Norman Woodhouse
Stephen LearmonthNorman (Norm) Woodhouse was born on the 31st of January, 1912, at Tumbarumba, NSW. He was the youngest of two children for Charles and Ellen Macbeth (née Evans). Norm’s older sister, Thelma, was born two years before him in 1910. Norm’s middle name is a little enigmatic as it is written as “Donald”, “Ronald” and “Lonald” in different official documentation.
The Australian Electoral Rolls from 1933 to 1937 list Norm as being a farmer living at Glenroy via Tumbarumba. In October of 1939, Norm applied to join the Civil Air Reserve and to undertake flight training. However, before anything eventuated, he enlisted in the RAAF. The 1942 Electoral Roll has his address as Corryong and he is listed as being a lorry driver. On the 17th of December, 1940, Norm married Betty Helen Shiplee. Betty’s family had migrated to Australia from England in 1926. Norm and Betty would add to their small family with the birth of a son, Peter Charles, on the 5th of October, 1943.
Prior to enlisting, Norm was employed as a driver and general mechanic for W.H. Kaighin, “Corryong Stores”. He had also worked at a garage for 12 months. Within his service records is a handwritten referee statement from A.R.C Gregson, who was an electrical engineer in Corryong, declaring Norm’s sound qualities and further providing that Norm had studied mechanical engineering under his guidance.
Norm enlisted on the 14th of October, 1940, at the No.1 Recruiting Centre RAAF in Melbourne. He was allocated the Service Number 18994 and ordered to attend No. 1 Recruit Depot and Laverton. Initially he wanted to muster as a pilot, however, the Air Force had other ideas. He was enlisted as a technical trainee due to his skills as a mechanic but remustered in early 1941 as a fitter and, in late 1943, as a flight engineer. But standing there, on the 14th of October, 1940, Norm had two years of training ahead of him before being attached to a squadron. In late October of 1940, he attended No. 4 School of Technical Training in Adelaide, SA. Next came No. 1 Engineering School at Ascot Vale, a suburb of Melbourne, for further technical training. He was then off to Deniliquin, in rural NSW, to No. 7 Elementary Flight Training School in July of 1941. Lastly, on the 4th of September, 1943, he was transferred to No. 30 Training Unit at Rathmines, NSW, the RAAF’s main flying boat base during the war. On the 5th of November, 1943, Norm was finally transferred to an operational squadron, No 43 Squadron RAAF, based at Karumba along the Gulf of Carpentaria.
Norm’s father, Charles, also enlisted during the Second World War. Between the 14th of April ,1942, to the 23rd of February, 1944, Charles was Private C.J. Woodhouse (390329) of the 5th Australian Base Ordnance Depot in Sydney, NSW.
The Squadron was transferred to Darwin in early April of 1944, and it was here, at Doctor’s Gully, that they would commence operations. Mine laying missions would become their speciality, sometimes flying up to 25 hours on an individual mission. They would also, occasionally, fly air-sea rescue sorties for long range bomber strikes on targets in the Dutch East Indies.
On the 24th of April, PBY-5A Catalina A24-53 (see photograph) took off on a mine laying mission over Balikpapan Harbour. The other crew members on A24-53 included:
Flight Officer Francis Kirby Robinson, RAAF 402544 (co-pilot)
Flight Sergeant Donald George Abbey, RAAF 410135 (pilot)
Flight Sergeant Douglas George Hoffman, RAAF 207799 (wireless/air gunner)
Flight Sergeant Brian Kenneth Winterbon, RAAF 429254 (navigator)
Sergeant Arthur Maurice Belshaw, RAAF 67878 (armourer)
Warrent Officer Robert Alfred Swan, RAAF 404221 (wireless/air gunner)
Sergeant Kenneth Evernet Thompson, RAAF 9167 (fitter)
Sergeant William David Reece, RAAF 18984 (flight engineer)
Over the target, the aircraft was brought down by anti-aircraft fire and crashed and burst on the water about half a mile from land. Witnesses reported that it crashed from about 300 feet and burnt for 20 minutes. The entire crew died in the crash. Two of the crew, Hoffman and Reece, were believed to have gone down with the aircraft and remain listed as missing in action.
After the crash, the Japanese recovered the remains of the seven crew from the wreckage. The bodies were brought to two Dutch Prisoners of War, Mr Van Kralingen (a Dutch Salvation Army Officer) and Lieutenant Koning (a Dutch Army officer), who buried them in the Dutch Civil Cemetery. The Japanese stated that they believed other bodies were still in the wreckage when it sank.
A statement made by Lieutenant Koning in May of 1946 explains the aftermath of the raid:
“As a p.o.w. With others concentrated by the Japanese in part of the Dutch Santosse-barracks at Balikapapan, I was rushed to the air-raid shelters with other p.o.w’s in the night of 26th/27th April 1944, when air-raid alarm was given by the Japanese. We hardly heard anything, some fellows said some far-off noises could be heard. Nothing sensational happened, but next day the Japanese were feverishly sweeping Balikpapan Bay and the waters in front of the boulevard. No ships sailed out or came in. [No doubt the Japanese were worried that some of the mines carried by the Catalinas could still have been alive - author].
The day after that, the 28th April, a convoy entered and it was a great delight to see, how the ships were struck by explosion and either sank or were set on the ground in shallow waters.
That same morning Japanese had some of us taken [sic] diver’s equipment from their stores and they got off with it in a hurry.
In the late afternoon the Japanese ordered our commander to send out some 8 or ten men on a special fatigue. I was one of them and we had to take spades with us.
We were taken on a truck to the nearby Japanese hospital. After a few minutes waiting we saw Japanese carrying a body on a bamboo stretcher covered with mattings and put it on the truck. We were then driven to the Dutch Civil Cemetery.
We had to dig the grave and bury the body. It was covered with matting, not put in a coffin. One of us picked flowers, that were put on the graves summit. I made a short speech and had us stand to attention. We were surprised that the Japanese allowed us to do so, without asking them.
The following day, in the afternoon, I assisted in the burial of two more men, buried in a common grave. The Japanese brought these bodies without matting and they were buried without any covering.
After that other parties were sent to dig three graves for and bury four men, two of which were put in a common grave.”
After the war, the remains of the seven crew members were positively identified and transported to Labuan Island where they were reinterred in the Labuan War Cemetery.
Norm is remembered on the Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, and the Corryong War Memorial. For his service, he was awarded the 1939-45 Star, the Pacific Star, the Defence Medal, the War Medal 1939-1945 and the Australian Service Medal 1939-1945.
