Description
Title: Lake Boga at War
Author: Freeman, Brett
Condition: Very Good Plus – Signed by the author on the title page. Dust jacket torn at back as shown in the picture.
Edition: 2nd Edition
Publication Date: 1996
ISBN: 0646247050
Cover: Hard Cover with Dust Jacket – 296 pages
Comments: The detailed account of the activities at Lake Boga during World War 2.
With the swift incursion of Japanese forces, 1941 early 1942 into South pacific and South East Asian areas, the shock bombing of Darwin, and the total destruction of flying boats and land based aircraft at Broome, both the RAAF and Qantas were desperate to find a secrete, southern, inland body of water where they could conceal and service their surviving flying boats.
Lake Boga was quickly chosen. Construction of facilities commenced. Almost 1000 RAAF and WAAAF personnel were soon stationed at No. 1 Flying Boat Repair Depot, restoring RAAF Catalina, Dornier, and Martin Mariner flying boats.
Having escaped the Japanese invasion of Java (Indonesia), Dutch aircraft and crews arrived, followed in mid 1943 by numbers of US Navy personnel with their ‘Black Cats,’ then, US Army Air Force Catalina’s and crews.
This intriguing story encompasses circumstances surrounding the establishment of this RAAF facility, flying boat operations, and Depot life. Readers will fly on night time operations of 20 hour duration, bombing and strafing the enemy, and on dangerous mining missions flown at masthead height. Logistical operations flown by transport aircraft are included.
The reader will return to Lake Boga and discover what was achieved by dedicated personnel, living and working under difficult conditions and learn of local community support of RAAF, WAAAF, and visiting aircrew in war time.
Remarkable characters emerge, many significant in aviation annals. Be assured, Lake Boga At War will not be easily put down.
