The "Morotai Mutiny" is one of the skeletons in the closet in the Royal Australian Airforce History (RAAF).
Eight of the RAAF most experienced pilots in April 1945 tendered their resignation from the service . They were all members of Number 80 & 81Wing (Spitfires) of the First Tactical Airforce based at Morotai.
They were Group Captain Clive Caldwell (CO 80 Wing) ( Australia's highest ace 28 1/2 kills) Group Captain Wilf Arthur (CO 81 Wng) (another ace). Wing Commanders John Waddy and Bobby Gibbes (both aces) The other 4 Officers were highly experienced fliers, Wing Commander Ranger, and Squadron leaders Grace, Vanderfield and Harpham.
The flash point for the mutiny was the arrest of Caldwell for running a booze racket allegedly using both RAAF and USAAAF aircraft, those charges were held over to post war.
The real reason was the frustration felt by the Australian pilots to being deliberately side lined from the fighting by MacArthur and the feeling that the RAAF High Command was weak and did not represent those who fought.
80 & 81 Wing had Spitfire Mark V111, a superb model of spitfire, it was not of the family of the upengined mark 1,2,5,9 series but a completely new aircraft. It was placed in an area where no japanese aircraft existed within its radius of operation at Morotai. There were no japanese aircraft there before the Wing moved there.
The frustration was (and still is) that by that time of the war , Australian forces were being deliberately side lined by MacArthur. He wanted the Phillipines to be a completely US affair, Australian forces were left out of serious fighting and were suffering casualities for no reason in fighting cut off Japanese forces well behind the front. This frustration was felt especially keenly by the spitfire pilots, denied combat due to politics. The First Tactical Airforce came under operational command of the the United States 13th Airforce ( Kenney).
In the months preceding the mutiny the two wings had lost 15 aircraft to enemy ground fire (and 11 men killed) in return they had destroyed twelve barges and 6 small motor vessels. Highly trained pilots were being frittered away for no reason.
The mutiny shocked the RAAF and from its Head Quarters , one Air Commdore ( Cobby 26 kills in WW1) and two Group Captains (Gibson and Simms) were sacked almost immediately.
The Chief of the Air Staff George Jones interviwed 7 of the 8 muntineers (not Caldwell) , Jones was disliked by the pilots as being out of touch and not representing them. His only answer to them as to why they were in a back water and not fighting was.that Curtain ( The then Australian Prime Minister) could not get MacArthur to allow Australian forces to fight in the Phillipines. General Kenney flew in all angry and demanding, he went quiet when the Australian pilots demanded to know why they were excluded from the fighting. ( Australians have a long proud history of not respecting rank merely because it is rank, the man has to earn their respect first)
The upshot was Australian fighter pilots were deliberately excluded from air combat from 1944 and they resented it and demanded answers. i.e Caldwell did not fly against enemy aircraft from August 1943, what his score would have been no one can say but he (and the others) were deliberatley denied any opportuniteis from then on.
Caldwell was eventually charged post war for his booze running, he was a milo mindbender ( Cacth 22 novel) but he also traded booze for equipment ( including getting a japanses zero from Clark Field for some bottles of whiskey).
Most of the charges were trumped up and dropped, he had incurred the wrath of the RAAF High command earlier in the war when he wrote that the Australian built fighter the Boomerang was rubbish ( it never shot down an enemy aircraft and was used purely for ground attack). The Chief of the Air Staff ( Jones ) had marked his file in 1942 " This Officer is an Empire air Trainee and as such is considered t be already sufficently decorated and is to receive no more regardless of future service"
He left the airforce in 1946 as a disgraced Flight Lieutenant. He was the highest scoring allied pilot in the Western Desert flying Tomahawks and Kittyhawks and he fought against the German aces there ( he shot down 10 ME 109's there) , his dismissal was a disgraceful episode in RAAF history.
The treatment of Australian forces in the South West Pacific post 1943 is also a disgrace, both for MacArthur and also for the then Australian Governemnet. Thats why the mutiny was hushed up.
My main reference is Killer Caldwell by Jeffrey Watson, the first biography of him ever writen ( released this year 2005)
Clives trial is called The Barry Report
( I tried to import a picture but Im rusty, sorry everyone, here is the link that I wanted to show http://www.awm.gov.au/fiftyaustralians/6.asp the picture of Clive posing by his spitfire )
The Morotai Mutiny
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Michael Emrys
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The current issue (November) of Aviation History has as its lead feature an article on Caldwell. The version of his last year of service is somewhat different than the one you give here, alf. In any event, he seems to have been a great combat pilot who was given a raw deal. Good to see him remembered.
Alf wrote:
It sure was. Some reputable non-American and non-Commonwealth author should tackle this as the subject for an indepth investigative study and book and try to really get to the bottom of it all. As an American, all I can say is that we all know what an SOB MacArthur was. Only his fellow Americans hated him more than the Aussies. He gave new meaning to the term "Napoleon Complex." The Australians deserve great credit just for staying in the coalition from 1944 on. No one today would blame them for having refused to continue to serve under MacArthur, pulled out and returned their troops to Australia. I don't think anyone would even blame them had they fragged the SOB and gotten rid of him for good. Maybe Caldwell could have "accidently" dropped a 500-pounder on the Führer's tent or something.The treatment of Australian forces in the South West Pacific post 1943 is also a disgrace....
Peter Charlton's The Unnecessary War: Island Campaigns of the South West Pacific 1944-45,1983 covers many aspects of the backwater role of the Australians in 1944-45.
'Bluey' Truscott was another RAAF ace of some fame:
http://www.awm.gov.au/people/329.asp
'Bluey' Truscott was another RAAF ace of some fame:
http://www.awm.gov.au/people/329.asp
Jeffrey Watson's new book on Caldwell, "Killer Caldwell, Australia's Greatest Fighter Pilot" goes into great detail on the so-called mutiny, the illicit alcohol running that was a major part of it, the personalities at a high level that considered Caldwell to big for his boots (and were looking for an excuse to cut him down), and the effect it had on morale within the RAAF.