Photographs relating to 260968 Squadron Leader Leslie Roy Dawson, 18 Squadron.

Lieutenant Colonel (Lt Col) B J Fiedeldij, Commanding Officer of No 18 NEI (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron discusses the move of the squadron from Canberra to the Northern Territory with 260968 Squadron Leader (Sqn Ldr) Leslie Roy Dawson RAAF. Sqn Ldr Dawson was later killed off Cairns in a flying accident on 7 September 1944. When the Japanese occupied the Netherlands East Indies (NEI) in early 1942 a number of Dutch airmen escaped to Australia. Most ended up at either Archerfield airfield in Brisbane or Melbourne and were formed into a number of operational groups under RAAF control. All of their stores and equipment were supplied by the United States of America. The Netherlands East Indies had two combat squadrons and some Transport sections in Australia during the Second World War. The first squadron was No 18 (NEI) Squadron, equipped with B-25 Mitchell bombers, and was formed as an RAAF Squadron at Fairbairn airfield in Canberra on 4 April 1942 under the command of Lt Col Fiedeldij. The Squadron was formed from the two groups of Dutch airmen at Archerfield and Melbourne and also included a number RAAF aircrew and ground crew. The squadron operated from MacDonald in 1942, Bachelor in 1943, both airfields are in the Northern Territory, Potshot in Western Australia and Batchelor again in 1944; in July 1944 the squadron moved to Balikpapan. The RAAF component was disbanded in November 1945 and the Dutch assumed responsibility for the squadron in January 1946. The squadron moved to Tjililitan, Java in 1946 and was disbanded in 1950.