Following a meeting with our Chairman Mike Westwood at a social event in 2023, and more recently at the Bomber Command Memorial, London, in June this year, the Australian High Commission’s Air Attaché, Group Captain Scott Woodland, RAAF, was invited to West Wales on 13th August and given a tour of the Pembroke Heritage Centre by John Evans, the Patron of the Pembroke Dock (Sunderland) Heritage Trust.
During WW2 Nos 10 and 461 Squadrons RAAF, had been stationed at Pembroke Dock with their Sunderland flying boats before moving to Mountbatten, Plymouth.
Scott with his wife Megan and daughter Ava, were met at the Heritage Centre by John Rattenbury, a 10 Sqn Association member who was a former RAF 10 Sqn V-Force pilot and who now lives nearby. It was he who arranged the visit, thereby encouraging and attracting more contact between the UK and Aussie squadrons..
The Woodland Family from Australia/London with members of the Pembroke Heritage Centre
Gp Cpt Woodland is a former RAAF F/A-18 Hornet pilot and weapons instructor. His grandfather was Sgt Lance Woodland, an RAAF flight engineer on 461 Squadron in Coastal Command, based like 10 Sqn RAAF at Pembroke during WW2. Sgt Woodland flew a number of missions with a Flt Lt Dudley Marrows, DSO, DFC, including the one in July 1943 when their Sunderland attacked three German U-boats in the Bay of Biscay. The Sunderland sank one of them; coincidentally numbered U - 461 (the same as their squadron number). Having dropped a lifeboat to the U-boat crew who all survived, its captain and Marrows met up after the war and became good friends.
See the following link for more interesting information about this premier Aussie WW2 aviator.
Flt Lt Dudley Marrows DSO,DFC:
https://vwma.org.au/collections/home-page-stories/an-outstanding-pilot---dudley-marrows-dso-dfc
and also
Gp Cpt Woodland also met Dudley Marrows about 18 months before Marrows passed away in March 2019 and he still maintains contact with his daughter.
We are delighted that there is a link between the two 10 Squadrons and the RAAF in general and hopefully look forward to more associations in the future. We are also grateful to Martin Cavaney, of the Heritage Centre for allowing us to see his photos of the Aussie visitors and Welsh local helpers at the Centre.
Pembroke Heritage Centre Patron John Evans (left) with
Gp Cpt Scott Woodland, his wife Megan and daughter Eva.
with 10 Sqn Association's John Rattenbury (right)