RAAF Air Vice Marshal who played key role in D-Day
Courtesy Department of Defence
Air Vice-Marshal Frank Bladin was seconded to the Royal Air Force to train glider crews who would carry the British 6th Airborne Division into Normandy to capture bridges over the Caen Canal and Orne River.
He trained the crews very hard and very well. They became so proficient, they could land their gliders within a few feet of the objectives.
The first gliders on D-Day landed so close to their target the aircraft nosecones came to rest in the barbed wire of the German position. Airborne soldiers then secured the bridges in fewer than 15 minutes.
This year marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day, and Air Vice-Marshal Bladin’s grandson, Peter Crock, will take part in the events at Ranville, France, where the first gliders landed.
Mr Crock grew up hearing war stories around the table at his grandfather’s holiday home on Phillip Island.
‘Australians have always punched above our weight and I think Pop embodied that,’ Mr Crock said. ‘He already had extended experience working with the Americans in the Pacific, which was needed for D-Day planning.’
Earlier in the war, Air Vice-Marshal Bladin, as the air officer commanding Australia’s north-west area, worked to improve morale and reorganise defences following the bombing of Darwin.
He addressed deficiencies in equipment, communication and training, and led a successful bombing raid on Kendari Airfield in Indonesia on 20 June 1942.
For his leadership and bravery during this mission, Air Vice-Marshal Bladin was awarded the United States Silver Star, becoming the first Australian to receive the honour during the war.
While noted for his tactical acumen, Air Vice-Marshal Bladin earned the nickname ‘Dad’ for the way he cared for his men and wasn’t afraid to lead from the front.
After the first gliders landed successfully on D-Day, Air Vice-Marshal Bladin took part in the second wave in the lead towing aircraft.
Nearing the cast-off point for their gliders, a tow aircraft was shot down by an anti-aircraft gun, which fired from a pontoon on the Caen Canal, until a Spitfire swooped down, opened fire and toppled the anti-aircraft gun into the water.
After returning to base, the men in maintenance presented Air-Vice Marshal Bladin with a star ‘For Tuggery’, awarded to ‘Bush [Ranger] Bladin’, which they’d hacksawed out of a piece of aluminium.
The nickname was given by the men for his ‘stand and deliver’ tactics dealing with British officers.
‘He has his CBE and his Silver Star, but I would suggest that his pride and joy would have been the piece of aluminium that the mechanics belted out,’ another grandson, Paul Crock, said.
Air Vice-Marshal Bladin retired from the Air Force in 1953 to become a grazier on his property, which he named Adastra, near Yass.
At one point, he hired a carpenter and a bricklayer to do some work on his farmhouse. The carpenter turned out to be a former member of the 6th Airborne Division, dropped into Normandy by the glider crews trained by Air Vice-Marshal Bladin. Remarkably, the bricklayer, who was German, had been in charge of the anti-aircraft gun on the pontoon in the Caen Canal on D-Day.
In his unpublished memoirs, Air Vice-Marshal Bladin recalled this coincidence. ‘Here were the three of us together in Australia,’ he said. ‘Myself, ex-38 group RAF; the English Airborne soldier flying in the same convoy; and the German who was shooting at us. Only the spitfire pilot was missing from the scene.’
Air Vice-Marshal Frank Bladin
Below: Gliders and towing aircraft of 38 Group Royal Air Force at Tarrant-Rushton Airbase in preparation for landing at Normandy. Air Vice-Marshal Frank Bladin is in the lead Halifax at the head of the row of gliders
Bottom: The family of Air Vice-Marshal Frank Bladin with memorabilia including his star 'for Tuggery'.
