WARBIRDS: The Australian War Memorial's Hudson revivial

A detailed look at the exciting current restoration of Hudson Mk.IVA A16-105 by the Australian War Memorial.

The Australian War Memorial has Hudson Mk.IVA A16-105 (C/No.6034 A-28 41-23175) in restoration and conservation as their current major aircraft project, which started in 2010.  Flightpath was given an extensive insight into this project and the rationale behind it by Senior Curator, Military Heraldry and Technology Section, John White and Project Manager, Conservation, Jamie Crocker. 

The history of this machine is regarded as highly significant by the AWM, because it saw extended and notable operational service with the RAAF, being used for training from December 1941 to April 1945, and, as outlined below, seeing significant front line service in late 1942 in support of the Buna-Gona campaign in Papua New Guinea. Also important to the Memorial’s objectives, it retains its original engine installation and cowlings, and all major airframe parts are believed to originate from this airframe; apart from a replacement nose structure, no major parts are known to have been changed. The Memorial’s objective is to restore this significant and original aircraft to as accurate a standard as can be managed, while retaining as much of the originality as is possible – starting from an advantageous position for both.

Wartime
The AWM aircraft was also issued to 1 OTU at Bairnsdale and Sale, Victoria, on 20 December 1941.  Due to their training role, the OTU Hudsons were kept in ‘front-line’ military configuration, and modifications and improvements were applied to the fleet.  A16-105 served – with one major exception – with the same unit until 3 April 1945 when it was placed in storage.

That exception was when A16-105 saw intensive front-line service for about three weeks; from early December 1942 to January 1943, this aircraft flew operationally with the RAAF in Papua New Guinea supporting the campaign against Buna and Gona, when Japanese forces were now retreating back to their coastal bases after the battle at Kokoda.  Critical shortages of air transport led to a detachment of fifteen Hudsons from 1 OTU being sent to Papua New Guinea.  Their role was ‘transporting troops, arms and equipment to the forward battle areas’. The Hudsons carried full military equipment including additional armament, and were flown by OTU crews under the command of an experienced pilot. The group of aircraft was called the ‘No.1 OTU Detached Flight’ and also the ‘Special Transport Flight’. They generally flew from Ward’s Strip at Port Moresby to forward airfields at Dobadura and Soputa.

It was a dangerous assignment. Two of the force (A16-36 and A16-3) were shot down, while three more Hudsons were attacked by Japanese fighters (A16-2 was ‘heavily shot up’, A16-110 and A16-127 damaged).Their airfields came under repeated air attack. A16-105 completed about 28 supply flights, and carried Australian and American troops into the battlefield, while also being used to evacuate wounded. The regular pilot of A16-105 was Flight Lieutenant David Campbell, who went on to become a well known poet, living in the Canberra area. His widely published poem ‘Men in Green’ probably describes his flights in A16-105 on 23 December 1942.  The AWM Hudson is known to have been flown back to the mainland by Campbell on 1 January 1943.

Civilian service
Taken on as a Mk. IVA in September 1947 for European Air Transport (who intended to run a migrant and repatriation airline), this project was squashed by the government and organizations of the day, so it went on to Curtis Madsen Aircrafts Pty Ltd as VH-BKY, before joining East West Airlines (EWA) as  VH-EWB ‘Cathedral City’ between 1950 and 1958.  In 1958 it was re-registered VH-EWS by EWA and used for aerial mapping until 1961, becoming John Fairfax & Son’s VH-SMO briefly in 1962, before joining Adastra Aerial Surveys under yet another civil registration VH-AGP, before being struck off the register in 1971.

After open storage at Tamworth, NSW, it was ferried to Moorabbin in November 1976, and restored back to military configuration, including a replacement wartime – rather than mapping – style nose, and repainted as ‘A16-123’ FX-F later returning to its own former serial A16-105. 

With Malcolm Long at Coolangatta, Queensland in the early eighties, it was loaned to Air World at Wangaratta, Victoria, before being bought by the AWM in 2001 from Malcolm, and apart from temporary display in the Anzac Hall, going into store at the Treloar Centre, Mitchell, Canberra.  As John White notes: “The aircraft was acquired in 2001.  By this time it had completed 3 ½ years military use, 30 years of constant civil operations in a variety of roles and 25 years as a museum piece.”  Now another phase in a national collection is opening up.

To read about the few surviving Lockheed Hudsons click here.