Gus Winckel

Willem Frederick August "Gus" Winckel (3 November 1912 – 17 August 2013) was a Dutch military officer and pilot who flew for the Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Force (ML-KNIL) in World War II.

Winckel was born on 3 November 1912 in Muntok, Bangka Island, in what was then the Dutch East Indies.

On the island his parents ran a trading store in commodities such as rubber, tin and sugar.

Winckel had an untroubled childhood and at age fifteen was sent back to the Netherlands to study at the nautical school in Delfzijl.

He stayed with his grandparents while studying, and three years later became a seaman first class for the merchant marine.

He specialised in navigation.

In 1931, when he was aged nineteen, Winckel started working as a quartermaster on the freighter Pallau, which sailed between the Netherlands and Java.

After his work on the ship he went to the island of Borneo to work on oil rigs.

By 1935 he returned to the Netherlands once more, this time to work for the Royal Netherlands Navy as a submarine torpedo calibrator.

During his time in the Navy, a friend showed him a flyer for a pilot position at the Netherlands East Indies Air Force, which was being formed at the time.

Winckel joined the Air Force in 1935 and became a pilot at age 23.

Between 1935 and 1942 he flew transports across the Dutch East Indies, mainly in Lockheed Lodestars.

During the attack on Broome, Western Australia, on 3 March 1942, Winckel managed to land his plane full of refugees safely on the Broome airstrip just before the Japanese attack.

He then dismounted the plane's machine gun and shot down one of the Japanese fighters, the only Allied "kill" during the attack.

Shortly after the attack on Broome, Winckel was sent on a mission to Bandung, Java, to recover several officers from the Allied headquarters, which was under threat of being overrun.

He served the remainder of the war with No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF in Australia.

After World War II, he fought in the Dutch Politionele acties.

On 3 March 1942, Flight Lieutenant Winckel was transporting refugees from the Bandung, Dutch East Indies, to Perth, Western Australia, in his Lockheed Lodestar.

He had just stopped on the Broome Airfield to refuel when Broome was attacked by nine Japanese Zero fighter planes on a long-distance raid from Kupang, Timor.

Winckel saw the danger of his plane being on the open airstrip and proceeded to dismount the Colt 7.99mm machine gun from the plane.

When one of The Zeros, piloted by Osamu Kudō, flew over at low altitude, Winckel managed to shoot him out of the air; the crash killed Kudō.

Winckel was thereby credited with the raid's only "kill" on the Allied side.

He also believed that he hit another Japanese plane that had to ditch in the sea.

The Japanese destroyed 22 Allied aircraft at Broome, many of them flying boats used for refugee transport and moored in Roebuck Bay.

Winckel suffered severe burns to his hand during the attack, as he had to hold the machine-gun barrel to aim.

His hand was treated and Winckel flew medical evacuations for the next two days without rest.

Meanwhile, Japanese forces were taking over Java and threatening the Allied headquarters at Bandung.

On 5 March, the Allied command decided that several senior RAF and RAAF officers had to be evacuated from Bandung.

Winckel was chosen as the pilot.

He protested the decision, arguing that his lack of rest would hinder his chances of finding Bandung in the dark as he did not have any electronic aids.

However, Winckel was seen to be one of the most experienced pilots because of his terrain knowledge as a flight instructor at Bandung and his recent refugee flights.

Another factor was that his Lodestar, although it had been damaged in the attack on Broome, was considered the most suitable plane for the evacuation mission.

Winckel flew to Java, where he managed to land his plane on a road lit by jeep headlights.

He picked up fourteen passengers, refuelled the plane and successfully returned to Australia.

Following the attack on Broome and his evacuation mission, Winckel was sent to Moruya, New South Wales, where he joined No. 18 (Netherlands East Indies) Squadron RAAF, which had been formed on 4 April 1942.

From Moruya he patrolled the Eastern Australian shore.

At the end of May 1942, a Japanese midget submarine attacked Sydney Harbour.

Winckel and his fellow pilots were subsequently ordered to patrol for submarines.

During a patrol on 5 June 1942, Winckel attacked what he believed was a Japanese submarine in his B-25 Mitchell bomber.

The perceived success was welcomed after the recent submarine attack and Winckel was personally congratulated by Australian Prime Minister John Curtin.