Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Finlayson, 23 April 1918
1910s, Archives, Australia, Books, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Tuesday, 23 April 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 212 is a telegram from Captain C. Finlayson, censor for the 3rd Military District (Victoria), to ‘Intelligence’, Navy Office. He is passing on a newspaper article which has been submitted for censorship: A man named Lewis living at the corner of Frank and Mills Streets, Ballarat West, has reported to Sub-Inspector […]

A. J. Boase, 20 April 1918
1910s, Archives, Australia, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Saturday, 20 April 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 468 is a copy of an order to the Officer Commanding, Central Flying School (i.e. Point Cook), from Major A. J. Boase on behalf of the Chief of the General Staff (i.e. Major-General J. G. Legge). It orders the detachment of two aircraft: (a) one aeroplane to TOORA, South GIPPSLAND or

G. T. Moyle, 19 April 1918
1910s, Archives, Australia, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Friday, 19 April 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 183 is a report from Constable G. T. Moyle of the Hamilton police station, in the Western District of Victoria. It concerns ‘an aeroplane’ seen near Macarthur in the early hours of 11 April 1918 by John Sutton, a drover. Sutton had told several people in Hamilton of his strange encounter,

A. E. Mclean, 17 April 1918
1910s, Australia, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Wednesday, 17 April 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, pages 191 and 192 are a report submitted by Constable A. E. McLean of Dartmoor police station. He is passing on information about a mystery aircraft and a ship offshore, seen or heard by multiple witnesses at Nelson, on the southwestern coast of Victoria, near the South Australian border. His informant is

AM Black, 4 April 1918
Archives, Australia, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Wednesday, 10 April 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 109 is a copy of a letter from A. M. Black to Major Hogan of the ‘Intelligence Service’. It’s undated, but NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 108 (a cover letter from military intelligence to naval intelligence) says that it was written on 10 April 1918; the incident it relates to seems to

War Intelligence No. T4 (extract), 30 March 1918
Archives, Australia, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Saturday, 30 March 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 556 is an extract from a weekly military intelligence report compiled for the Australian section of the Imperial General Staff, which has been forwarded on to the Navy. (It contains information up to 30 March, but it’s possible that it was compiled a day or two later.) It summarises a report

Anonymous, 25 March 1918
Archives, Australia, Nyang Week, Phantom airships, mystery aeroplanes, and other panics, Pictures, Post-blogging the 1918 mystery aeroplanes

Monday, 25 March 1918

NAA: MP1049/1, 1918/066, page 871 is a copy of an anonymous letter sent to the Minister of Defence in Melbourne in reference to reports ‘in the press on Saturday that two aeroplanes were seen flying over Nyang’ — likely either the Argus or the Age. Probably the latter, since it added a report from the

Scroll to Top