Double Sunrise – Geoff Goodall

 

I've been sitting on this review since its author, Phil Vabre, sent it to me in January. Other than having no time to get it published, or remembering to do so at the wrong time, I have no excuse. Besides the continued existence of his website, this is the last addition to Geoff Goodall's incredible historic aviation legacy. Phil was involved in the creation of this new, updated edition. While that might suggest some justifiable bias when reviewing, you can't argue with the expertise he brought to the book. Andy Wright.

The long-awaited, and substantially revised and expanded, edition of Geoff Goodall’s book about the wartime Qantas Indian Ocean services has arrived.

The original version was, since its original publication in 1979, the first and only significant work detailing this important, but top secret, wartime airline service. Geoff Goodall and co-author Barry Pattison had the benefit of being able to interview some of the participants who were still alive at the time. Sadly, they are all gone now and, for health reasons, Barry was unable to collaborate on this new edition, but, nevertheless, with the benefit of 45 years of additional research, it is full of new and revised information.

For those unfamiliar with the story, in 1942, the Japanese conquest of much of South-East Asia severed Australia’s air connection with Britain and the British Empire. At the urging of Qantas Empire Airways, the British and Australian Governments approved a bold plan to operate an air service to transport microfilmed mail and a very limited number of VIP passengers between Perth and Colombo in Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where a connection to British airline services could be made.

The top-secret service commenced in June 1943 using a small number of Catalina flying boats provided by Britain. It was the longest regular air service in the world and, in terms of duration, remains so. The route distance covered 3,500 miles with an average flight time of 27 hours – the longest trip being 32 hours – hence the ‘Double Sunrise’ moniker for the service. Five months later, the service was extended to Karachi (then in India, now in Pakistan), an additional 1,490 miles.

In mid-1944, Qantas introduced much-faster converted Liberator bombers to operate on a shorter route from Exmouth Gulf to Ceylon. The year after that, Lancastrian conversions of Lancaster bombers were introduced.

The services were masterpieces of operational planning and technique, and operated accident-free throughout the war period. Unfortunately, this record was blemished when a Lancastrian vanished without trace during one of the final Indian Ocean flights in March 1946. Shortly afterwards, with peace brought again to the world, services reverted to the pre-war route via Singapore.

This new edition of the Indian Ocean Service book covers all of the Catalina, Liberator and Lancastrian operations in detail, with all three types illustrated in colour profiles by the inestimable Juanita Franzi. Black-and-white photos throughout complement the text. As a final bonus, the complete daily movements of the Qantas Catalina and Liberator fleets during this period can be downloaded in tables prepared by Paul Sheehan from Geoff’s website.

A vital reference for anybody interested in this operation.

ISBN 978-1-76419-3-733

Note: for readers in the northern hemisphere, Avonmore Books are distributed by Script Publisher Services, which means they are easily available via the Pen & Sword website.