Back to the Track 2021

[Phil Waterman]

Hi Lang

These are great photos, thanks for finding the source and sharing them.

Cheers Phil

[Tony Smith]

Certainly some good pics, not a fan of the colourisation.

But look at that Chev Ute with the CMP 15cwt body; sure would fit lots of light bulky goods like "Army Mail", but looks a bit unbalanced!

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Lang, enjoy the trip in your Chevrolet staff car!

I wish the other MLU members who taking part a safe and joyful trip too.

88BE208D-6E25-424C-9A77-C2C26C65AC11.jpeg
http://www.mapleleafup.net/forums/sh...239#post278239

[Lang]

Thanks Hanno. We leave Tuesday morning.

Five 600km days should see us there but if we can average 250km a day in case of disasters enroute there is enough time to still make the start 01 August.

PS Hanno. In the photo of rolling bombs off the back of the truck you will notice that half the people are Dutch. This was the mixed Dutch/Australian B-25 Mitchell Squadron operating out of Batchelor Strip south of Darwin

Lang

18 Squadron (NEI) RAAF

One of the RAAF's most unusual units, No 18 Squadron formed at Fairbairn in the Australian Capital Territory on 4 April 1942. The commanding officer was a Dutch national, while the remainder of the squadron's complement was a mix of Netherlands East Indies (NEI) citizens and Australians.

Allocated a bomber role, most of the Mitchell bombers were captained by Dutch pilots, with Australians and Dutch nationals making up the remaining aircrew.

On 6 July 1942, No 18 Squadron was officially deleted as a unit of the RAAF and became part of the Netherlands East Indies Forces. The Squadron moved to the Darwin area in January 1943 and, under the operational control of RAAF Command, continued its attacks and anti-shipping strikes throughout the Netherlands East Indies.

After the War, RAAF personnel were withdrawn from No 18 Squadron, which moved back to the East Indies and was later absorbed by the Indonesian Air Force

[Lang]

Some More Alice Springs

[Lang]

Some photos coming in from the troops on the road to the start. This is a shot of the (non) scenery on the Stuart Highway heading north to Alice Springs from the window of a Studebaker US6.

[Lang]

Found a photo of a 1940 Chevrolet in Darwin in 1942.

VIP is William (Billy) Hughes who was the Australian Prime Minister during WW1. At 80 years of age he must have been the oldest person in parliament by the time WW2 rolled around.

Two features for my car.

The Chevrolet is black so no need to repaint mine.

The Tac Sign is the 12th Division of a buffalo over boomerang. Mine has been corrected to this insignia. 12th Division only lasted for 4 weeks. In the space of a month it changed from Northern Territory Force to 12th Division and back to Northern Territory Force. There are a lot of buffalo over boomerang photos so I suspect they continued to use this insignia despite the boomerang design being standard divisional or higher designator.