BEFORE PEARL HARBOUR

Evening Post, Volume CXL, Issue 7, 9 July 1945, Page 6

BEFORE PEARL HARBOUR

AUSTRALIAN CATALINA SHOT

DOWN

A special correspondent of "Wings," the official magazine of the R.A.A.F., states that on December 6, 1941, an Australian Catalina was shot down in the Gulf of Siam some hours before Pearl Harbour, states the. R.N.Z.A.F. Official News Service. This, the cor- | respondent claims, was Japan's first act of war on the Western Nations. According to the article, the Catalina was on seaward reconnaissance, captained by Flying Officer Pat Bedell, an ex-Malayan Flying Club pilot. Flying Officer Bedell sighted a large convoy of Jap shipping in the Gulf of Siam, heading westward, and sent a signal of warning back to base. Shortly afterwards —and before the attack on Pearl Harbour —he was shot down by. patrolling Jap fighters. The article is a. tribute to the men of the Malayan Volunteer Air Force, who flew an odd collection of light aircraft in the first few weeks after the Japanese attacked Singapore. Towards the end of the Malayan campaign, they operated from the Bukit-Timah racecourse and later still they operated from a street in Singapore—the famous McPherson Road.