Scotch College

A salute to 130,000 Australian airmen

WORDS: MR DAVID ASHTON

Dr Mark Johnston, Head of History at Scotch, has just released his latest book, Whispering Death: Australian Airmen in the Pacific War. Running to more than 500 pages, it is based on thousands of documents, many interviews and years of work.

Dr Johnston says that writing this book made him prouder than ever of his association with Scotch, for Old Boys figure prominently throughout the story. Even more Scotchies died in World War II than in World War I, and about half of them were in the air force.

Joe Hewitt (1918), one of the most senior RAAF officers of the Pacific War, was a Scotchie, as was ‘Sam’ Balmer (’29), widely regarded as one of Australia’s best pilots and squadron leaders: he was killed in 1944. George Sayer (’31) died in New Guinea, piloting one of the Beaufighters that give the book its name, but he previously flew in Egypt, Russia, Malaya and Indonesia. When Java fell, he and 11 others took to an open boat and made an epic 44-day voyage to Australia.

Jack Sandford (’32) flew more sorties in Beaufighters than any other Australian. Larry Cronin (’37) became an air ace flying his Spitfire in India. John Lerew (’30), commanding the RAAF in New Britain, used the Latin he learnt at Scotch to send a cheeky comment to headquarters that entered air force folklore: Morituri te salutant! (‘Those who are about to die salute you!’). This book salutes these and the 130,000 other airmen who served in the war against Japan. GS