The Australian War Memorial Collection. Test site
Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, Papua. c. September 1943. Spitfire Mk Vc A58-165, code letters UP-L (RAF ES232) of No. 79 Squadron RAAF with 90 gallon auxiliary fuel drop tank for operations over New Britain. The port side engine cowling carried a painting of the cartoon character "Bugs Bunny", a Leon Schlesinger Productions (later Warner Bros. Cartoons) character.
No. 79 Squadron airmen, left to right: 52262 Leading Aircraftman (LAC) R. (Ron) Coverdale, Instrument Repairer; 54335 LAC R. G. (Ron) Preston, Flight Rigger. Note: This aircraft was force landed by its pilot, Warrant Officer (WO) Jock Haines, with the undercarriage retracted immediately after lift off from Tipton airfield (near Cecil Plains, Qld) early on the morning of 5 December 1944. It was one of a section of four No. 79 Squadron aircraft en route from Los Negros in the Admiralty Islands to No. 6 Aircraft Depot at Oakey, Qld. The last leg of this ferry flight was terminated by a landing at Tipton when darkness fell on the previous evening. WO Haines had been the regular pilot of ES232 since the previous April. He was unhurt and the aircraft received minimal damage in the forced landing occasioned by an internal glycol leak.
Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, Papua. September 1943. No. 79 Squadron RAAF pilot, 412215 Flight Sergeant (Flt Sgt) P. F. (Phil) Turner (right), and 54335 Leading Aircraftman R. G. (Ron) Preston, Flight
Kiriwina Island, Trobriand Islands, Papua. 1944. Identification portrait of 54335 Leading Aircraftman R. G. (Ron) Preston, Flight Rigger, No. 79 (Spitfire) Squadron RAAF.
Goodenough Island, D'Entrecasteaux Islands, Papua. July 1943. No. 79 Squadron RAAF Spitfire Mk Vc No. A58-176, code letters UP-P (RAF JG807) being refuelled by 80004 Leading Aircraftman (LAC) P. H. Sc
Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, Papua. November 1943. A group of airmen servicing a No. 79 Squadron RAAF Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vc aircraft on the airfield. Back row, on the wing, left to right: 54335 L
Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, Papua. 19 February 1944. Wreckage of No. 79 Squadron RAAF Spitfire Mk Vc aircraft, A58-140, UP-E (RAF No. EE884), in a swamp close to the airfield. The pilot, 406799 Fligh
Kiriwina, Trobriand Islands, Papua. 19 February 1944. Wreckage of No. 79 Squadron RAAF Spitfire Mk Vc aircraft, A58-140, UP-E (RAF No. EE884), in a swamp close to the airfield. The pilot, 406799 Fligh
