Catalina Memorial by junge1
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Description
This memorial, located on the Esplanade in Cairns, is dedicated to the Catalina Flying Boats of 11 and 20 Squadrons of the Australian Royal Air Force. The dedication at the base of this memorial reads as follows:
'During the early critical months of the Pacific War, Catalina flying boats of 11 and 20 Squadrons, Royal Australian Air Force played a significant part in slowing the initial Japanese advance. Operating from northern island bases as emergency bombers and reconnaissance aircraft, although deficient in speed, arms, and amour, they exerted an influence out of all proportion to their limited numbers. As these inexorably dwindled and their bases were overrun or became untenable, the survivors withdrew to mainland Australia and - briefly licking their wounds - renewed the fight from the waters which this memorial overlooks.
Armed with bombs, depth charges, mines or torpedoes they reached out from here in single flights, to the Solomons, New Britain, New Guinea, and the Netherlands East Indies; and by stages and in increasing strength, to the Palaus, the Philippines, Formosa, and China.
In January 1942 the two squadrons attacked Truk, the great Japanese Naval base in the Carolinas; by June the enemy flood had reached the Solomons and the 'Catalinas' were bombing Tulagi, the centre of the group; three years later, in May 1945, with the reinforcement of 42 and 43 squadrons, they were mining the South China coast; and in July, as the test atom bomb exploded in New Mexico, they were full strength, mining the Banka Straits off Sumatra'.
This picture was taken on 13 December 2011,
Sig...
Comments (34)
Faemike55
Very beautiful memorial and great capture
junge1
It was kind of tough getting a decent shot of this since it was so tall, and i didn't want any wires in it!
dbrv6
Great shot - new to me, very interesting.
Sea_Dog
Excellent shot and interesting story.
jayfar
An excellently composed shot.
Jay-el-Jay
A very good shot of this war memorial.Bonus points for the difficulty factor of the height.
virginiese
stunning memorial : great capture
bobrgallegos
Wonderful very interesting capture and narrative!!!
Flint_Hawk Online Now!
Great POV & composition! Impressive memorial!
flaviok
Fascinante captura e informação meu amigo, aplausos (5)
renecyberdoc
very intersting.
Fidelity2
I am loving it. Thank you. 5+!
West_coaster07
Fantastic info and image Sig!!!
Manfred78
a lot of informations about the 42 and 43 squadrons in WWII and their memorial
bazza
Fabulous Sig that's one amazing looking memorial!!
drifterlee
Very interesting shot and story!
kgb224
Superb capture my friend. Thank you for sharing the information as well. God Bless.
Crudelitas
Oh, man! I would not be up there to clean the windows ... Cool shot!
neiwil
Bloody cool capture! great memorial to brave men who roamed far taking the fight to the enemy.. (daft question, out of curiosity "How big is that plane?") ?
jocko500
real cool
adrie
Wonderful and interesting photoshot my friend.
dakotabluemoon
That is really cool great stuff u are bringing to the table.
debbielove
Great history Sig, well posted.. A worthy post indeed.. Well done mate.. And a super POV.. Rob
jophoto
Nice shot!
sandra46
GREAT SHOT
flavia49
outstanding image
bmac62
Like it Sig...historical notes shed more light on a part of the war I don't know very much about. That's got to be a model up there, right?
Maxidyne
A very impressive shot of a fine memorial. Good to see that these often overlooked crews are given a worthy tribute.
emmecielle
Excellent perspective! Great shot! :)
sharky_
Interesting memorial flying high. Salute to them. Aloha