BAMOS June 2017
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Monash . In WWII he was brought out of retirement to become Chief of General Staff ( CGS ) and died , along with three cabinet members ; Street , Gullett and Fairbairn when their aeroplane crashed on landing in Canberra on 13 August 1940 . There is considerable debate as to what caused the crash , whether it was pilot error or whether turbulence may have been a factor . The weather was in fact fine at the time with some cloud about .
The Hutchins Brothers ( bottom image )
Seven brothers enlisted in WWII and four of them died as POWs of the Japanese . Three brothers ( David , Fred and Eric ) had consecutive numbers and died alongside a cousin ( Thomas ) as POW ’ s on Ambon . The other brother , Alan died as a POW on Rabaul . How much did the tropical weather and climate along with the poor treatment and lack of medicine and food lead to their deaths ? The death rate of the POWs at Ambon was close to 70 %. As a follow up , another cousin was a part of the Engineering corps who landed on Ambon in October 1945 whose duty was to uncover and identify the dead .
References
Australian War Memorial ( www . awm . gov . au )
a . https :// www . awm . gov . au / encyclopedia / enlistment / b .
Roll of Honour c . Collection ( photographs )
BBC . 2013 . Men ’ s average height ‘ up 11 cm since 1870s . www . bbc . com / news / health-23896855 ( Accessed 20 May 2017 ).
Bean , C . E . W . 1941a . Official History of Australia in the War of 1914 – 1918 Vol 1 . www . awm . gov . au / collection / C1416844 .
Bean , C . E . W . 1941b . Official History of the Australian Army Medical Services 1914-1918 Vol 1 Part 1 . www . awm . gov . au / collection / C1416843 .
Davis , C . 2015 . Reality vs Myth : An Analysis of Death Rates at Gallipoli . Sabretache Vol LV1 No . 1 p33 – 38 .
FO G . C . Yorkston ( W / O ), FO E . H . McDonald ( W / O ) 251 Squadron RAF
These two Flying Officers were wireless operators on a Meteorological flight in a Hudson out of Reykjavik , Iceland on 17 March 1945 when their aeroplane lost contact just over an hour before they were due to return . In a terrible twist of fate Yorkston ’ s older brother also died in an aircraft accident in the UK two weeks earlier when his aeroplane crashed on landing . As weather became more and more important during WWII , both in battles and in forecasting such as for the D-Day landings , the need to get weather observations from upstream was vital . As a consequence , the RAF set up Squadrons and Flights to undertake these tasks . These aircraft would fly out from places like Iceland , the Shetland Islands in northern Scotland and over the Atlantic to gather this information . Even in the desert and India , RAF aeroplanes were sent up for this task . On some occasions these aircraft were lost , either just disappearing without a trace , colliding with each other , reporting SOS , crashing on take- off or as a result of bad weather . FO Yorkston and FO McDonald were just two of 18 Royal Australian Air Force personnel who died whilst flying in RAF Meteorological aircraft during WWII .
The Hutchins Brothers . David is first on the left , Eric third left , Fred is fourth from the left in the back row and Alan in the middle on the bottom row .
All images from the Australian War Memorial .