No. 55 Operational Base Unit RAAF

AWM PO 3829.001

RAAF Gorrie 55 OBU Signals Office

Brief History

No. 55 Operational Base Unit was formed on 20 May 1942, at Birdum in the Northern Territory, 500 kilometers south east of Darwin. Its first Commanding Officer did not reach Birdum as his aircraft crashed soon after taking off from Alice Springs, killing all aboard. The unit did not function until the new CO had arrived on 4 Jun 1942. 55 Operational Base Unit was required to administer and maintain a camp area for accommodating the various sections of the Base.

Activities of the Operational Base Unit included headquarters function, signals, general administration and maintaining contact with all other Base Units, operational landing grounds as well as managing all movements of stores or personnel, north or south, through Larrimah, maintenance of a bomb and fuel dump, and having personnel on hand to service aircraft staging through the base.

On 16 January 1944 the Unit moved to Gorrie, Northern Territory, and was disbanded on 31 March 1946.

Unit Personnel

• Edward Trayton Elvish 25 Jun 1942 - 14 Aug 1942
• Harold Morgan

Passing Through

• Tom Shelley Griffiths 20 - 25 DSep 1943
• Avon William Mills 21 - 24 Oct 1942
• Joseph Watson (RAAF) 18 Apr - 19 May 1943
• Laurence Harold Smith 20 - 25 Jan 1943
• Lloyd Ryder Hughes 3 - 11 Mar 1944

Notes

Source of information - Units of the Royal Australian Airforce - A Concise History - Vol 1 Bases, Supporting Organisations, Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995