No. 3 Bombing & Air Gunnery School RAAF

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Brief History

The advance party for the fonn:~llon of 3 Bombmg and Gunnery School arrived at West Sale. five miles west of Sale, Vidoria, on 30 December 194J and consisted of one officer, Fhght L1cutcnant )acl<son. and one ainnan. They arrived to what was bil!tlcally " runway and nothing else. In 12 days the unit w:~s fonned under the command of I (Traming) Croup. Croup Captain Summers arrived on 14 January 1942 to take up his posting as the unit's Commandmg Officer. When the School began, West Sale was m the midst of construction, with no water supply except for water tankl;, a few bmldings. and w1th the main work in hand involving organi!>-1tion and the supply of equipment. No snnitnry arrangements exbted at the lime, and a 'pan service' had to be arranged to meet the umt'• growmg rcqulfements. During the unit's first weeks at West S.1lc, v•rious inspections were carried out by the Dcpnrtment of Interior and Army Co-ordination in respect of rationing, sanlt.uion and building.~. with much attention being paid to aerodrome defence. TI1e School wa:. fonned to carry out the function of completing the training of air gunners with a course of iru.truction in gunnery, and to !'rain <1ir observers in bomb1.ng and gunnery. The unit's first aircraft, a Fairey Battle, arrived on 2 February t942 from I A1rcraft Park. Training commcnC(.'Ci on 8 March 1942 with 43 trall1l'CS amving from Mount Gambier. Even before the start of tra1ning at the School, a group of Americans were fortunate that the un1l was operahon:~l On 13 February 1942, 14 Americans and their Kittyhawk aircraft were forced to l.lnd at West Sale afte.r becommg lost while travelling from the north down to Laverton. After bedding down for the n1ght and refuelling. they were off agam the next morning. 13 14 Titc first fatality at th<' School occurred in the fi rst week of training when Sergeant Giddings dived into Glen Maggie Weir ncar Muddra on 1•1 March 19·12. This accident followed an emergency lnndmg at the aerodrome the day before by Sergeant Giddings due to cngme trouble. 'lllc aircraft were to cause the same dilficultics for 3 Bombing and Gunnery School a5 for the other two bombing and gunnery schools. The casualty rate could actually have been a lot worse than it was. Normally in an alrcrn!t accident. both the pilot and crew (or trainees) would have bt't>n killed. But on several occas•o•1S th~ crew wen. able to esG>pt> death cither beG>use the pilot sacrificed himself m trying to land the a~rcra!t, <1r bt-cause the trainees were able to parachute out of the mrcraft. On those occasi01ts a number of injuries were sustained by the sur\'iving aircrcw and trainee... 3 Bombmg and Gunnery School conllnuc>d to operate lalfly smoothly unti19 December 1943 when it b<--came Air Gunnery SchooL 11>e strength of aircraft for the unit at this time was: Fairey Baltk'-67, Avro Anson24, Airspeed Oxford-33, Ry.tn-5. and Moth Minor-!. COMMAND ING OFF ICERS