Young Jessica led busy life
Andrew Stackpool tells the story behind one of the aircraft on display at the RAAF Museum.

The Boston A28-8, dubbed “Jessica”, on display at the RAAF Museum.

BOSTON FACTS

Uses: - Light attack bomber with two or three crew Power plant: - Two 1600 hp Wright Double-Row Cyclone GR-2600-A5B Dimensions: - Span 61ft 4ins, Length 47ft, Height 15ft 10ins Weight: - Empty 12,200 lb; loaded 25,000 lb Performance: -Maximum speed 304mph at 13,000ft; -Tactical climb 1200 ft/min; Range 1020m; -Service ceiling 24,250ft

FLYING and maintaining warbirds often involves sweat, curses and blisters.

So does restoring the aircraft to museum exhibition quality, according to Warrant Officer Chris Beazley, of No. 28 (City of Canberra) Squadron.

He should know as he and other 28SQN members were involved in the painstaking job of rebuilding A28-8 Boston DU-J
– nicknamed “Jessica” – to static condition. The aircraft has been one of the attractions at the RAAF Museum at RAAF Base Williams, Point Cook since 1998.

In 1987 Air Force recovered Jessica from her resting place in a swamp and returned her to Australia aboard HMAS Tobruk.

She was transported to RAAF Base Wagga where Air Force technical personnel set about the restoration project.

They continued until 1992 when new OH&S regulations banned grit blasting and spray-painting on the commercial scale necessary for the work. The aircraft was transferred to RAAF Base Richmond and then RAAF Base Amberley where No. 23 (City of Brisbane) Squadron personnel completed the task.

Jessica deployed with No. 22 Squadron in September 1943 to Goodenough Island north of Australia. The Squadron’s Douglas Bostons were heavily engaged in close, tactical support of ground forces and harassing attacks on Japanese shipping, supply dumps, supply barges, defences and Japanese-occupied villages.

These missions were exceptionally hazardous as they were low-level sorties (often at tree-top level) in the face of normally heavy flak.

Jessica was one of 22 Bostons ordered for the French Air Force. This was rescinded after the fall of France in 1940 and the aircraft were to be transferred to the RAF.

Soon after the Japanese entered the war in December 1941, A28-8 was transferred to the Netherlands by the Americans and was to be shipped with 11 others to Java. The Dutch East Indies were overrun before the aircraft arrived and instead Jessica was transferred to the RAAF and delivered to Melbourne in April 1942.

She conducted flight-testing in Australia then joined 22SQN in Port Moresby in December 1942. Her pilot was Flying Officer Harry Rowell, who named the ship Jessica after his girlfriend.

On a mission on December 12, 1943, enemy fire struck the aircraft and damaged its undercarriage hydraulics. FLGOFF Rowell performed a wheels-up landing in a partly dry swamp at the end of the Goodenough runway. He and his crew member walked away but it was the end for the Boston.

She broke her back and was written off. As he departed, FLGOFF Rowell souvenired her control wheel but the aircraft slowly settled into the mud of the swamp.

“She had a charmed life,” WOFF Beazley said. “There would not be many World War II aircraft that were four years old and saw service in four air forces.”

At a ceremony to unveil the restored aircraft in 1996, ex-FLGOFF Rowell turned up with the control wheel salvaged a half-century before. He had survived the war, married the real Jessica and fetched up in Perth.

WOFF Beazley said that during the ceremony only 23SQN had been acknowledged as the restorers.

“When the project was at RAAF Wagga, Reserve personnel from all our squadrons and musterings, along with PAF, put in sweat, curses and blisters to make this restoration the success it commands at the Museum,” he said.

“I have since learned 28SQN’s name has been added on a plaque and hope Wagga’s work can now be recognised.”

The Short Answer

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