Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology
Preface
Memories of the Bureau of Meteorology 1929–1946 by Allan Cornish
History of Major Meteorological Installation in Australia from 1945 to 1981 by Reg Stout
Four Years in the RAAF Meteorological Service by Keith Swan
Foreword
Enlistment in the RAAF, July 1941
Meteorological Observer Training, January-April 1942
Meteorological Observer, May-December 1942
Learning to Forecast, January-July 1943
Forecasting in Victoria, July-October 1943
Tropical Forecasting in New Guinea, October 1943-February 1945
Temperate East Coast Forecasting, February 1945-January 1946
Evaluating the Service
The Bureau of Meteorology in Papua New Guinea in the 1950s by Col Glendinning
Index
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Tropical Forecasting in New Guinea, October 1943-February 1945 (continued)
By late July 1944, No 71 Wing had begun its move from Goodenough Island to Aitape, slightly to the east of Dutch New Guinea, and I spent the next six months or more there. At first I moved with No 100 Squadron, who were soon followed by Wing Headquarters and Nos 6 and 8 Squadrons. For much of that time I either gave my forecasts after consulting the American office at the airstrip, or by having my assistant, Leo Fitzgerald, plot information on a couple of charts per day at a RAAF Mobile Meteorological Flight with the AIF nearby commanded by Flight Lieutenant George Trefry. Leo would bring back the completed observations and I would sketch in the isobars to help with my forecasts. This was not nearly so comforting a situation as I had enjoyed in better-staffed offices and with the Americans at Nadzab, but it had to suffice for such a forward area. Many relatively short strikes were made on most days in the Wewak and Upper Sepik areas, and transport aircraft of No 38 Squadron flew a couple of times each week to Hollandia and Biak from Melbourne, usually flying between Merauke and Aitape over the Owen Stanleys. I continued as the only forecaster at Aitape until a few weeks before my posting back to Australia in the second week in February 1945, when I was joined by Flight Lieutenant Harold Bond, another permanent weather officer. For those few weeks we shared the forecasting, but I do not recall whether Harold was joined by a replacement for me. It was he who wrote to me late in February 1945 telling me that I too had been promoted to Flight Lieutenant from 1 January 1945.Those many months with No 71 Wing had been challenging, as I have already pointed out, but being on my own had its rewards, too. Because I had to curtail the operation, I consequently had more time for reading, research and writing. Some of this was in the field of meteorology, and I recall that I wrote something for publication in a number of the RAAF Tropical Weather Research Bulletin, which appeared first in May 1944. I also found time to write under the supervision of another officer a thesis on The Development of the Historical Novel from Scott to Kingsley, a requirement for promotion to grade IB in the New South Wales teaching service. I had written the thesis in 1940 and 1941, and carried it to New Guinea with me to look at if time permitted. After that I began reading ancient history to prepare for university study after I returned to civilian life. In these ways I preserved balance in a life which was under constant pressure.
Many service personnel watched their physical condition carefully, playing sport and enjoying other physical exercise in spite of the enervating tropical conditions. Frank Henderson back at Port Moresby had assured us that the tropics were not the white man's grave, and that exercise was an absolute necessity. So back on Goodenough Island we played a rugged impromptu kind of volleyball with quite heavy medicine balls, with great vigour when a particular commanding officer was on the opposing side. At Aitape where we were settled for some months we surfed, and played cricket enthusiastically. In a match against No 8 Squadron I came on to bowl with some hope, but retired after one over with the figures of 1 for 42. A pilot named Ron Grieve despatched each of the first seven balls for 6, and was then well caught on the boundary from the last ball. Football was played in some tropical areas, but never in the units with which I served.
People in Bright Sparcs - Bond, Harold George; Swan, Keith
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© Online Edition Australian Science and Technology Heritage Centre and Bureau of Meteorology 2001
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