Book Review: The Third Brother

Author

Book reviewer

Subjects

History - general, Book reviews, Aviation

Tags

RAAF

RAN Ships

None noted.

Publication

June 1991 edition of the Naval Historical Review (all rights reserved)

Chris Coulthard-Clark, 533 pages, illustrated, Allen and Unwin, Australia.

In the spate of 50th Anniversary war books it comes as rather a surprise to have a book celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Royal Australian Air Force placed on one’s desk. “The Third Brother” is an important contribution to Australian military history in that it records the history of the service between 1921-1939. The book has been published by Allen and Unwin in conjunction with the Royal Australian Air Force, a trend which is becoming increasingly necessary in a market of high costs and competition.

”The Third Brother” is not only the birth of the Royal Australian Air Force but is the pre-natal struggles of the service to achieve independence from its older brothers, the Royal Australian Navy and the Australian Army. The author’s coverage of this three way struggle is also the story of the air arm in the other two services and the aspirations of all three.

The genesis of the Royal Australian Air Force was also the genesis of a number of affiliated organisations. The parts played by the Australian Air League, the Australian Aero Club, the Department of Civil Aviation, the Citizen Air Force and the Royal Australian Air Force Wireless Reserve are integral units of Mr. Coulthard-Clark’s story as also are the pioneer flights to Australia in the period 1919-1934.

Of interest to the general reader will be the leading role played by the R.A.A.F. in survey and exploration in Australia and Australian administered territories. In the mid 1920s Fairy IIID floatplanes were attached to the R.A.N. survey ships MORESBY and GERANIUM in the Great Barrier Reef survey. Several years later the same aircraft were used in the Australian oil survey of New Guinea. In the period 1935 to 1940 the R.A.A.F. carried out the Australian Aerial Geophysical and Geological Survey which was to prove invaluable in World War II.

Moth seaplanes of the R.A.A.F. were used in Mawson’s 1930 and 1931 Antarctic Expeditions. Eighteen flights were undertaken in difficult conditions one of which claimed Proclamation Island for Australia.

Between the mid-1920s and 1930s the R.A.A.F. was almost continuously involved in searches for pioneer airmen. These searches proved hazardous and in one such operation two R.A.A.F. aircraft were lost.

”The Third Brother” is also a definitive history of the Australian Aircraft Industry. It describes the pioneer efforts of builders like Wing Commander Wackett and other early fliers who turned their hand to aircraft design. The story of the Widgeon I and Widgeon II and the Warrigals I to IV graphically portrays the problems met in these endeavours. It was from an amalgamation of a number of these pioneer builders that the Commonwealth Aircraft Factory evolved.

This book is a record of the triumphs and failures of the fledgling service. In the latter categories are the many fatal crashes, many of which occurred on ceremonial flights. One such flight saw two aircraft crash in front of the Duke of York at Canberra. The service also provided transport for the government and service chiefs. One such flight which crashed soon after the outbreak of World War II cost Australia the lives of the nation’s top echelon of military leaders.

This book is highly recommended to all with an interest in aircraft, the development of the air wing in all three services and the history of the Royal Australian Air Force.