Description
After Japan’s entry into the war, Avro Anson training aircraft were formed into reserve squadrons to protect South Australia’s coasts. A 1942 scheme saw a ring of airfields planned for the defence of Adelaide itself. Ultimately, just one of these was completed, Gawler, and it became the only wartime South Australian airfield with a sealed runway. No. 86 Squadron, flying Kittyhawk fighters, and No. 21 Squadron, flying Vengeance dive-bombers, were both based there during 1943. In the final two years of the war Parafield was busy as a centre for C-47 Dakota operations, housing both an Australian and a British transport squadron. In 1945 the RAAF presence in South Australia ended as quickly as it began, and for this reason the story has been mostly forgotten. Illustrated with period photographs throughout.