FlyPast 01.2018

WORLD WAR 2 BATTLE IN THE EAST

120 FLYPAST January 2018

Tjililitan, 232 Squadron initially

served alongside 242 Squadron,

also with Hurricanes. The units

quickly combined, under 242’s

banner. Watson claimed two

Japanese aircraft destroyed and two

‘probables’ in 30 sorties but was

shot down twice in that period.

On March 2, he was brought down

for a third time: “Japanese forces were

landing around Serang in Java near

the Sunda Strait and I was asked to

investigate. I believe it was Sandy

Allen who went with me. My plane

was acting up and must have been

using a lot of fuel. There was no way

I could get back, so I just strafed the

Japanese until I was shot down...

“I must have been hit eventually

in the coolant system, my

temperature gauges went off the

clock, my motor conked out and,

while I was pretty low, I managed

to crash land, wheels up, in a rice

paddy not too far away from the

Japanese.”

More than 100 miles (160km)

behind enemy lines, over the next

three days, by a combination of

both determination and good

luck, Watson made it back to his

squadron with the assistance of

friendly natives and Dutch and

Australian forces.

While being returned to his

airfield he was seriously injured in

a car crash, suffering head injuries.

He was taken to hospital and flown

out to Perth, Australia, in the early

morning of March 7. Watson wrote:

“Have a terrible gash across my

forehead and left eye. In fact, am

lucky to be flying again. However,

I’m safe and well.”

Seconded to the Royal Australian

Air Force (RAAF), along with five

Australian pilots who had also

escaped from Java, Plt Off Watson

helped to form the nucleus of 77

Squadron RAAF with Curtiss

Kittyhawks. The unit moved

from Darwin to New Guinea and

Watson completed his tour with 77

Squadron.

Promoted to flight lieutenant,

he became an instructor with

2 Operational Training Unit

(OTU) at Mildura, Victoria, flying

a mixture of Kittyhawks and

Supermarine Spitfires.

BOMBER CONVERT

Recalled to Canada in May

1944, Watson could have easily

completed the remainder of the

war in either staff or instructional

duties. Instead, “in order to return

to the Japanese war, which had

become something personal with

me, I had to convert to bombers”.

By November 1944, Sqn Ldr

Watson had completed multi-

engine training on Avro Ansons,

North American Mitchells and

Consolidated Liberators at 5 OTU

in Boundary Bay, British Columbia.

He was posted to the Liberator-

equipped 159 Squadron RAF, at

Digri, northeast India, noting that

his crew “were all more than ten

years younger than I”.

With 159 Squadron, he was both

a flight commander and a master

bomber, engaged on long 10 to

12-hour sorties. He led his flight

on low-level attacks primarily on

railway bridges on the Bangkok to

Moulmein railway but also against

shipping and other targets. He

also flew resupply sorties to forces

behind enemy lines and, post-

hostilities, drops to prisoner-of-war

camps.

In Earthquake McGoon, the

memoir of RCAF navigator Fg Off

William A Cosway of 159 Squadron,

Watson is remembered: “Our ‘B’

Flight Commander was a former

fighter pilot, good old Flt Lt Tommy

Watson from Boundary Bay days...

Tommy, while always talking softly,

looked like the quintessential fighter

pilot, intent, fit, stocky, a scar

down the left side of his face and a

perennial cigar stuck in his mouth.

And he flew his B-24 like he used

to fly his fighters, sometimes to the

distress of his crew.”

BRIDGE OVER THE KWAI

Cosway credits Watson as the

master bomber during the raid that

destroyed the famous ‘Bridge on

the River Kwai’ on June 24, 1945.

The official 159 Squadron history

describes the attack: “This bridge

with its secondary bypass bridge,

on the line between Bangkok and

the Burma Front on the Sittang

Above

Fg Off Watson beside

his 77 Squadron RAAF

Kittyhawk at Upper Swan,

Australia, in May 1942. VIA

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