Jack O’Brien – Air Force Cross

John Thomas (Jack) O’Brien was the second of Irene and Bill’s twelve children, and the eldest son. He joined the Royal Australian Air Force in January 1939.

RAAF recruitment poster

John Thomas (Jack) O'Brien

Jack was commended by both his fellow pilots and his superiors as having fought bravely throughout the War in the Pacific. These are just some of the highlights of his WWII service.

He saw many of his fellow airmen die, including his own co‑pilot who was sitting right next to him.
He was shot in the shoulder and lost two crew members, still managing to make it back to base under heavy fire.
He was rendered unconscious, and when he came to had to pull his plane out of a spiralling dive.
He avoided an attack by a group of Zeros by flying at full tilt just ten feet (3 metres) above Malaysian beaches, sand whipping up all around his plane.
He flew planes that were only fit to be used as spare parts. Riddled with bullet holes. Damaged by flack attack. Pieces of wings and fuselage missing.
He limped back from Asia to Australia with a group of wounded airmen in a badly damaged plane, and having no maps or navigation equipment, no weather forecast service to help them, a missing wingtip, holes in the wings and fuselage, leaking fuel tanks, and damaged instruments.

You can read about Jack’s WWII exploits here. You may even want to read about two quite different paths through WWII here.

But this story is about Jack receiving the Air Force Cross.

What is the Air Force Cross?

While there is an Australian Air Force Cross, it didn’t come into existence until the 1980’s. An Air Force Cross (AFC) awarded prior to that was an award from the United Kingdom.

So, the AFC that Jack was awarded was a UK military decoration which was primarily awarded to members of the UK’s Royal Air Force (RAF) or members of a Commonwealth air force such as the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Like the Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC), the award of an AFC is in recognition of acts of exceptional gallantry while flying. The difference between the two is that the DFC is for flying in active operations against the enemy, while the AFC is for flying outside of active operations against the enemy.

That said the AFC and the DFC were both level 3 awards, sitting just below the Victoria Cross (VC) which is level 1, and the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) which is level 2.

I’m not sure of the specific acts which gave rise to Jack’s award. Perhaps one of his family may know that. But, if you read about his exploits while engaged with the enemy (which you’ll find here), then you’ll understand why some family members believe he should have been awarded the DFC.

To understand the importance of being awarded the Air Force Cross, you only need to look at a few statistics:

Just 444 have been awarded to Australians since 1918, with the last being awarded in 1983.
During World War II, only 198 UK Air Force Crosses were awarded to members of the RAAF.
And this was at a time when the RAAF had grown from around 3,000 personnel at the outbreak of war in September 1939, to a peak of more than 182,000 personnel in 1944.
Of those personnel, approximately 15,000 had been trained and deployed as RAAF pilots.
So, even if we were to assume that all 198 WWII Air Force Crosses went to RAAF pilots, that would mean that just 1.3% of those pilots were awarded one.
But it’s far more likely that those 198 AFCs were awarded across many different RAAF roles, in which case just one tenth of one percent (0.1%) of those who served in the RAAF during WWII would have received an Air Force Cross.

Whichever way you look at it, in receiving this award Jack was in very rare company.

What Does the Air Force Cross Look Like?

The medal is a silver cross, 60mm by 54 millimetres. Its cross shape represents an aircraft’s propeller blades, with wings between the arms.

The front, as shown above, depicts Hermes, riding on the wings of a hawk holding a laurel wreath. Hermes is a Greek God who is considered to be the protector of human heralds, travellers, thieves, merchants, and orators. He can move quickly between the worlds of the mortal and divine because of his winged sandals, hence the connection with the air force, as I believe that a part of the kit for every pilot was a pair of winged sandals – pronounced “wing-ed sandals”. Of course, there was a high risk of getting them caught in the floor controls.

At the top of the upper arm is the royal crown, while the other three arms bear the royal cypher of the reigning monarch at the time of issue.

The back is plain, except for a central roundel bearing the reigning monarch's cypher and the date '1918'. Originally awarded unnamed, from 1939 the year of issue was engraved on the reverse lower limb of the cross.

Jack’s Citation

This is the citation which awarded Jack the Air Force Cross.

ROYAL AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE

HONOURS AND AWARDS

AIR FORCE CROSS

SQUADRON LEADER JOHN THOMAS O’BRIEN (467)

CITATION:

Squadron Leader O'BRIEN was Senior Flight Commander of the Hudson Flight at West Sale, and then of the Hudson Squadron of No.1 Operational Training Unit at Bairnsdale from March, 1942, to September, 1943, and then completed a conversion course and short operational tour with the U.S.A.A.F. In April, 1944, he was posted to No.7 Operational Training Unit as C.O. Flying, on which duties he continued until July, 1945.

Squadron Leader O'BRIEN served with No 1 Squadron, R.A.A.F, in Malaya and Java prior to his evacuation, and subsequently completed 48 supply dropping sorties over the Owen Stanley Ranges during the Buna campaign, and 13 operational sorties with the 45th H.B. Squadron, 5th U.S.A.A.F.

This officer has completed 2282 hours' of flying, of which 1274 have been on operational duties, and 83 hours completed during the last six months.

PRIVATE ADDRESS: LADYSMITH, via Wagga, N.S.W.

Notification of the Awarding of the Air Force Cross

The Commonwealth of Australia Gazette of 12 June 1947 noted that “The Governor-General [Sir William John McKell] has received advice that the King [George V1] has been graciously pleased to approve of the following awards:”, and there followed a list of names under the heading “AIR FORCE CROSS” which included “Squadron Leader John Thomas O’Brien, No 467” as shown below. The London Gazette of the same date confirmed that this was no lie, and that the King himself had also approved the award.

This was confirmed in an article on page 7 of the Sydney Morning Herald of 23 June 1947.

Jack’s Award Day

Late in 1947, Jack was awarded his Air Force Cross at a ceremony held at Government House in Sydney. There were a few photos taken that day, as you’ll see below. Those photos show that accompanying Jack were his wife Cecilia, his Mum Irene, and his sisters Helen, Joan and Gwen. It seems that Jack’s Dad (Bill) wasn’t there. I can only imagine that there was something incredibly important on for Bill, as this would have been a very proud day for the family.

Officiating at the award ceremony, and also seen in the photos below were Lieutenant General Sir John Northcott and Air Marshal Sir John Patrick Joseph McCauley.

On 1 August 1946, Lieutenant General Northcott had become the first Australian-born Governor of New South Wales, going on to be one of the longest serving of the NSW Governors. Air Marshall McCauley, who was 19 years Jack’s senior, had joined the RAAF in January 1924, 15 years before Jack joined up.

Lieutenant General Sir John Northcott (Governor General)

Air Marshal Sir John Patrick Joseph McCauley

The photo below was taken by someone from Jack’s family group as they entered the grounds of Government House.

This is a photo of Jack’s support group – from left Jack’s wife Celia, followed by his sisters Gwen, Joan and Helen, and to the right is his Mum Irene.

The photo on the left hand side below is of Jack shaking hands with the NSW Governor, Lieutenant General Northcott. I believe that it was Northcott who would have given the AFC to Jack. You can see Gwen, Joan, Irene and Helen in the background looking chuffed to bits. The AFC is pinned just above Jack’s left breast pocket.

And the shot on the right is of Irene and Jack with Air Marshal Sir John Patrick Joseph McCauley after the award ceremony. Given that Jack and McCauley had joined the RAAF when it was relatively small, and that they’d served in similar places in both Australia and Asia, they would more than likely have known one another.

This last shot is also after the AFC has been awarded to Jack, as it’s pinned to his jacket. But unlike the other shots, everyone seems to be in a very sombre mood. I can’t be sure, but perhaps they’d been talking about their brother Alan who’d been killed over Egypt in 1944.