No. 7 Repair & Salvage Unit RAAF

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Brief History

No. 7 Repair and Salvage Unit was formed at Richmond, New South Wales, on 3 Jun 1942. Members of the Unit travelled to areas including Coffs Harbour, Singleton, Grafton, Nowra and Nabuac to salvage Wackctt, Battle, Beaufort, Spitfire and Hudson aircraft. The first recorded operation was the convers1on of a Douglas DC-2 A30-7.

On 5 Sep 1942, the Un1t was warned that it would move to Port Moresby. However, the move was deferred until the unit was suitably equipped, and finally cancelled on 22 September. On 12 Dec 1942, notification was received that the Unit was to move to Pell in the Northern Territory, amd on 31 Dec 1941, the main party embarked on the SS James Russel Lowell and arrived in Darwin on 12 Jan 1943. Disembarking the following day, they travelled by road to the camp site at Pell.

The Unit was greeted by two air raid alerts, on 20 and 21 Jan 1943, before commencing duty on the 23rd when their 1 Mobile Repair Unit travelled to Daly Waters to repair a Spitfire. The Unit establishcd three mob1le repair and salvage units, which travelled to Pine Creek, Humpty Doo, Cape Shield, Millingimbi, Bathurst Island, Melville Island, Wyndham and Daly Waters. The Unit also maintained and salvaged aircraft from the fighter airfields at Sattler, Strauss and Livingstone. No. 7 Repair and Salvage Unit maintained Spitfire aircraft, but also serviced Mitchell and Wirraway types. An advance party departed from Pell, bound for the Darwin Civil Aerodrome, on 10 Feb 1944 with the rest of the unit following soon after. The move was completed on 15 Febuary. The final entry in the Unit History Record was made in August 1945.

Unit Personnel

• Allan George Cucel 16 May - 30 Nov 1944

Notes

Content has come from Units of the Royal Australian Air Force - A Concise History - Volume 7 Maintenance Units - Australian Government Publishing Service - 1995 pages 94 & 95