RAAF No. 79 Squadron fighter pilots discuss operations over New Britain from which they have just ...

Accession Number P02874.117
Collection type Photograph
Object type Negative
Maker Robinson, William Herbert
Place made New Guinea1: Papua New Guinea, Papua, Papuan Islands
Date made November 1943
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

RAAF No. 79 Squadron fighter pilots discuss operations over New Britain from which they have just returned, with the Squadron's Intelligence and Operations officers. Left to right: 411822 Flying Officer (FO) William Jasper Pickard; 420898 Pilot Officer (PO) W. F. (Wal) Howard; 400109 Flight Lieutenant (Flt Lt) Llewellyn Wettenhall; 255395 FO William John Clarke, Intelligence Officer; 264992 FO John Keith Walton Cowie, Operations Officer; 410760 FO George Wilson Voges; 407174 FO David Henry Hopton; 418232 Flight Sergeant George Alec Chomley; 406799 FO (later Flight Lieutenant) Kenneth Henry Slatyer; 417398 FO Owen Brakspear Morgan (at rear); 405026 FO Paul Francis Sebire. A Spitfire Mk Vc aircraft is in the background. Flt Lt Wettenhall and Flt Lt Slatyer were both lost on operations while serving with 79 Squadron, RAAF near New Guinea, respectively on 31 Dec, 1943 and 19 Feb 1944. Flt Lt Wettenhall has no known grave and is commemorated on the Rabaul Memorial, while Flt Lt Slatyer is buried in the Bomana War Cemetery near Port Moresby, Papua.