Joe Hewitt (RAAF officer)
Joe Hewitt | |
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Born | Tylden, Victoria | 13 April 1901
Died | 1 November 1985 Melbourne | (aged 84)
Allegiance | Australia |
Service/ | |
Service years | 1915–1956 |
Rank | Air Vice-Marshal |
Commands held |
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Battles/wars |
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Awards | Commander of the Order of the British Empire |
Other work |
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Described as a "small, dapper man",
Early career
Born on 13 April 1901 in
In August 1926, Hewitt joined the newly formed
Hewitt's transfer to the Air Force was made permanent in April 1928.
Hewitt was promoted
World War II
Director of Personal Services to AOC No. 9 Operational Group
On 20 November 1939, the RAAF formed No. 1 Group in Melbourne,
In February 1943, Hewitt was appointed
By April 1943, Hewitt had been dragged into the divisive personal conflict between the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones, and the AOC of RAAF Command, Air Vice Marshal Bill Bostock. RAAF Command was the Air Force's main operational formation in the Pacific, controlling 24 Australian squadrons. Jones, administrative and de jure head of the RAAF, sought to extend his authority into the sphere of operations by posting a "more accountable" officer into Bostock's position, namely Hewitt.[20][25] The Minister for Air, Arthur Drakeford, backed Jones' manoeuvre but was informed by Prime Minister John Curtin that MacArthur, as Supreme Commander SWPA, "would insist on the replacement of AVM Bostock by an equally able officer", and that "Air Commodore Hewitt ... was not considered an adequate replacement."[26] Hewitt recognised qualities in both Jones and Bostock, and tried not to take sides in their feud.[27]
No changes were made to command arrangements in the South West Pacific following this episode, and Hewitt continued to lead No. 9 Group in its bombing and strafing campaign against Japanese airfields and lines of communication in
AOC No. 9 Operational Group to Air Member for Personnel
Although Hewitt was performing an "excellent job" according to Fifth Air Force commander Major General Ennis Whitehead, he was controversially removed from his post in mid-November 1943 by Jones, over accusations of poor discipline and morale within No. 9 Group.[20][31] RAAF historian Alan Stephens later described the circumstances of Hewitt's dismissal as "murky", and the allegations leading to it as unofficial.[20] Drakeford defended Hewitt's service record, informing the Prime Minister that "the present position may be largely, if not entirely, due to some temporary physical stress brought about by the strain of his important duties as A.O.C. of No. 9 Group."[31] Hewitt himself believed that he had been smeared by a disgruntled former staff officer;[2] historian Kristen Alexander identified Wing Commander Kenneth Ranger, who would play a leading part in the "Morotai Mutiny" of 1945, as having made allegations regarding Hewitt's supposed "lack of balance, vanity and lack of purpose in the prosecution of the war".[32] Hewitt returned to his previous position as Director of Intelligence at Allied Air Headquarters, and the Air Member of Personnel, Air Commodore Frank Lukis, took over as AOC No. 9 Group in December.[27] General Kenney considered Hewitt's removal "bad news".[20]
After completing his tour as Director of Intelligence at AAF HQ at the end of 1944, Hewitt became acting Air Member for Personnel (AMP) in 1945.[33] As AMP, Hewitt sat on the Air Board, the RAAF's controlling body that consisted of its most senior officers and was chaired by the Chief of the Air Staff.[34] Along with the other members of the board, he reviewed the findings of the inquiry by Justice John Vincent Barry into the "Morotai Mutiny", which had involved senior pilots of the Australian First Tactical Air Force (No. 1 TAF) attempting to resign their commissions to protest the relegation of RAAF fighter squadrons to strategically unimportant ground attack missions. Hewitt recommended that the AOC No. 1 TAF, Air Commodore Harry Cobby, be removed from command, along with his two senior staff officers. The majority of the Air Board saw no reason to take such action, leaving Hewitt to append a dissenting note to its decision. Drakeford supported Hewitt's position, and the three senior No. 1 TAF officers were later dismissed from their posts by Air Vice Marshal Jones.[32]
Post-war career
Demobilisation and rationalisation
Hewitt's appointment as Air Member for Personnel was made permanent following the end of World War II in August 1945.[33] In this role he was directly responsible for the demobilisation of what had become the world's fourth largest air force, and its transition to a much smaller peacetime service.[33][35] Hewitt considered that the RAAF was in danger of losing some of its best staff through rapid, unplanned demobilisation, and recommended that its workforce be stabilised for two years at a strength of 20,000 while it reviewed its post-war requirements. Although the Air Board supported Hewitt's proposal, government cost-cutting resulted in the strength of the so-called Interim Air Force remaining lower than planned, being reduced to some 13,000 by October 1946 and under 8,000 by the end of 1948.[36] Despite claiming that employing women in the Air Force was an important factor in reducing "antagonism and prejudice" against them in the work force in general, Hewitt also recommended that the WAAAF be disbanded after the war.[37]
As AMP, Hewitt was responsible for reviewing the potential employment of senior officers in the post-war Air Force. This review led to the early retirement of such figures as Air Marshal Williams and Air Vice Marshals Bostock,
RAAF education and other work
Hewitt was responsible for initiating major improvements in Air Force education that took place between 1945 and 1953, playing a key role in the establishment of RAAF College and the introduction of an apprenticeship training programme. The purpose of the College was, in Hewitt's words, to "sow the seeds of service" for future leaders, helping create a special RAAF esprit de corps. He added that it was "almost a truism that the future RAAF can be no better than the Air Force College".[41] Founded at Point Cook in January 1948, RAAF College's inaugural commandant was Air Commodore Val Hancock, who also drafted its first charter.[42] With the support of the Air Member for Engineering and Maintenance, Air Vice Marshal Ellis Wackett, Hewitt developed the Apprenticeship Training Scheme to raise the standard of technical roles in the Air Force, introducing it with a nationwide publicity campaign to attract recruits. Its base was the Ground Training School, which opened at Wagga, New South Wales, in early 1948 to provide education and technical training for youths aged 15 to 17. It was renamed RAAF Technical College in 1950 and the RAAF School of Technical Training in 1952.[43]
Parallel to his initiatives in education and training, Hewitt introduced a revised aircrew ranking scheme that consisted of skill categories with several levels, such as navigator level 4 or pilot level 1, rather than the regular military ranks such as sergeant or flight lieutenant. This was abandoned in 1950 due to dissatisfaction caused by the lack of obvious equivalence between these specialist "ranks" and the traditional ranking system common to the rest of the RAAF and other defence forces.
Later life and legacy
Following his retirement from the Air Force in 1956, Hewitt joined International Harvester Co. Australia as Manager of Education and Training. He became a trustee of the Services Canteen Trust the same year, serving in this position until 1977. Having retired from International Harvester in 1966, Hewitt became an author in later life and wrote two books on his experiences in the military.[4] The first, Adversity in Success, was published in 1980 and gave his account of the air war in the South West Pacific. He followed it in 1984 with The Black One. Hewitt also acted as chairman and managing director of his own publishing house, Langate Publishing.[1][4] Predeceased by his wife Lorna, he died in Melbourne on 1 November 1985, and was survived by his daughters.[3]
Historian Alan Stephens credits Hewitt with being primarily responsible for the "education revolution" that took place in the RAAF between 1945 and 1953, noting that Hewitt's initiatives while Air Member for Personnel were carried on by his successor in the position, Air Vice Marshal
Notes
- ^ a b c d e f g Stephens & Isaacs, High Fliers, pp. 97–99
- ^ a b c Dennis et al., Oxford Military History of Australia, p. 259
- ^ ISSN 1833-7538. Retrieved 8 April 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f Draper, Who's Who in Australia 1985, p. 409
- ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 23–24
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 34
- ^ "No. 33048". The London Gazette. 19 May 1925. p. 3382.
- ^ "No. 33087". The London Gazette. 25 September 1925. p. 6206.
- ^ a b Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, pp. 408–411
- ^ Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 218
- ^ Wilson, The Eagle and the Albatross, p. 27
- ^ Wilson, The Eagle and the Albatross, p. 51
- ^ Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, p. 150
- ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 67
- ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 92
- ^ "No. 34893". The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 July 1940. p. 4254.
- ^ Thomson, The WAAAF in Wartime Australia, pp. 58–59
- ^ a b Ashworth, How Not to Run an Air Force!, p. 295
- ^ Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, p. 473
- ^ a b c d e f Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 122–123
- ^ Odgers, Air War Against Japan, p. 6
- ^ Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 23–24
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 160–165
- ^ Ashworth, How Not to Run an Air Force!, p. 211
- ^ Helson, Ten Years at the Top, pp. 122–126
- ^ Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 16–18
- ^ a b Ashworth, How Not to Run an Air Force!, pp. 210–211
- ^ Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 33–35
- ^ Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 93–95
- ^ Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 100–102
- ^ a b Odgers, Air War Against Japan, pp. 102–103
- ^ a b Alexander, "Cleaning the Augean stables"
- ^ a b c Helson, Ten Years at the Top, p. 224
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 112
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 170–171
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 176–179
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 335
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 22–24
- ^ a b Helson, Ten Years at the Top, pp. 234–239
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 24–25
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, p. 186
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 120–123
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 129–131
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, pp. 92–95
- ^ "No. 39105". The London Gazette (Supplement). 29 December 1950. p. 36.
- ^ Stephens & Isaacs, High Fliers, pp. 104–107
- ^ a b Stephens, Going Solo, p. 500
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 182
- ^ Stephens, Going Solo, p. 118
- ^ Stephens, The Royal Australian Air Force, pp. 191–192
- ^ "Air weapons contest at Canberra". The Canberra Times. Canberra. 4 December 1953. p. 2. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
- ^ "RAAF holds trophy shoot". The Age. Melbourne. 28 November 1960. p. 5. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
References
- Alexander, Kristen (2004). "'Cleaning the augean stables'. The Morotai Mutiny?". Sabretache. Military Historical Society of Australia.
- Ashworth, Norman (2000). How Not to Run an Air Force! Volume 1 – Narrative (PDF). Canberra: RAAF Air Power Studies Centre. ISBN 978-0-642-26550-0.
- Coulthard-Clark, Chris (1991). The Third Brother (PDF). North Sydney: ISBN 978-0-04-442307-2.
- Dennis, Peter; ISBN 978-0-19-551784-2.
- Draper, W. J., ed. (1985). ISSN 0810-8226.
- Gillison, Douglas (1962). Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series Three (Air) Volume I – Royal Australian Air Force 1939–1942. Canberra: OCLC 2000369.
- Helson, Peter (2006). Ten Years at the Top (Ph.D. thesis). Sydney: University of New South Wales. OCLC 225531223.
- Odgers, George (1968) [1957]. Australia in the War of 1939–1945: Series Three (Air) Volume II – Air War Against Japan 1943–45. Canberra: Australian War Memorial. OCLC 1990609.
- Stephens, Alan (1995). Going Solo: The Royal Australian Air Force 1946–1971 (PDF). Canberra: ISBN 978-0-644-42803-3.
- Stephens, Alan (2006) [2001]. The Royal Australian Air Force: A History. South Melbourne: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-555541-7.
- Stephens, Alan; Isaacs, Jeff (1996). High Fliers: Leaders of the Royal Australian Air Force. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. ISBN 978-0-644-45682-1.
- Thomson, Joyce (1991). The WAAAF in Wartime Australia. Melbourne: ISBN 978-0-522-84525-9.
- Wilson, David (2003). The Eagle and the Albatross: Australian Aerial Maritime Operations 1921–1971 (Ph.D. thesis). Sydney: University of New South Wales.
Further reading
- Hewitt, J. E. (1980). Adversity in Success. South Yarra, Victoria: Langate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9594622-0-3.
- Hewitt, J. E. (1984). The Black One. South Yarra, Victoria: Langate Publishing. ISBN 978-0-9594622-1-0.