Raymond Brownell - Second World War

Second World War

On the outbreak of the Second World War, additional units were placed under Brownell's purview at RAAF Base Pearce and he was consequently promoted to temporary group captain in December 1939. With the introduction of Lockheed Hudson aircraft to the Royal Australian Air Force in February 1940, several units were re-equipped, including No. 14 Squadron at RAAF Base Pearce. The Hudsons replaced the squadron's Avro Ansons, which were to be ferried back to the eastern coast of Australia in order to be used as training aircraft. On one occasion, Brownell took part in ferrying an Anson to RAAF Point Cook with No. 14 Squadron pilot Charles Learmonth. Arriving with the aircraft, the pair piloted a de Havilland Moth Minor—a two-seated, open-cockpit, monoplane—back to Pearce. The return journey took Brownell and Learmonth seven days to complete, and involved a total of twenty-one refuelling stops along the way.

During August 1940, Brownell was ordered to Singapore in order to establish and command an RAAF station on the island, as well as administer the RAAF squadrons located in Malaya. Embarking aboard the SS Strathallan in mid-August, Brownell and his staff formed the RAAF station within two weeks of arrival at Sembawang. Under the control of RAF Far East Command, the station was established as RAF Sembawang. During this time, Brownell frequently visited the Malaya peninsula.

Promoted to acting air commodore, Brownell returned to Australia during August 1941 and was appointed Air Officer Commanding No. 1 Training Group in Melbourne. With this position, Brownell was in command of approximately thirty establishments located in southern Australia. On 1 January 1943, he was posted as Air Officer Commanding Western Area. Based at RAAF Base Pearce, Brownell's responsibilities involved coordinating training and directing long-range bombing operations. Following intelligence reports that a Japanese force was en route to raid Western Australia, the Australian Government ordered a build-up to defences in the area. In response to this, Brownell organised air defences around Perth and the Exmouth Gulf during March 1944. With the use of Army transports, he also reinforced Cunderdin with supplies and bombs for the use of the heavy bombers in the area. The attack from the Japanese, however, did not occur. For his service as Air Officer Commanding Western Area, Brownell was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1945 New Years Honours.

Relinquishing command of Western Area in July 1945, Brownell was appointed commander of the recently formed No. 11 Group. No. 11 Group was established as a static organisation that was to take administrative control of all RAAF units based on Morotai. The group assumed its role on 30 July, and had the initial jurisdiction of all Dutch territory in the area, along with British North Borneo and Sarawak. In addition to this, the unit held the three main responsibilities of local air defence and sea lane protection, support of adjacent formations and offensive operations against Japanese targets within range, as well as line-of-communication duties. The unit, however, was formed too late in the war to assume all of its responsibilities before the Second World War drew to an end. Brownell was present at the Japanese surrenders in Manila, Tokyo, and on Morotai. He was selected by the Australian government to attend the ceremony aboard the USS Missouri on 2 September 1945, but was replaced by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones, when Jones became available to make the trip to Japan.