Men who achieved ace status whilst based on Australian shores??

[WHISPERING DEATH]

Hi,

Whilst researching the beaufighter activity based from Coomalie Creek N.T australia flying over the Dutch East Indies... have come across Squadron leader Reginald 'butch' Gordon. He served with 31 squadron from july 43 to feb 44 when a fatal engine failure happened on a test flight. in this time he completed 21 sorties. i believe he is credited with 8 confirmed kills.

my question is how many pilots made ace status fighting from australian shores?? and how many kills?? my thoughts are he may be the only and if not the highest scoring pilot to be based on australian soil.... quite an impressive feat considering his short operational time and aircraft. also does anyone know how many daytime beaufighter aces there were??

any info would be much appreciated!!!

* there must be some pilots which made ace in the 1st fighter wing(spitfires)??

[phasselgren]

Hi,

Following pilots reached at least 5 victories flying Spitfires in NW Australia:
Clive Caldvell, 1 Wing RAAF had at least 7 perhaps 8 confirmed destroyed.
Eric M. Gibbs, 54 Sqn RAF had 5 and a shared confirmed destroyed plus 5 damaged
Robert W. Foster, 54 Sqn RAF had 5 confirmed and 2 probably destroyed plus 2 damaged

There were also some USAAC fighter pilots that reached similar scores in NW Australia.

Cheers
Peter