NORMANDY 75|AUSTRALIA AND THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY AUSTRALIA AND THE BATTLE OF NORMANDY|NORMANDY 75
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ABOVE
Fg Off Russell Leith,
of 453 Sqn claimed
three enemy aircraft
shot down and one
shared in Normandy.RIGHT
Pilots of 453 Sqn
converse at Longues,
France, 1944. Three
of them would
become casualties
in Normandy. Flt
Lt Patrick McCade
(left) was downed
and captured; W/O
Fred Cowpe (second
left) was badly burnt
when shot down
by flak; and Flt Sgt
Mervyn Watson
(tallest) was killed
by a bomb blast
on 14 August.
RIGHT
A German
photograph of a
downed Hawker
Typhoon. The type
proved vulnerable
to ground fire.In close support of ground forces
were the fighter and fighter-
bomber squadrons. They included
453 Squadron RAAF, which had
the distinction of being the only
Australian unit based on the ground
in Normandy. Equipped with
Spitfires, this squadron flew on D-Day
and was operating from an advanced
landing strip in France from June 16.
Also heavily engaged in supporting
the invasion were the Mosquitos
of 464 Squadron, they attacked
bridges, roads, rail centres, lines of
communication, fuel and ammunition
dumps and assembly areas.
On D-Day, this squadron lost a
popular commander, veteran pilot
Squadron Leader Arthur Oxlade,
when his Mosquito was shot down.
His navigator, Flight Lieutenant
Donald Shanks, managed to bale out
at low altitude and survived the heavy
landing. Assisted by local farmers who
took him into hiding, Shanks shed his
battledress for an outfit more suitable
for a French peasant. He remained
in the area for some time with the
farmers, working – awkwardly –
around German billets and nearby
a launch site for V1 rockets. He
eventually made it back to Allied
lines in August and returned to flying
with his squadron. No.464 Squadron
participated in several further
specialist tasks during the Normandy
battle, including the raid on the SS
barracks at Bonneuil-Matours on
July 14.On The Ground
As well as the navy and air force,
there was a small number of Australian
Army officers attached to British
units for the invasion. One of them
was Major Henry ‘Jo’ Gullett, from
Melbourne. Gullett had previously
served with the 2/6th Battalion, AIF,
in campaigns in the Western Desert,
Greece and New Guinea, where he
was awarded the MC. On D-Day,
Gullett landed with the Green
Howards at Gold Beach, carrying his
Australian-issued Lee Enfield rifle and
an Italian Beretta pistol – a souvenir
from the Battle of Bardia in 1941.
During the battle for Normandy, he
fought for several days with the Green
Howards before becoming a company
commander with 8th Battalion, the
Royal Scots. In July, he was wounded
by machine gun fire, shot in the hip
while leading an attack. Gullett always
wore ‘Australia’ flashes on his uniform
and, when interviewed by a war
correspondent during the campaign,
he noted: “I have run up against several
Germans and they nearly all ask where
the rest of the Australians are when
they see my flashes. A German we
captured with a number of others in
the last few days had fought in the
desert. He glanced at my ‘Australia’
and said, ‘Australian’. Then he
resignedly took off his wristwatch
and offered it to me. I hardly knew
whether to be flattered or insulted.”
A number of Australians who
were in Britain when the war
broke out enlisted directly into the
British services. One such case is the
remarkable story of Olive Sherington
from Sydney, who served as a senior
commandant in the Mechanised
Transport Corps (MTC). On
September 1, 1939 Sherington was
holidaying in Britain and so enlisted in
the MTC. In the days after France hadfallen in June 1940, she led a convoy
of ambulances carrying 13 seriously
wounded British soldiers from Paris
to Bordeaux, from where they were
successfully evacuated to Britain on the
MV Madura. For these actions she was
Mentioned in Despatches and received
a commendation of bravery from King
George VI and Winston Churchill.
One of the last 'British' women to
leave France after the evacuation of
Dunkirk in 1940, Sherington was
one of the first to return in 1944,
driving her truck off a landing
craft at Normandy days after the
invasion. She finally returned home
to Australia in 1946, seven years after
the commencement of her ‘holiday’.
Other Australian women in Normandy
included nurses Sister Nancy Kinsella
and Sister Ann Swinton, who served
with the Queen Alexandra Nursing
Service, Sister Heather Kirkwood of
the Territorial Army Nursing Service
and the war correspondent for The
Australian Women’s Weekly, Anne
Matheson.