Baker, John Henry (Flight Lieutenant, b.1920 - d.2010)

Collection relating to the Second World War service of 409982 Flight Lieutenant John Henry Baker, 100 Squadron and 32 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Australia, 1942-1944.

Wallet 1 of 1 – Consists of two folders of material relating to Flight Lieutenant Baker.

Folder 1 of 2 - Consists of two diaries and one notebook of Flight Lieutenant Baker, compiled while he was training to be a pilot in Australia. The first diary, a small “Walkers Diary”, contains brief entries dated between 30 March and 16 April 1942. It records his training flights and his perceptions of how they went, his first solo flight, and leisure activities. The second diary, titled “Private Log Book”, has entries dated between 31 May and 5 September 1942. In this diary, Baker records experiences such as learning to fly Airspeed Oxford aircraft, listening to lectures, going home for leave, practice flights, going to the picture theatres, night flying, calling off his relationship with his girlfriend Betty, studying hard, going skating, flying cross country, getting his wings, starting Advanced Training School, bombing lessons, and having flights being cancelled due to poor weather. The notebook, dated c 1943, contains notes on call signs, signals, flights, letters sent, money owed, places he had been, names of airmen, various types of bombs (including diagrams), various types of gasses and their effects, and first aid. It also contains several sketches of faces and notes on loose sheets of paper.

Folder 2 of 2 – Consists of one typed transcript of notes titled “First Operational Tour of J H Baker”, relating to Flight Lieutenant Baker’s service with 100 Squadron between 2 July 1943 and 11 January 1944. In this manuscript, Flight Lieutenant Baker writes of being posted to 100 Squadron at Milne Bay, being very busy, searching for lost Australian aircraft, doing area patrols, encountering a Japanese naval fleet and submarines, bombing strategic points on nearby islands, losing crews from the Squadron, their first night strike, working with faulty equipment, becoming ill with dysentery, undertaking bombing strikes in electrical storms, ferrying Christmas supplies back to camp, an incident on Christmas Day, 1943, in which a Japanese fighter followed the squadron’s bombers back to their airstrip and bombed it while they were disembarking, and being posted to 32 Squadron in New South Wales. This manuscript also includes a footnote written by Flight Lieutenant Baker in 1990.