Joe Hewitt (RAAF officer)

Air Vice-Marshal Joseph Eric Hewitt, (13 April 1901 – 1 November 1985) was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF).

Born on 13 April 1901 in Tylden, Victoria, Joseph Eric Hewitt was the son of Joseph Henry Hewitt and his wife Rose Alice, née Harkness.

He attended Scotch College, Melbourne, before entering the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay in 1915, aged 13.

After graduating in 1918, Hewitt was posted to Britain as a midshipmen to serve with the Royal Navy.

He rose to lieutenant in the RAN before volunteering for secondment to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as a flight lieutenant in January 1923.

Hewitt undertook the pilots' course at No. 1 Flying Training School, Point Cook, and graduated at the end of the year.

He was further seconded to the Royal Air Force in May 1925, holding a temporary commission as a flying officer until September.

He married Lorna Bishop in Sydney on 10 November; they had three daughters.

In August 1926, Hewitt joined the newly formed No. 101 (Fleet Cooperation) Flight, operating Seagull III amphibians.

Before deploying to Queensland to survey the Great Barrier Reef with HMAS Moresby, he practiced manoeuvres around the centre of Melbourne, landing in the Yarra River near Flinders Street station.

Media criticism of the escapade led to him being brought before the Chief of the Air Staff, Group Captain Richard Williams, who rather than upbraiding Hewitt expressed himself "reservedly pleased about the publicity".

A Royal Australian Navy officer who transferred permanently to the Air Force in 1928, he commanded No. 101 (Fleet Cooperation) Flight in the early 1930s, and No. 104 (Bomber) Squadron RAF on exchange in Britain shortly before World War II.

After completing its survey work in November 1928, the unit served aboard the seaplane carrier HMAS Albatross.

Hewitt's transfer to the Air Force was made permanent in April 1928.

Promoted to squadron leader, he became commanding officer of No. 101 Flight in February 1931, and supervised embarkation of the Seagull aboard the cruiser HMAS Australia in September–October 1932.

Hewitt finished his tour with No. 101 Flight the following year, and was posted to Britain in 1934.

He attended the RAF Staff College, Andover, in his first year abroad, and served as assistant liaison officer at Australia House, London, in 1935.

Although a specialist seaplane pilot, he converted to bombers in England, flying Hawker Hinds and Bristol Blenheims as commanding officer of No. 104 Squadron RAF from 1936.

Hewitt was promoted wing commander in January 1938.

Returning to Australia, he was appointed senior air staff officer (SASO) at RAAF Station Richmond, New South Wales, in June.

In May 1939, Hewitt was chosen to lead No. 10 Squadron, due to be formed on 1 July at the recently established RAAF Station Rathmines, near Lake Macquarie.

He was preparing to depart for England to take delivery of the unit's planned complement of Short Sunderland flying boats when he broke his neck riding his motor cycle near Richmond, and had to forgo the assignment while he recovered.

Fit for duty by August, he was given command of the Rathmines base to manage the deployment of No. 10 Squadron and its aircraft, but this was suspended due to the outbreak of World War II in September, and the Sunderlands and their RAAF crews remained in Britain for service alongside the RAF.

On 20 November 1939, the RAAF formed No. 1 Group in Melbourne, which evolved into Southern Area Command early in 1940 with Hewitt as senior administration staff officer.

Having been promoted group captain in December 1939, Hewitt was made Director of Personal Services (DPS) at RAAF Headquarters in July 1940.

He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire on 11 July for his performance as SASO at Richmond.

Described by author Joyce Thompson as having "a Calvinist background and rigid ideas on women's place in society", as DPS Hewitt opposed the creation of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) and later advocated that its members be enrolled on a contractual basis rather than enlisted or commissioned as Permanent Air Force staff.

Hewitt was appointed the RAAF's Assistant Chief of the Air Staff in 1941.

The following year he was posted to Allied Air Forces Headquarters, South West Pacific Area, as Director of Intelligence.

Promoted acting air commodore, he became Acting Deputy Chief of the Air Staff in October 1941.

In January 1942, he was posted to the staff of American-British-Dutch-Australian Command in the Dutch East Indies.

Hewitt served as Assistant Chief of the Air Staff in March and April before being assigned to the newly formed Allied Air Forces Headquarters (AAF HQ), South West Pacific Area (SWPA), as Director of Intelligence.

He established cordial working relations with his American peers at AAF HQ, becoming a confidant of its commander, Major General George Kenney.

In 1943, he took command of No. 9 Operational Group, the RAAF's main mobile strike force, but was controversially sacked by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Vice Marshal George Jones, less than a year later over alleged morale and disciplinary issues.

In February 1943, Hewitt was appointed Air Officer Commanding (AOC) No. 9 Operational Group.

Described as a "small, dapper man", who was "outspoken, even 'cocky'", Hewitt overcame the setback to his career during the war and made his most significant contributions as Air Member for Personnel from 1945 to 1948.

Directly responsible for the demobilisation of thousands of wartime staff and the consolidation of what was then the world's fourth largest air force into a much smaller peacetime service, he also helped modernise education and training within the RAAF.

Hewitt was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1951, the same year he became Air Member for Supply and Equipment.

Retiring from the military in 1956, he went into business and later managed his own publishing house.

He wrote two books including Adversity in Success, a first-hand account of the South West Pacific air war, before his death in 1985 aged 84.