No. 5 Central Recovery Depot RAAF

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Brief History

No. 5 Central Recovery Depot was formed at Mallala, South Australia, on 1 Feb 1944 with a strength of 28 airmen and three WAAAF. ln addition, 33 airmen and one WAAAF were posted to 5 Central Recovery Depot and attached to 2 Operational Training Unit at Mildura. The Depot operated detachments in Adelaide and at Para field. Mallala was only a temporary location. Several alternative locations were examined before Port Pirie, South Australia was chosen.

On 6 Sep 1944, the Depot was instructed to move to Port Pirie. On 11 September, an advance party proceeded to Port Pirie, and the move was essentially complete by 17 September. Whilst the final locality of the Depot was being discussed, salvage tasks had commenced. Members of the unit travelled to Cooks Plains, Mount Bryan, Ceduna, Yunta, Murray Bridge, Broken Hill and Alice Springs to recover Battle, Vengeance, Kittyhawk, Spitfire, Beaufort, Tiger Moth and Hudson aircraft.

At the end of 1944, the strength of the unit was 142 officers and other ranks, and the unit reached a peak strength of 228 in January 1946. During September 1945, plans were made for members of the Depot to assist with the closure of inland fuel depots at Port Pirie, Crystal Brook and Gladstone. Additional tasks taken over by the unit were the storage of aircraft. During November/December Anson aircraft arrived and the RAAF station at Port Pine was responsible for the closure of No. 3 Air Observation School on 18 Dec 1945. No. 5 Central Recovery Depot ceased to function on 10 Jan 1946, and was to be reduced to a nucleus basis. On 15 Mar 1946 it was re-named Care and Maintenance Unit, Port Pirie. On l5 Mar 1946, the strength of the unit had dropped to 95 officers and other ranks.

Unit Personnel

• Albert Ernest Jolly 29 Dec 1944 - 4 Feb 1945

Notes

Content has come from Units of the Royal Australian Air Force - A Concise History - Volume 7 Maintenance Units - Australian Government Publishing Service - 1995 pages 44 & 45