The reminiscences of Don Pollock who, as a school boy, lived beside the airfield at Schofields (Quakers Hill) New South Wales.

I remember the RN at Schofields (Quakers Hill) well but not in a lot of detail. I would have been eight when the Fleet Air Arm was on the base.

My house was almost (less than 150 m) on the centre line for the N/S runway. Our house was South of the airfield and light bush (scrub separated our back fence from the main runway. When I stood on top of our tool shed (about 2.25 M high i could see aircraft landing on the strip and the occasional crash. Normally ending up on the nose. I never saw a wheels up landing.

Circuit traffic was tight in those days. All approaches were curving and most aircraft finished turning onto final at less than1000 metres and lined up on below 500' AGL. Most approaches were tight and curving; probably something to do with aircraft security under ship gun protection while landing.

Our house was situated in Douglas Road beside Andrew's Shop (later Brown's Shop). Except for the few hundred metres from the base main gate along Eastern Road, Dougals Road was the main thoroughfare from the aerodrome to the railway station. The main gate the aerodrome (on Eastern Road) was on a slight rise possibly 50' above the creeks two thirds of the way to the station. On "shore liberty" days a spectator from the elevated railway station could see a bobbing sea of white caps as hundreds of sailors rushed down Douglas Road to get to the train to travel into the "fleshpots" of Sydney.

Midway down the road was the small "Andrews General Store”. We had some rationing in Australia but nothing like that in the UK. Accordingly the faster sailors used to crowd into the shop to buy Ice Cream! I believe they made it special for the Poms as it was very, very sweet. For sailors starved of sugar for years it was paradise! In those days ice cream in metal containers surrounded by "hot" ice and enclosed in a canvas bag (rather like a small raft) often went by rail in Australia  Dances at the local hall were also attended by the sailors. No romances bloomed that I remember.

We saw Grumman Avenger, Supermarine Seafires, an occasional Barracuda and Corsair. About Christmas Day 1945 I think (we were travelling by train to my grandmothers) I was standing on the railway platform (the highest vantage point) watching a Grumman Avenger take off. It got about 250" above the ground when there was an explosion, a bit of the left cowling fell off and flame and black smoke streamed from the engine. The altitude was far too low for a successful parachute jump. The pilot immediately banked to the left to the only area clear of trees; the park about 700 metres from the station. The aircraft cleared the railway station by about 100' still turning for the park oval and racetrack, straightened out, hit the south side of the oval (wheels up) and skidded to a stop before the other side, which was slightly uphill. The pilot jumped out of the aircraft and (accompanied to the cheers of a relieved crowd on the station) did the fastest 150M I can ever recall-with his parachute still attached. The RN fire wagon arrived within a very short time and put the fire out.  After we had returned from my grandmothers the next day visitors were permitted to visit the aircraft, almost entirely intact except for the observers station towards the bottom rear, had there been another occupant they may have been severely injured. Do you have any details on this crash?

On another occasion late in a hot afternoon while we were in school we heard an aircraft diving followed by an explosion. A Seafire (Spitfire?) had disintegrated and wreckage was spread over about a two kilometre square radius. Unfortunately the pilot's body ended up in the backyard of a spinster who had lost her boyfriend in WW1. I doubt the cause of the crash was ever determined with any accuracy.
[Editor’s note: this was November 29th 1945, a Seafire L.III of 801 squadron disintegrated during a dive, the pilot, Sub Lt. L. J. Norton, R.A.N.V.R. was killed.]

When the war finished in the Pacific a group of at least 100 sailors marched to the school accompanied by a band. I think it was the first military band that I had seen. Everyone was thrilled with the attendance of the sailors and all were so happy the war was finally over.

Don Pollock
Wing Commander RAAF (Rtd)

Childhood resident of Quakers Hill