The extraordinary WW 11 exploits of Australian fighter pilot and behind the lines commando , NIcky Barr, are detailed in the above 2001 book by Peter Dornan , published by Allen and Unwin, recently obtained by this writer.Barr shot down 12 planes , was himself shot down three times, seriously wounded.
Early in his flying career he was made honorary aide-de-camp to the Queensland Governor , Sir Lesley Wilson.
One of the surprises in this commendable volume was the revelation that a former Darwin resident I had known in peacetime, " Wilf "Arthur, had been another daring fighter pilot.
At the back of the book is a list of Australian fighter pilots which states Squadron Leader Wilfred Stanley Arthur, DSO,DFC, mentioned in despatches ,had shot down 10 enemy aircraft.
It seems he was rarely called by his Christian name, Wilfred . During the war years he was called Woof, Wolf, Wulf and even Bandy !
After the war, he was commissioned as a temporary wing commander in the RAAF Reserve. If variety is the spice of life, he certainly had it thereafter .
Captured in Vietnam
After becoiming the registrar of a free expression school in Melbourne, in 1950 he joined the Australian School of Pacific Administration, went to Vietnam in 1961 to establish a dairy farm under the Colombo Plan.
Despite being captured by the Viet Cong and held to ransome , he returned to Vietnam and became known as the Duck Feather King, supplying duck feathers to the American military for life jackets.
Moving to Darwin in the Northern Territory, he became the administration manager of the Geopeko mining company running the Ranger uranium mine at Jabiru.
Darwin agronomist Robert Wesley-Smith, strongly opposed to the Vietnam War, had dealings with Wilf Arthur ,said he was not aware of his wartime heroism until after his death in 2000 and burial at the Adelaide River War Cemetery .
In the book about air ace Nicky Barr there was mention of another renowned Australian fighter pilot,"Killer" Clive Caldwell, who destroyed many aircraft - 28.5 to be exact.. His decorations included the DSO, DFC and bar, the Polish Cross of Valour.
Killer Calwell was in a well lubricated Darwin mess during the war and reportedly dived for cover with others when author Xavier Herbert, who supposedly became enraged and went for his gun when he realised that his drinking partners were only pretending to support his wild plan to raid Timor.
Clump,Slither,Clump
Another person of interest in the book with a Darwin connection was Squadron Leader Dixie Chapman of No.3 Squadron. Long after the war , Group Captain Dixie Chapman was in charge of the Darwin RAAF base from which nearby Quail Island was used as a bombing range.
There is a Dreamtime spring on the island and it is a turtle breeding ground.
In an attempt to stop the RAAF bombing Quail Island, the editor of the Northern Territory News, " Big Jim "Bowditch , wrote a memorable editorial
headed TURTLES ARE IN THE SOUP.
By relentlessly bombing the island, he said the RAAF was denying Mr and Mrs Turtle the right of hearing the clump,slither clump of little turtle's flippers - a play on the pitter patter of children's feet.
On reading this, Group Captain Dixie Chapman went to the NT News office in his chauffeur driven car and firmly told Bowditch he had read a lot of bullshit in his life, but the editorial took the prize as the worst. Both men laughed
The cruel RAAF eventually stopped bombing the island after a new range was established on the mainland.
