No. 5 Aircraft Depot RAAF

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Brief History

No. 5 Aircraft Depot was formed at Forest Hill airfield near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, on 23 Mar 1942, sharing the airfield with No. 2 Service Flying Training School and, later No. 5 Operational Training Unit. At 31 Aug 1942, the strength of the unit was 42 officers and 1612 airmen. At the end of November 1942 the accommodation at the Depot was limited to 1785 personnel, and 320 were authorised to live in emergency quarters. The unit handled the major maintenance work on aircraft including the Bristol Beaufort, Bristol Beaufighter, Lockheed Ventura and the North American B-25 Mitchell.

A fire in the electrical and instrument repair section on 27 Oct 1943 had severely curtailed activity to such a degree that repair work had to be diverted to Australian National Airlines. The unit also suffered a range of manpower issues with resources not matched to task in hand. On New Year's Day 1944, the strength of the unit stood at 59 officers, 1637 airmen and 127 airwomen. An aircraft storage section was formed at Cootamundra, New South Wales, initially with 10 Kittyhawks and three Beauforts. At the end of May 1944 there were 63 aircraft and one glider in storage at Cootamundra.

On 22 Feb 1946, Care and Maintenance Unit, Wagga Wagga, came into existence, and in May the nit was disbanded.

Unit Personnel

• Alfred Ensor Hand 7 Apr - 23 Jul 1942
• Gordon Boyle 9 Aug 1942 - 29 Dec 1942
• Francis Neal McGurk 14 Sep - 28 Feb 1943 & 24 Jan - 29 Feb 1944

Notes

Source of information - Units of the Royal Australian Airforce - A Concise History - Vol 4 Maintenance Units - Australian Government Publishing Service, 1995