Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

As a former Army man it is a very rare occasion that I get the opportunity to speak of the members of the Royal Australian Air Force. In reading the history of No. 2 Squadron and the work undertaken by Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver, I see that there is a great need to speak of them and to speak of the exploits of No. 2 Squadron.

Back in April, as has been previously described by other speakers, a very old mystery was resolved with the finding of Magpie 91, the Canberra bomber that was lost on 3 November 1970 with the loss of Flying Officer Herbert and Pilot Officer Carver. It was found in Quang Nam province not far off route from the mission that they undertook on that night. The finding of the aircraft has served to solve that mystery. Then not long ago, in July, came the confirmation in Hanoi of the identity of the remains of the two servicemen in the wreckage. As sad and tragic as it is that the lives of these young men are confirmed as being lost on that night, I am sure that it gives some sense of relief to their families, both in Glenelg, the origin of Flying Officer Herbert, and in Toowoomba for the family of Pilot Officer Carver.

I would like to make some comments with regard to No. 2 Squadron. No. 2 Squadron was a highly regarded element of the Royal Australian Air Force and that respect stretched across not just Australia but also our US allies during the Vietnam War. We first got Canberra bombers back in 1953 and they were built under licence from the UK. We started building Canberra bombers and the first one flew in 1953. Despite the fact that reports from 1970 described the Canberras as ‘ageing bombers’, it is odd that it was only in 1982 that they were finally retired. I believe that No. 2 Squadron had them for the entire time that they served this country.

However, it was in 1967 that No. 2 Squadron, having had some active service in the Malayan Emergency, had their advance party and then finally flew into Phan Rang Air Base, a US built air force base about 250 kilometres from Saigon. As part of the 35th Tactical Fighter Wing, No. 2 Squadron served with our American allies, and within the history of the squadron there are a great number of records of the courage, dedication and effectiveness of the pilots of No. 2 Squadron.

Apparently, when the squadron first got to Vietnam the Americans were very keen to have Australian pilots and an Australian squadron with them. The American concept of bombing was that they very much liked level bombing to occur during nights and they could not understand after the Australians had been there for a short time that the Australians wanted to do daylight level bombing. So they pursued that and from 1967 to 1971, the time that they were in Vietnam, there is no doubt that bombing was predominantly done at night, and there are some records of the great work that the No. 2 Squadron did during their daylight bombing sorties.

Apparently the Tactical Fighter Wing was very appreciative of having No. 2 Squadron with them. It has been calculated that, of the total damage claimed to have been inflicted by the 35th  Tactical Fighter Wing during this period of the war, No. 2 Squadron was responsible for 16 per cent and yet they only conducted only five or six per cent of the sorties. So what we have found is that the Australians, from a craft and professionalism perspective, were very accurate and they were very well regarded as a result.

They normally bombed from fairly high levels, and I believe on the night of the loss of Magpie 91 that they were meant to be bombing at the higher levels. But records of No. 2 Squadron describe them going as low as 800 metres. That is exceedingly courageous because at 800 metres anti-aircraft guns are highly effective, but accuracy improves at lower heights and there are a number of records of those on the ground, the Australian trainers, the US forces and the Australian forces, who appreciated the efforts and the danger that No. 2 Squadron went to in fighting the fight and providing close air support and tactical bombing.

There is another story of when the squadron attacked at 800 metres. After the aircraft landed they found that fragments from the bomb that the aircraft had dropped had come back up from the explosion on the ground and done some fairly serious damage to the aircraft, so they were a little bit more careful about the low level bombing after that. But it just goes to show that they were very courageous people and they did an excellent job whilst they were over there.

General Westmoreland, who was the officer in charge of all forces in Vietnam, made some comments about No. 2 Squadron. He said:

The RAAF has an elite Canberra Squadron which has impressed me very much. Its discipline is superb and there is obviously a very high esprit de corps within the Squadron.

That certainly shows that No. 2 Squadron was highly regarded.

On 3 November 1970 the Magpie 91, with Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver on board, departed Phan Rang airfield at 7 pm. They reached their target and dropped their bombs in Quang Nam province at 8.22 pm, and it was reported that there was no radio contact after 10.15 pm. I have done some reading on this matter and maybe I am speculating on this, but it has been reported that the loss of the aircraft was as a result of some major problem, an explosion, that rendered the aircraft no longer able to fly.

There was some suggestion that this was as a result of one of the bombs not dropping properly. With the Canberra bombers, there were four 750-pound bombs—this is a classic Vietnam bomb load for Canberras—in the bomb bay area and then another 750-pound bomb on each wing. Given the fact that the bombs were dropped at 8.22 pm and it was some time after that that radio contact was lost, it would suggest that it would be unlikely that some fault with the bomb-dropping mechanisms would have been responsible for the explosion which ultimately took the aircraft down.

When you look at what else the North Vietnamese had during the Vietnam War, you would probably suggest that the most likely option would have been the North Vietnamese army use of an SA2 surface-to-air missile—a Guideline—which the Russians used to call the S57. That sort of rocket was radio controlled. It could go as high as 20 kilometres in the air—more than enough for it cover Canberra bombers—and had a range of 45 kilometres. It was known that within the broader vicinity the North Vietnamese army had deployed SA2s—the S57 Guideline.

There is no doubt that this is a highly effective weapon because this was the weapon that was credited with the shooting down of the U2 plane over Russia in 1960, with Francis Gary Powers being the famous pilot of that. I would imagine that there will be further information coming out in the months ahead, but I believe that with the Magpie 91, with Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver aboard, it will be found that a SA7 surface-to-air missile was responsible for their deaths and shooting down that aircraft.

To conclude, I would say that No. 2 Squadron within the Royal Australian Air Force for the Vietnam War was a highly regarded squadron of very courageous men that served their country very well. With regards to Magpie 91 and Herbert and Carver, they were doing their duty. They had done quite a few missions. They had been very effective in their work as well. They were no doubt very proud and effective members of No. 2 Squadron. As I said right at the start, I am sure the final resolution of this matter will be of some comfort to their long-suffering families. It is most particularly good news that this chapter in Australian history, for our service men and women, is closed—with all Australians recovered that were killed and never found at the time of their death. It is a good time for Australia, with a tinge of sadness, but it is important that we finish the chapter on this part of our military history.

While their deaths were tragic for their families, friends and those that knew them, it was the supreme sacrifice and it was a cause worth fighting for. I know that not long after the end of our involvement in the Vietnam War there was a time when we as nation tended to look back upon how there were mistakes made and that maybe we should not have been there. But I would like to make mention that the government took some decisions at the time which they thought were right.

In any case, despite what has occurred or our assessments since then, there are a lot of Vietnamese people who lived in the south of Vietnam, in the Republic of Vietnam, that absolutely, categorically, supported our involvement in that war and appreciated the sacrifices that were made by our servicemen, in particular by those who lost their lives. So I would say that, despite the politics of it, we can be certain now that this country, as one, greatly appreciates the fact that Flying Officer Michael Herbert and Pilot Officer Robert Carver will be coming home very soon. That will be a great day and we all look forward to it. To their families I would say: they did not die in vain; they served their country very well. They served the causes of freedom and democracy. I hope that the families will rest a little bit easier now.

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