eighty eight Japanese aircraft mounted a deadly air raid
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  Speaker 1: on Darwin and the sound of whistling bombs rang in
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  Speaker 1: the years of Allied troops and civilians. Life for the
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: people of Darwin would never be the same. We'd suffered
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: the largest single attack ever on Australian soil and its
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  Speaker 1: impact is still felt eighty years later.
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: Now.
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  Speaker 1: One of the last surviving veterans who was in Darwin
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  Speaker 1: during the bombing will attend the service tomorrow. His name
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  Speaker 1: is Brian Winspear. He is one hundred and one years
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  Speaker 1: old and he joined me in the studio a little
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  Speaker 1: bit earlier this morning. Good morning to you, Brian, Good
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  Speaker 1: morning Kate. Lovely to have you in the studio. Brian.
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  Speaker 1: Tell us a little bit about what it was like
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  Speaker 1: for you on that day.
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  Speaker 2: Well, you've got to bear in mind that I joined
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  Speaker 2: the Air Force at nineteen and by the time I
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  Speaker 2: got to Darwin, I was only twenty twenty twenty one,
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  Speaker 2: and so that was all fairly new and strange and
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: so on. But yeah, after we finched the training, I
• 1:50
  Speaker 2: was supposed to two squadron locked Hudgson's and at the
• 1:54
  Speaker 2: time we had twelve locked Hudson's to quadron, and and
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  Speaker 2: we're at Leveton and they decided that we should go
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  Speaker 2: to Dowan because there's a bit of a war brewing
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  Speaker 2: and and so the whole squadron part of Melbourne to
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  Speaker 2: go to that down and flying over Lake Air out
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  Speaker 2: of radio opera done playing with the radio, I heard
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  Speaker 2: that Pearl Harbor had been bombed, And when we landed
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  Speaker 2: for few hell the Springs, I told the other cruise
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  Speaker 2: in the trail planes and no one would bloo me
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  Speaker 2: that that it was on. So when we got to
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  Speaker 2: Dow and it was it was that out we had
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: to want to They all built up amminition and and
• 2:46
  Speaker 2: it was my first taste of tropical tropical climate and
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  Speaker 2: all I want to do was to have a cold
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  Speaker 2: share and go to bed It Tenerate. It all followed
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  Speaker 2: on from there and then and our squadron was had
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  Speaker 2: that then have to go to West Temor because we
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  Speaker 2: had uh the powers of the being, the bee that
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  Speaker 2: organized what who goes where, decided that that in Tasmania
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  Speaker 2: we had the second fortieth Army group and and they
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  Speaker 2: had to go to Kopang in West Temor to look
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  Speaker 2: after because there's one thousand Tasmania there in the army
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  Speaker 2: to stop the jepths coming as far as as Darwin.
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  Speaker 2: And what happened after after that? Yeah?
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  Speaker 1: And so Brian were you were you always supposed to
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  Speaker 1: be in Darwin at the time when that bombing occurred.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. It was air job. Yeah, two
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  Speaker 2: two squads, three Locker Hudsons had to had to be
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  Speaker 2: air cover for the the thousand Tasmanians there and and
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  Speaker 2: Australia didn't have any fighters and Locky Hudson's are not
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  Speaker 2: fighters anyway, but we had to go through the motions
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  Speaker 2: of patrolling the guys and trying to find the Japanese
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  Speaker 2: Asian fation.
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  Speaker 1: Brian, you'd said that you worked, you know, you worked
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  Speaker 1: in radio, like you had the radio side of things.
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  Speaker 1: So you'd listened and you'd heard what had happened in
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  Speaker 1: Pearl Harbor? Could you did you ever anticipate that what
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  Speaker 1: would happen in Darwin was going to unfold?
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  Speaker 2: That was incredible because if you follow the history, Yeah,
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  Speaker 2: Pearl Harbor was on the day of Trob Harbor was
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  Speaker 2: December the twelfth, was I think, yeah, Well, you know
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  Speaker 2: they were the japan Japan started heading south and and
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  Speaker 2: and and polishing off every country they went into and
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  Speaker 2: until they got it on. It took them two months
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  Speaker 2: to to get there. And in the meantime, we had
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  Speaker 2: a couple of Australia had a couple of second rate
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  Speaker 2: fighter squadrons in Malaysia and and team all those sort
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  Speaker 2: of places. And uh, I've got a he had at
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  Speaker 2: one hundred and one. I've I've got to give my
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  Speaker 2: brain a bit of Brian.
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  Speaker 1: That's okay, We don't mind. You know, I think most
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  Speaker 1: people listening to you this morning will be absolutely you know,
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  Speaker 1: have so much respect and so much pride listening to
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  Speaker 1: you this morning, So we don't mind if you need
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  Speaker 1: a moment, mate. You know, for so many of us
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  Speaker 1: who live in Darwin now, we just have absolutely no
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  Speaker 1: idea what it would have been like to be here
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  Speaker 1: and to see those bombs raining down. I had read
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  Speaker 1: somewhere that you described it as saying that you looked
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  Speaker 1: up and the sun glinted, and the bombs looked as
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  Speaker 1: they were falling down. They just looked like confetti. It
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  Speaker 1: must have been just an unbelievable thing to see happening.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, there were thousands and thousands of bombs all
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  Speaker 2: come at the same time.
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  Speaker 1: And.
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  Speaker 2: Everybody saw the fifty four planes coming in, and because
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  Speaker 2: they're coming from the south, they thought they were the
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  Speaker 2: Americans coming. But the Japs always do that. They sort
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: of fly around the target and the always come in
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  Speaker 2: the back door. Yeah, they did exactly the same thing
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  Speaker 2: when they were when they were invading a team or
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  Speaker 2: Kopang had six inch guns or facing out to see
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  Speaker 2: whether they thought that the japrire going to come, and
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  Speaker 2: the Jap came in and came came and landed on
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  Speaker 2: a beach at the back and then rode bikes and
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  Speaker 2: walked in. It came in in the back door.
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  Speaker 1: So it is it's unbelievable, you know, to think of
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  Speaker 1: what happened here in Dahla. My grandfather worked in logistics
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  Speaker 1: at the time and he was stationed here. He was
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  Speaker 1: only seventeen when he was first in dah when he
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  Speaker 1: was here when Darwin was bombed. And I think that
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  Speaker 1: it's such an important thing for all Australians to actually
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  Speaker 1: understand what happened eighty years ago right here in the
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  Speaker 1: Northern territory.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Yeah, Well, one of the sad things was that
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  Speaker 2: absolutely no new came out from Darwin for about six
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  Speaker 2: or eight months at that time because all the politicians
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: had egg on their face because we had basically no army.
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  Speaker 2: All our divisions were in the Mediterranean, and and our
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  Speaker 2: front line aircraft was only two squadrons like Ed Hudson's
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  Speaker 2: and and the navy was almost you know finished, and
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  Speaker 2: and and it's sad that that no news ever came out.
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  Speaker 2: And being in the front line up there, we didn't
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  Speaker 2: know what was going on either because our war was
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  Speaker 2: being controlled, our air force war was being controlled in
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  Speaker 2: an office in sin Kittled Road in Melbourne and they
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  Speaker 2: didn't sort of get the feel of what was going on.
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  Speaker 1: It was really happening. Can you tell me what was
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: it like looking around Darwin after after we'd been bombed?
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  Speaker 1: You know for us living here now. I know you've
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: been back to Darwin on so many occasions. When you
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: walk around town now and then when you remember what
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: it was like eighty years ago and how the place
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  Speaker 1: looked after it had been bombed, what.
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  Speaker 2: Was it like? What it was in an another world
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  Speaker 2: because Darwin had ceased to exist just about after that bombing.
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  Speaker 2: Between the bombing and the and the strong Wednesday, you
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  Speaker 2: get it, it was amazing. I was absolutely amazed at
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  Speaker 2: the development of Darwin and how it's grown up into
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  Speaker 2: it's trying to take over Sydney. In Melbourne and the
• 9:41
  Speaker 2: high risis, I just shuddered to think of another cyclone
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  Speaker 2: came along. Most of those highs rods had finished up
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  Speaker 2: in the bay.
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  Speaker 1: Oh we worry about that. Lucky they got those building
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  Speaker 1: codes ran. We are going to have to wrap up.
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  Speaker 1: Brian tell us why tomorrow is such an important day
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  Speaker 1: for all of Australians to really sit back and remember
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  Speaker 1: what happened to Darwin eighty years ago.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well I've been I've been spooking for yeah, eighty
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  Speaker 2: odd years to try and get the message over my
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  Speaker 2: own messages. Never never forget to remember. And the trouble
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  Speaker 2: as they don't one of their big problems with the
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  Speaker 2: There we were with Lockied Hudson's looking after the second
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  Speaker 2: fortieth Tazzies, the thousand of them, and they only had
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  Speaker 2: a brandy going to carry her and a few rifles
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  Speaker 2: and had had nothing to really take the you know,
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  Speaker 2: the jeps on. And then when the Japanese looked like
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  Speaker 2: getting down to dow and they decided that they were
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  Speaker 2: going to pull the aircraft out because they were over
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  Speaker 2: overtaken by the Japs anyway. And one of the hard
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  Speaker 2: things in my life was that I knew a lot
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  Speaker 2: of the ten thousand tatty. I went to school with
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  Speaker 2: a lot of them, and we did a lot of
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  Speaker 2: flying beers, whichween Darwin and Copeg and I used to
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  Speaker 2: take milk and ten nugget and beer and all the
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  Speaker 2: things that they're short of. Yeah, but the worst thing
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  Speaker 2: in my life was that we had orders to live
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  Speaker 2: Copeng and we just walked away from a thousand tatties,
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  Speaker 2: and I knew that in fact, half of half that
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  Speaker 2: thousand were even killed or taken prison at war. And
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: the ones that were taken a prisoners of war, they
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  Speaker 2: were put put on a Japanese boat to go to
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  Speaker 2: Tokyo to work in the in the mines and sailing
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  Speaker 2: in up near teamor an American plane came along and
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  Speaker 2: struck them and tore peoce did the shepherd and killed
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  Speaker 2: all their killed all their pow. A few of them
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  Speaker 2: swam and he got away. But they was a pretty
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  Speaker 2: deadly time of the year. And it's always all those
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  Speaker 2: features have always been tattooed onto my brain and I keep,
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  Speaker 2: I keep, you know, remembering them all the time. And
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  Speaker 2: at home, I've got a list of all their names
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  Speaker 2: of the people that were killed there, and the list
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  Speaker 2: is nine feet long. And the sad thing is that
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  Speaker 2: everyone these days, in those days, everyone who got killed,
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  Speaker 2: it disrupted their family completely because they all had mothers
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  Speaker 2: and fathers, and they had girlfriends, and it not only
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  Speaker 2: killed the person, but that killed their family at all.
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: Yeah, life would never be the same for so many Australians. Brian,
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  Speaker 1: I can't thank you enough for coming in and seeing
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  Speaker 1: us this morning. I know it must be difficult for
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  Speaker 1: you to talk about and remember, you know, such a
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  Speaker 1: such a terribly hard time, but I am so grateful
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  Speaker 1: that you've come in and have a chat to me
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  Speaker 1: this morning.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, well, Kate, this, this this weekend is the most
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  Speaker 2: memorable event of my whole life. It even takes over
• 13:29
  Speaker 2: being in a in a cockpit of a cockpit of
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  Speaker 2: a fast aircraft and all the other exciting things that yes, sorry, yeah,
• 13:44
  Speaker 2: I sat in the front of a concord while it
• 13:46
  Speaker 2: was learning learning in the Bahrain, and that was one
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  Speaker 2: of the terrific experience. But this week weekend, yesterday we
• 14:00
  Speaker 2: had that there was nearly one hundred people out of
• 14:03
  Speaker 2: the museum and everyone was talking. But you inter viewed
• 14:07
  Speaker 2: on looking at some of those beautiful planes there. It's
• 14:12
  Speaker 2: a mighty place anyway, very much, thanks for taking your time.
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: Thank you so much, and I think that everybody listening
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  Speaker 1: this morning is going to be feeling very humbled listening
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  Speaker 1: to your story. So Brian Winsby, thank you so very
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: much for having a chat with us today.
• 14:29
  Speaker 2: Okay, thank you, thank you.
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: Thank you. You are listening to Mix one oh four
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  Speaker 1: point nine's three sixty