Brilliant wartime leader

Air Commodore W.H. Garing, CBE, DFC, DSC (USA) July 26, 1910 - January 1, 2004

By Dr Alan Stephens

IT could be argued that the Royal Australian Air Force had three major successes during the war in the Southwest Pacific from 1941 to 1945: the first defending Port Moresby in March-April 1942; the second at Milne Bay in August 1942; and the third in the Bismarck Sea in March 1943. For the latter two actions the RAAF’s commander on the scene was Group Captain William Henry Garing, whose aggressive leadership made a crucial contribution to both victories.

Short and stocky, with a dark complexion, Garing – who rose to the rank of Air Commodore – was a pugnacious, forceful and canny wartime leader, whose nickname “Bull” accurately described his personality.

AIRCDRE Garing was born in Corryong, Victoria. After 18 months’ service with the Citizen Air Force he entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in January 1930, transferring from the Army to the Air Force when he started flying training at Point Cook in December 1930. During the 1930s he became the Air Force’s leading specialist in air/sea operations. By the outbreak of war he had spent several years with the seaplane squadron at Point Cook, and in 1938 he had become the first person in Australia to qualify for a First Class Aircraft Navigator’s licence.

Then Flight Lieutenant Garing was in the United Kingdom in September 1939 with No. 10 Squadron, taking delivery of the RAAF’s new Short Sunderland maritime patrol aircraft, when the war in Europe started. 10SQN stayed in England to fight the Nazis and on October 10 Garing flew the unit’s first operational mission. In June 1940 he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for engaging five German bombers attacking an armed merchant cruiser. Later, he helped rescue 45 survivors from the refugee liner the City of Benares six days after the ship had been torpedoed in the North Atlantic.

When he returned to Australia his operational experience was exploited in a series of important planning activities; in particular, he played a key role in establishing operations centres, which had not previously existed in the RAAF, and at the end of 1941 he developed reconnaissance and attack plans for the Air Force units stationed in New Guinea, anticipating the outbreak of war with Japan.

The aspect of his wartime service that stood out above all else was his expert planning and inspirational leadership at Milne Bay and the Bismarck Sea. GPCAPT Garing arrived at Milne Bay as air commander several days after the fighting began. He brought a keen understanding of the situation and, even more importantly, an indomitable will to win. Grabbing what had been a somewhat uncertain Air Force organisation by the scruff of the neck, Bill Garing made things happen. “All we thought about,” he said later, “was killing Japs.”

Under his aggressive leadership, the RAAF made a vital contribution to the victory, the first time Japanese land forces had been defeated. And at a time when senior American Army commanders in the theatre questioned the capabilities of some of their Australian counterparts, he won the respect of the theatre’s senior airman, General George Kenney, and the supreme commander, General Douglas MacArthur.

Seven months after Milne Bay the Japanese made one last attempt to re-establish their loosening grip on New Guinea by despatching 6400 troops from Rabaul to their major garrison at Lae in a convoy of eight troop transports defended by eight destroyers and about 100 fighter aircraft.

Drawing on his expertise in maritime warfare, Garing convinced Kenney to prepare a massive, coordinated air attack against the convoy. He envisaged large numbers of aircraft striking from different directions and altitudes with precise timing. Early on March 3, 1943, more than 90 RAAF and US strike aircraft, plus fighter escorts, took off from Port Moresby to intercept the convoy in the Bismarck Sea, about 140km north of Lae. By 10am the battle had been joined and by 10.30am the brilliantly conceived and coordinated attack had routed the enemy fleet. MacArthur described the battle as “the decisive aerial engagement” of the war in the Southwest Pacific.

It is sometimes the case that the qualities that enable a commander to be a brilliant wartime operator with high profile battlefield successes are not always transferable to higher rear-echelon and staff duties, and that was the case with Bill Garing. Nevertheless, in the ensuing years, AIRCDRE Garing, CBE, DFC, DSC (US), continued to represent the RAAF with dignity and flair, and more than a hint of eccentricity, in senior posts that included Air Officer Commanding Overseas Headquarters London, commandant of the RAAF College, and officer commanding the bases at Pearce, Point Cook, Richmond and Edinburgh.

He also continued to fly aircraft with considerable dash until he retired in 1964; he logged more than 3900 hours and flew more than 90 aircraft types as Captain-in-Command.

In his final decade he became something of a cult figure at RAAF history conferences, sometimes outraging but usually delighting with his recollections of how the war in the Pacific was really fought and won. Bill Garing could reasonably claim to have been Australia’s most successful operational-level air commander in the Pacific. He was a unique, respected and, ultimately, loved figure in Air Force circles.

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