Whillans, Robert 'Hal'
Robert (Hal) Whillans
404693
452 Squadron, Flight Lieutenant
Born in Brisbane December 8th 1914.
In November 1940 Hal enlisted in the RAAF Brisbane and started training at Bradfield Park Lindfield NSW. In March 1941 he boarded SS Aurangi headed for Canada and landed at Vancouver. He was awarded his Wings and was commissioned Pilot Officer. Later he and many of our fellows then set sail on the merchant ship Ranpura sister ship of the Rawalpindi that had just been sunk by the German Pocket Battleship the Graf Spey. After stopping off at Iceland they then continued their voyage to Greennock, Scotland where again they changed ship onto the King Leopville and arrived Greenock.
In August 1941 Hal was flying Spitfires and was on convoy patrol over the Bristol Channel. On one exercise Hal ran out of petrol and had to make a forced landing right on dusk on the beach in South Wales. He luckily avoided all the tank traps and stayed the night with the lighthouse keeper. After refueling the next morning he flew back to Llandow. The lighthouse keeper gave him the news that the mines had been removed from the beach only one week earlier. Hal stayed on at Llandow OUT one extra course to help out with instructing - which meant more time lost before joining the squadron.
In May 1942 the 452 Squadron was operating out of the Isle of Man and Hal was in flights going out to cover inbound convoy to Liverpool. His Spitfire on one trip his Spitfire a Mark Vb, AB171, developed a glycol leak, caught fire, the engine seized up and he had to bail out at 1200 feet. On landing in very strong wind conditions he hit his back on a stone fence knocking his spine out of line.
In July 1942 Hal left England and sailed from Liverpool on the Stirling Castle. Eventually after many adventures his Squadron reformed in Australia. Group Captain Clive Caldwell in charge. Hal received orders to proceed to Laverton to test fly Spitfire Mark Vc aircraft coming off the assembly line. In January 1943 he took sixty members of the Squadron to Darwin by Liberty Ship then road transport to Batchelor, thus marking two years and three months with 452 Squadron.
Good news came for Hal when he married Leila on the 7th April 1943 and subsequently had 53 years of happy marriage to look forward to. After spending time in the Northern Territory he was posted to Mildura and attained the rank of Flight Lieutenant and was posted later in November 1944 to OUT (Operational Training Unit) Parkes NSW to open up new OTU, squadron/Commander. In August 1945 Hal and his pal Bill Lloyd were getting ready for posting to Moratai in the Pacific area however, the end of the War caught up with Hal and he then applied for discharge, thus ending a time in his life with many exciting and eventful times. His discharge took effect 30th August 1945.
Edited Eulogy.
