The Bismarck Sea Battle—1 March 1943 (continued)

Eventually, Bill Gibbs, Ralph Holmes and the headquarters group at Brisbane produced a central weather analysis statement for the information of meteorological sections at airforce stations throughout the South-West Pacific area. Subsequently, this group also embarked on research vital to a better understanding of tropical weather behaviour. This research is further elaborated in Chapter Nine of this work.

According to Gibbs, the meteorological section at Allied headquarters (later RAAF Command), Brisbane, achieved a threefold purpose:

1. Provision of meteorological advice for the planning and coordination of military operations in the south west Pacific area;


2. Daily issue of analysis statements to all meteorological offices in the South-West Pacific area as a back-up to their local forecasting efforts;


3. Publication of 15 issues of the RAAF Tropical Weather Research Bulletin, containing ideas resulting from the practical experience of forecasters supporting operational units, which made no small contribution to the development of new ideas regarding the meteorology of tropical Australia and the South-West Pacific. Commendations were received from Australia and overseas, both for the analysis statements and the Tropical Weather Bulletin.

An interesting comment was made by Keith Hannay concerning the situation in North-Western Area (Darwin HQ) in January 1944 :

'At that time, there were more meteorological stations in the Northern Territory and surrounding areas—from Truscott to Gove, to Groote Eylandt to Alice Springs and Gorrie—than there are today.'

Bureau of Meteorology