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Another esoteric RAAF photo brought to you by Aerothentic |
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The huge Vultee Vengeance was flown only briefly by the RAAF in combat in the New Guinea theatre by RAAF Nos. 21, 23 and 24 Squadrons. They were based at Nadzab where they were used for dive-bombing and standard bombing missions against Japanese positions in the Ramu Valley. They were huge and clumsy however, and soon withdrawn from service. Their other problem was that all their systems, including undercarriage, were electirc, and in New Guinea's climate this gave the engineers fits, as short circuits often took hours to isolate. In the end they all wound back in Australia in either training roles or as target tugs for air-to-air gunnery practice, such as this example here. This shot of a target tug, as evidenced by the black and white fuselage stripe markings, was taken at Garbutt airfield, near Townsville, in mid 1944.
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