Albert Leske by Ned Uren

                             

Albert Victor Leske Schulz born 27 March 1914 in Kulpara, South Australia. Schulz was Son of Nathanael Reginald Robert and Anna Louise Schulz. On 26 November 1940 Albert Schulz enlisted in the Royal Australia Air Force as a Leading Aircraftman in Adelaide. Immediately Schulz was moved to the RAAF station in Darwin. on 19 February 1942 that Schulz was tragically killed at the RAAF station headquarters by a Japanese air raid at Midday. According to the Operations Record Book from the Station headquarters in Darwin Schulz was serving as a Messmen to the Headquarters. Before enlisting it was recorded that Schulz was a butler in Adelaide. His exact location of his previous job was not recorded but it presumed it was around the mid-north area of South Australia.

It was recorded that alongside Schulz and his Australian compatriots three other American men worked at the R.A.A.F and these men were tragically killed by the same Japanese air raid on Darwin. Fig 2 shows the 12 squadron R.A.A.F where Schulz was located as it was attacked a part of a Japanese air raid on Darwin.

Fig.3 Operations record book from the Station Headquarters in Darwin. Albert Schulz’s name is included a part of the casualties for both raids. (vwma.org.au) 


The R.A.A.F airbase in Darwin faced Japanese dive bombers aiming for infrastructure and different aircraft around the base. Widespread destruction was caused while buildings and aircraft faced immense destruction across two air raids on the 19th  of Feb 1942. Albert Schulz was sadly apart of the seven men who were killed and the 5 injured who were stationed at the R.A.A.F airbase. Across the two initial air-raids the allies lost a total 23 aircraft, eight ships and 255 people including civilians were killed.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts

Getting ready to go to Darwin

Image
  Getting ready to head-off to Darwin and surrounds on 16 Apri l After a few false starts and the disappointment of the study tour to France being cancelled because of the pandemic, the 2020 Premier's Anzac Spirit School Prize students are finally approved to travel to Darwin and the Top End of the Northern Territory during April this year.   The historical focus is learning about and commemoration of the Bombing of Darwin during World War 2.  As you will see from the itinerary below, the study tour also has a strong cultural and geographical focus as the group travels from Darwin to Kakadu, to Katherine and then onto Litchfield National Park.  The trip is planned and the itinerary is as follows: Fri, 16 April 2021 0730 Depart Adelaide Airport (QF858) to Darwin. Arrive Darwin 1110. Overnight in Darwin at H on Smith Hotel Sat, 17 April 2021 Visit Darwin War Museum and tour of Darwin environs. Overnight in Darwin at H on Smit
Read more

Please send me your research document on your person before the end of the week

Image
     Image from the Virtual War Memorial at  Virtual War Memorial (vwma.org.au) I will be publishing your research stories on this blog in preparation for the presentations each night - if you have sent me a Word document with photographs of your research to me.  Please try to do so before the end of this week.  I thought it was worth re-publishing this blog posting about primary sources to get our thinking in place about the  stories from the bombing. Going to the primary sources In our research for the trip it is very important that we seek out the primary sources for the bombing of Darwin story - to listen to and read from those who were actually there on those fateful days.  Primary sources are critical for us to understand the state of mind of those involved and to piece together a complete story of the bombing. When we are in Darwin we will be at museums that will profile the stories of the survivors of the bombing but we thought it would be good if you spent some time now listen
Read more