page_title: RAAF Base Townsville
section_title: Defensive phase
hierarchical_section_title: RAAF Base Townsville / History / War in the Pacific / Defensive phase
caption_attribution_description: English: AWM Caption: Townsville, Qld. Servicing party working on a DAP Beaufort bomber aircraft of No. 7 Squadron RAAF, probably at Reid River or Macrossan airfield, in a camouflaged dispersal bay supported by underwing trestles. The aircraft's nose armament consists of two flex-mounted .303 machine guns and a chin turret mounted .303.
context_page_description: RAAF Base Townsville is a Royal Australian Air Force air base located in Garbutt, 2 nautical miles west of Townsville in Queensland, Australia. It is the headquarters for No. 1 Wing Australian Air Force Cadets and, along with Lavarack Barracks, establishes Townsville as a key military centre. The base's airfield is shared with the Townsville Airport.
context_section_description: In the face of the Japanese threat, the development of Townsville's new RAAF base during the previous two years was now overtaken by even faster expansion, as Australian and American forces poured into Townsville from January 1942 onward. In recent years much has been made of the now-notorious "Brisbane Line" doctrine, based on the realisation that in the event of Japanese invasion, Australia had only the military resources to defend the industrial south-east of the continent between Brisbane and Melbourne. While the Australian government adopted this as a loose principle, it was always intended to hold Townsville as a military base north of this line. In January 1942 the command structure was re-organised, and RAAF Townsville became North-Eastern Area Headquarters RAAF. In April, General Blamey, commanding Allied Land Forces in the South-West Pacific Area, stationed two Australian infantry brigades in a defensive ring around Townsville, but one of these was sent on to Port Moresby a month later.
  Air defences were strengthened simultaneously. The Wirraway fighters which had proved inadequate at Rabaul and Darwin were replaced by Bell P-39 Airacobras, and Townsville's aerial defence was supplemented by RAAF and USAAF Curtiss P-40 Warhawks. In the surrounding district, strips for dispersal, ferrying, supply and maintenance were built at Bohle River (or Mount St John), Woodstock, Antill Plains, Reid River and Macrossan. Ross River was occupied by the RAAF, and a USAAF heavy bombardment field was established at Breddan, north of the city of Charters Towers. It was planned to base a second fighter squadron, No.32, at Townsville, but the airstrip did not have sufficient space for two operational squadrons, and the second one was located first at Macrossan, then at Charters Towers. Although early plans of the Townsville base show three fighter hangars, only one was ever built, presumably because to base more than one squadron of aircraft there would have made the base both too crowded to operate efficiently, and extremely vulnerable to attack.
  The role of the airfield now diversified well beyond the fighter defence of Townsville. North-eastern Australia became the operational theatre of the US Fifth Air Force, its headquarters in Brisbane, with the headquarters of its V Bomber Command in Townsville. The USAAF 435th Aerial Bombardment Squadron and 8th Photo Squadron carried out aerial reconnaissance missions from Townsville over the whole theatre of war from New Guinea to the Solomon Islands. Ground-based bombers and reconnaissance aircraft from Townsville played a part in the Battle of the Coral Sea, fought a few hundred kilometres to the north-east in May 1942. In the confusion that characterised the aerial engagement, B-17 bombers of the USAAF 435th Squadron from Townsville bombed an allied naval force including the Australian cruisers HMAS Australia and HMAS Hobart, fortunately without inflicting damage.
  The USAAF IV Air Corps Depot was also established in Townsville, its principal functions being the assembly, repair and servicing of USAAF aircraft operating throughout the South-West Pacific theatre of war. Large maintenance hangars were built alongside the runway north of the original RAAF base. In an ingenious attempt to conceal the air base from aerial observation, a pattern of streets and houses resembling the neighbouring suburb was painted over the southern end of the runways, but this camouflage either looked unconvincing or was thought unnecessary, for it was abandoned within a few months.
  The facilities required for aircraft assembly and repair work soon extended far beyond the perimeter of the original Townsville airfield, and during 1942, new airstrips were built at Aitkenvale (or Weir) and Stockroute, with a huge complex of hangars, workshops and dispersal taxiways extending across what are now the suburbs of Vincent, Heatley, Mount Louisa, Kirwan and Condon. This growing complex of airfields brought about a change of name; the base had originally been known as RAAF Townsville in 1939, but the construction of Ai
caption: Servicing party working on a DAP Beaufort bomber aircraft of No. 7 Squadron RAAF
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