A Lockheed Hudson Mk III taking off at the 2019 Australian International Airshow.
EVER since the surprise attack on the US Navy's base at Pearl Harbour by Imperial Japanese Navy aircraft on Dec 7, 1941, it has been assumed that "this day that will live in infamy" marked the beginning of World War 2 in the Pacific.
However, it has been argued that the first shots and first deaths came an hour earlier in the skies off Kelantan in what was then British-colonised Malaya.
Is this true?
Verdict:
TRUE
Yes, the first three Allied lives to be lost were in fact a crew of a twin-engine Lockheed Hudson coastal reconnaissance aircraft of the Royal Australian Air Force's No.1 Squadron.
In a Facebook post, the Australian War Memorial in Canberra said that the shooting-down of the Hudson actually happened a hour before the Dec 7, 1941 all-out aerial assault of Pearl Harbour, even though what took place off Kelantan is documented as taking place on Dec 8, 1941 due to the International Date Line.
Writing in a post memorialising the incident, it said that this aircraft – A16-19 – had been in Singapore and Malaya from mid-1941 and it was being used to defend Malaya from a sea-borne Japanese invasion when it was shot down.
"The pilot, 27-year-old Flight Lieutenant John Ramshaw, and the Wireless/Air Gunners, 21-year-old Flight Sergeant Garet White and 28-year-old Jeffery Coldrey were killed when the aircraft crashed off shore," said the Memorial.
It added that the bodies of the three were never recovered and are now commemorated at the Singapore Memorial at the Kranji War Cemetery.
The Memorial then said that the aircraft’s co-pilot - Flying Officer Donald Dowie - was thrown through the roof of the crashed Hudson and survived with a fractured spine.
"He spent two days adrift on a small local Malayan boat before he was found and taken as a prisoner of war. He was repatriated back to Australia in late 1945," said the Memorial.
It then added with a photo that parts of the Hudson were recovered by a fisherman in the 1970s and these remains have since come into the Memorial's war museum collection.
"This engine from A16-19 was recovered from the sea in 1976 by a local fisherman, Abdul Rahman Win Harum.
"This highly significant relic is a reminder that the first shots of the Pacific war were not fired at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, but thousands of kilometres away, over and around the north eastern coastline of Malaya," it said.
References:
1. https://www.awm.gov.au/
