War records

By Mike Nelmes

Lindsay Stepanow’s Whispering Death (partial image shown) took first prize at the Air Force Heritage Awards.

Better Late Than Never, by Steven Heyen, depicts Sunderland flying boats over North Head in Sydney and won second prize.

TWO manuscripts and two paintings, covering aspects of Australia’s involvement in World War II and the Vietnam War, have received the prestigious Air Force Heritage Awards.

Jack Brown received the first prize for literature with Kata Kana Man, an account of his secret work as an interceptor of coded Japanese transmissions with No. 1 Wireless Unit during World War II.

Jeff Pedrina’s Wallaby Airlines, an account of his experiences as a Caribou pilot in Vietnam during 1966-67, was highly commended by the judges and awarded a special prize.

The Air Power Development Centre (APDC) will publish both manuscripts shortly.

First prize in the art category was awarded to Lindsay Stepanow for his watercolour Whispering Death, which depicts a pair of Beaufighters attacking Japanese beach positions in 1943. Second prize went to regular entrant Steven Heyen for his oil painting, Better Late Than Never, which depicts the arrival of two Sunderland flying boats over Sydney’s North Head in 1944.

The two works will be accepted into the RAAF Museum collection and displayed at Air Force Headquarters.

Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Geoff Shepherd announced the results at the RAAF History Conference, which was held at the National Convention Centre in Canberra on August 12.

The awards comprise art, literature and photographic categories.

As only one photograph was submitted this year, the judges decided not to award a prize in that category. A dozen paintings were entered in the art category, while literature attracted eight manuscripts ranging in subject from World War I to the present day.

 

Changes for next time

THE Heritage Awards have been amended. From now on they will be awarded biennially – the next will be in 2007 – and the prize money is to be increased.

Photography will no longer be a category, but the existing Air Force photography competition is to be widened. A new component is also to be introduced, in which applicants will be given an opportunity to receive funding for Air Force heritage research projects.

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