Australian WWII Memorial on Bataan

[Karl Welteke]

Australian WWII Memorial on Bataan

I put this new thread in the Remembering Bataan Group.

This Australian mining operation supported the Mindoro Landing which in turn supported the Paratroopers who liberated Corregidor and the Memorial is on Bataan.

On this Bataan trip I visited Bob Hudson in Limay to see how he is doing. He told me that an English friend and he just by accident discovered the sign for the Australian Memorial and Bob told how to find it, and I sure took him up on it. Thanks Bob, he has an interesting personal blog: bataanson.blogspot.com/

Wikepedia has this information about RAAF mining operation all over the battle area Of General MacArthur at this URL: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._76_Wing_RAAF

No.76 Wing RAAF, Black Cat Catalinas
On 14 December, No. 43 Squadron, augmented by Catalinas from No. 11 Squadron based at Rathmines, New South Wales, mined Manila Bay to keep Japanese shipping "bottled up", thus supporting the Allied landing at Mindoro taking place the next day. Flying from Leyte, the 24 Catalinas successfully dropped 60 mines in the heavily defended target area for the loss of one of their number, and returned to base at the limit of their fuel reserves




Zd901. 43_sqn_(AWM_128022) Black Cat Catalina. A Black Cat Catalina like this one is assumed to went down with the loss of the whole crew in Manila Bay.



Zd902. One of several images of the Australian WWII Memorial located just inside the Main Gate of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd903. One of several images of the Australian WWII Memorial located just inside the Main Gate of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd904. One of several images of the Australian WWII Memorial located just inside the Main Gate of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd905. One of several images of the Australian WWII Memorial located just inside the Main Gate of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd906. In memory of the crew of Catalina A24-64, a Black Cat” of 43 Aquadron RAAF who made the ultimate sacrifice on 14th December 1944 to protect Australia and liberate the Philippines during the Second World War. Les we forget.
406368 FLTLT Herbert Roberts
411054 FLTLT Frank Silvester
411867 FLTLT James Cox
419949 FLGOFF Robert Barbour
406824 FLGOFF Raymond Bradstreet
15882 SGT John MacDonald
37077 FSGT David Albert
37766 SGT James Robinson
82777 SGT Harold Goodchild



Zd907. On 14 December 1944, No. 43 Squadron, augmented by Catalinas from No. 11 Squadron based at Rathmines, New South Wales, mined Manila Bay to keep Japanese shipping "bottled up", thus supporting the Allied landing at Mindoro taking place the next day. Flying from Leyte, the 24 Catalinas successfully dropped 60 mines in the heavily defended target area for the loss of one of their number, and returned to base at the limit of their fuel reserves



Zd908. One of 5 images of the Main Gate area of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The Australian WWII Memorial is located just inside the Main Gate of MAAP. The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd909. One of 5 images of the Main Gate area of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The Australian WWII Memorial is located just inside the Main Gate of MAAP. The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd910. One of 5 images of the Main Gate area of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The Australian WWII Memorial is located just inside the Main Gate of MAAP. The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd911. One of 5 images of the Main Gate area of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The Australian WWII Memorial is located just inside the Main Gate of MAAP. The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan.



Zd912. One of 5 images of the Main Gate area of the Maritime Academy of Asia and the Pacific (MAAP). The Australian WWII Memorial is located just inside the Main Gate of MAAP. The gate is located, right side on the long road down to Kamaya Point Piers from the Cabcaben to Mariveles Road. This is part of Barangay Alas-asin, Mariveles, Bataan. This discarded sign was located at a vendors stall just across the street from the Main Gate

I actually made one album with all the venues of this trip into this album, but it is a long one:
philippine-sailor.net/2021/01/19/bataan-trip-21-01-15/

[Karl Welteke]

Manila Bay Mining 14th Dec 1944.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._76_Wing_RAAF

No. 76 Wing RAAF

Note from Karl: In case you did not take the time to read the above Wikipedia URL here is more of the text copied!

No. 76 Wing headquarters was established at Townsville, Queensland, on 3 January 1944, and moved to Cairns mid-month.[1] Led by Wing Commander Reginald Burrage,[2][3] it transferred to Darwin, Northern Territory, in September to coordinate and control minelaying operations in the North-Western Area by Nos. 20, 42, and 43 Squadrons. Each of the squadrons was equipped with PBY Catalina flying boats, nicknamed "Black Cats"; No. 20 had been based in Cairns with No. 76 Wing headquarters, No. 42 had just been formed at Darwin in August, while No. 43 had been operating out of Darwin since March. Minelaying missions carried out by the RAAF over the past year had been credited with successfully disrupting enemy shipping for a much smaller outlay of operating hours than conventional bombing, and were thus considered profitable enough to dedicate a wing with three squadrons to furthering the work.[3][4] Although the Catalinas were relatively slow and susceptible to enemy fighter attack, their loss rate was no more than one per 95 sorties.[3][5] In addition to its flying squadrons, the wing controlled No. 2 Flying Boat Maintenance Unit, No. 11 Air Sea Rescue Flight, and No. 3 Mobile Torpedo Unit. All units were located in Darwin except No. 42 Squadron, which was based at Melville Bay.


The Catalina squadrons were expected to carry out a total of 100 missions per month from Darwin. In their first three weeks of operation from 13 September 1944 they accomplished 98, mining targets in Celebes, Java, and Surabaya. In October, they were able to use the recently liberated island of Morotai as a forward base for operations against Balikpapan and Tarakan.[7] On 14 December, No. 43 Squadron, augmented by Catalinas from No. 11 Squadron based at Rathmines, New South Wales, mined Manila Bay to keep Japanese shipping "bottled up", thus supporting the Allied landing at Mindoro taking place the next day. Flying from Leyte, the 24 Catalinas successfully dropped 60 mines in the heavily defended target area for the loss of one of their number, and returned to base at the limit of their fuel reserves.