Honoured at last after 75 years

TASMANIAN veteran Brian Winspear has been given the honour of unveiling a new plaque at the Darwin Cenotaph to pay tribute to veterans from the 2 and 13 RAAF Hudson Bomber Squadrons.

Mr Winspear, 99, is the last survivor of the squadrons and explained the importance the two squadrons had during the bombing of Darwin.

“The 2 and 13 squadrons arrived in Darwin pretty much together,” he said yesterday on the 77th anniversary of the bombing of Darwin.

“The two squadrons were here from 1941-1943 and lost 200 aircrew in that time — three quarters of us were wiped out.”

Previously, the squadrons had received little recognition for their heroic actions.

“[The squadrons] did such a fine job the American president gave them a special presidential citation medal which is the little blue [badge], in appreciation of what the two squadrons did,” Mr Winspear said.

“Ever since then, nobody else has recognised us, there was no publicity at the time and the Australian government wasn’t interested.”

But he worked hard to have his fallen comrades remembered and finally, 77 years later with a little bit of help, has had his troop recognised.

“For 75 years, I have been agitating to get some recognition of the terrible losses we had, so today is important,” he said.

“Before I got to 100 I had to do something — Tom Lewis organised for the help of the Order of Australia Association and [Darwin] council of course put some money in it.

“We raised enough money to make this bronze plaque and that’s the small contribution I’ve had to get some sort of recognition.”

Mr Winspear shared a paper sheet with the names of all of the members who died. It stood more than nine feet tall.

Now that legacy extends beyond that piece of paper and will remain forever in Bicentennial Park, overlooking Darwin Harbour and the navy base where the first bombs fell.