Disbandment.

The Grand Final.

Even though it was fifty seven years ago I can remember those last weeks very well, we had made the camp area very livable also the tent lines we were being well fed there was plenty of beer and spirits on hand, I had settled down a great deal for on the last I met the girl who, four years later accepted my proposal, we are still together. The first task I recall was that we had strip our tent sites down to only basic needs next we had strip the Armament Section likewise(Photo insert left.) Standing in doorway back row Doug Brock, myself and Ted, front row Corpral ?, Srg Jack Hayes. W/O Len Crossling, Corpral ?, and Max ? our artist. insert right same group with a change of cameraman from corporal? standing to the left of Max for Srg Jack Hayes right in the insert below.

I had been issued with a vast niumber of tool and guages even then it must of cost a lot, when I took it to the store to have signed off I was told to take it out back and empty it on the pile of all the other signed off tool kits. Where all those tools ended up was anyone's guess.

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The main buildings Headquarters, Orderly Room and command officers were all built around the parade ground these were not dismantled at this time however I beleive that all the record were taken to Garbutt. the Parade ground its self had a great deal of action over the years as most of the RAAF Squadrons that had been in the struggle against the Japanese would of stayed at one of these strips either on the way North or on the way home, its surface pounded into a solid mass by the thousands of regular issue boots worn by thousands of personnel doing their best to please Commanding Officers moving on to and off parades.

I have had contact with only two former members of 86 one a Doug Brock last heard of at Claire South Australia and the Armament Officer W/O Len Crossling. I caught up with Len when he answered a notice I had placed in the Association Magizine "Wings." on our next holiday trip to Coolumn I made the effort to call at Len's home, I am pleased that I did he told me that I was the only members of the squadron that he had met up since those days. Len, now in his early ninties lives in the retirement village at Austin Hospital Heildberg with his wife Eileen.

Len and an LAC Armourer were the last to leave the strip site their task was to restore the site back to its original condition to be handed back to the owner, they dismantled or had the buildings removed all the other items passed to Recovery Depot.

The last thing Len and his offsider did was to burn the Duty Pilots tower all tasks completed they left the site. Len was then posted into Bomb disposal and served in New Guinea disposing of unwanted and unsafe munitions. In all Len served for seven years and never left the mainland until the war had ended. If were capable of writing suitable epithet on these events it would have to be that if in June 1945 the Wing had of been sent into action it is quite feasible that 84 and 86 Squadrons could be the two principle units of the Royal Australian Air Force.

Back to Chapter three.