An interesting confluence of old and new: an Australian advertisement for a steamship passage to Britain to see both royal pageantry and aerial theatre, in the form of the ‘Hendon Air Pageant’, symbolised by aircraft performing aerobatics and trailing smoke: In 1935 His Majesty the King will celebrate the Silver Jubilee of his accession. London […]
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 842 is a copy of a statement by Joseph Jenkin, a farmer from (or near) Woomelang, witnessed by Mounted Constable J. C. Thornton, Victoria Police. It reads: that at about 8 a.m. on 11th May 1918 I was inside my house gettinh [sic] ready to go to Woomelang when I heard
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, pages 325 through 327, is a report from Lieutenant K. O. Mackenzie RANB (Royal Australian Naval Brigade), though in fact the bulk of it is his rendering of a statement made by James Aitken, a ‘mail contractor’ from Waratah Bay, regarding an aeroplane he had seen at Cape Liptrap on the Gippsland
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 202 is a letter from Frank Shann, headmaster of Trinity Grammar School, Kew (a suburb of Melbourne), to Commander F. G. Cresswell (the Navy’s Director of Radio Service — no connection to Rear Admiral W. R. Creswell, the Navy’s senior officer). Shann is reporting ‘an extraordinary and possibly suspicious occurrence’: One
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, pages 668 through 671 is a copy of Directorate of Military Intelligence report HB64, ‘Aircraft, lights and objects reported seen in the air — summary and appreciation no. 4’. It is a continuation of the last such ‘summary and appreciation’ HB56 of a week ago. But whereas HB56 was 17 pages long,
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 997 is a copy of a report from 2nd Lieutenant C. Kingsford Smith RFC on ‘investigations made at Gosford and Terrigal, re aircraft seen there at night’. Kingsford Smith has been sent up from Sydney on the basis of his experience as a pilot on the Western Front. His account can
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 457 is a copy of a telegram sent from the Navy Office to the Admiralty, London; Commander in Chief, China; Senior Naval Officer, Wellington; and Captain in Charge, Sydney. It reads: Majority of aircraft reports have proved to have no foundation. No definite proof of existence of aircraft obtained. Exhaustive enquiries
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 35 is a copy of a report from Constable A. E. Duvanel of Korumburra Station, Victoria Police. Duvanel gives a blow-by-blow account of his conversation at 8pm on 2 May 1918 with Mr Sandman of the Kongwak butter factory about ‘a bright light high up in the sky’, which had been
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, pages 218 and 219 is a letter from ‘Anxious’ of ‘Bundoora’, Charles St, Brighton, Victoria, to the editor of the Melbourne Herald: A mysterious aroeplane [sic] passed over the east of Brighton this morning at 10 past 7 a.m. & went south east towards Gippsland. The machine was a very large one
NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, pages 674 through 690 is a copy of Directorate of Military Intelligence report HB56, ‘Aircraft, lights and objects reported seen in the air — summary and appreciation no. 3’. It is a continuation of the first such ‘summary and appreciation’ HB53 of nearly a week ago (no. 2 was an interim update
