The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-07-15
REPAIR CREWS
IN AUSTRALIA
DO '|MPOSSIBLE'
BY JOHN w. DUNLAP
United Press Staff CORRESPONDENT

Inc Americans inside our alrplaneS
aren't the only ones who are amaz-
ing the world with skillful exploits
the men who patch them up and
keep them flying are the unsung
heroes.
The story of the air service squad
rons and the ingenuity they are
using to keep American planes in
the air was related by Maj. James
A. Culbertson, commander of a re-
pair squadron at Point Darwin in
Australia for the past Is months
and the first man back from that
area since the war began. He flew
back to Mcclellan Field, the Army's
huge repair depot at Sacramento,
prior to joining the training COM
mand to pass along lessons learned
in Australia.
For one thing, Major Culbertson
said leisure and days off are I'M
known to the men in the repair
crews. They work from dawn until
late at night, often around the
clock, to get wrecked planes back
into combat. Crash crews roam as
far as 1000 miles into the jungle
bush to find lost planes and salvage
as much as possible.
Fix Plane With 5000 Holes
He told of one plane coming back
with 5000 holes No one thought it
would fly again, but it was back on
the fighting line in a week. In the
early days of 1912, when fresh pilots
from the States were still learning
the ways of combat many planes
crashed but it enabled the service
squadron to build up store Of
spare parts.
From February to June, last year,
the squadron's equipment was still
en- route, SO homemade tools were
houses were dispersed over four
square miles and everything was SO
cleverly concealed in the jungle that
the enemy has never located the
base. The runway is dirt and grass,
bordered by giant ant-hills with
ants a half-inch long.
Lack of roads often required sal
wage crews to go hundreds of miles
along the coast by boat and then
use jeeps towing sleds to cross DOGGY
marshes to wrecked planes. Giant
wrecking trucks usually ploWed
through trees and brush to make a
road. There was no rest in the re-
pair operations despite 12O-degree
heat, binding dust storms bombing
blackouts, transforms bringing from
to inches in an hour, and crude
living conditions.
The repair depot was so isolated
it took men from six to eight weeks
to reach the nearest town by truck,
so no one left the base for some 10
months. The Darwin squadron not
only kept three squadrons of fighter
planes serviced and repaired but any
other Allied aircraft which came in
the area, which included Flying
Fortresses, Liberators, Medium
bombers, flying boats and most
everything with wings.
Salvaged "A Planes
Culbertson's service unit, COM
prising about 100 men, was the first
to get into combat in Australia af-
ter. the war and still is on the job.
A total of A planes was salvaged
in the first seven months and the
mechanics did everything but over
haul motors. When they left the
States, few of the soldiers had pre-
vious airplane training.
Capt. James BrasloW used typical
Yankee ingenuity to make the
squadron one of the healthiest in
Australia. All ponds for many miles
were sprayed with oil to combat
mosquitoes, the oxygen equipment
from a wrecked bomber was in
stalled in an ambulance, sterilizing
equipment was fashioned from blow
torches, and other means taken to
keep the men out of the hospital.
Ten-foot crocodiles discouraged
swimming in the river, SO a bamboo
platform was rugged up with a hand
pump to provide makeshift shower
baths. The men seldom knew the
day of the week or month as they
toiled to keep their planes in re-
pair. Turkeys promised for Thanks
giving and Christmas never arrived
and their distate for mutton grew
intense.
The major is a young" veteran
of Army life, having fought on the
Mexican border in 1916 when only
a lad of Is, then went to France as
a doughboy in 1918. He returned to
his home in Erie, Pa, after the war,
finished high school, graduated from
Allegheny College, took graduate
work in geology at Oklahoma Uni
versity, and became geological en-
gineer for a major oil company.
He was back in uniform a few
DAYS after Pearl Harbor and took
his service squadron to Australia a
year later.