George Jones (officer)
Sir George Jones (born October 18, 1896 in Rushworth , Victoria , † August 24, 1992 in Melbourne , Victoria) was an Australian fighter pilot in World War I , from 1942 to 1952 commander of the Australian Air Force and was instrumental in its reorganization after the Second World War responsible. His tenure as Air Force Chief is known in Australia for his unexpected appointment, for conflict with his rival William Bostock, with whom he was long friends, and for a ten-year period, which is the record in Australia. After his service, Jones held leading positions in the aviation industry until 1970 and pursued an unsuccessful political career.
Youth and First World War
Jones was born in 1896 near rural Rushworth, Victoria, the youngest of eight children. His father, Henry Jones, a miner, had died three months earlier and his mother raised him in the Methodist faith. He left the local school in 1910 at the age of 14 and began an apprenticeship as a carpenter, but then moved to Melbourne to work as a mechanic. From 1912 he began his part-time military service alongside work and was assigned to the mounted infantry (29th Light Horse Regiment).
In May 1915, Jones enlisted as an avid volunteer for the Australian Imperial Force and fought in the Gallipoli campaign . The experiences there traumatized him for years to come. After the end of the mission on Gallipoli he was first assigned to the Camel Corps, then in 1916 to the Australian Flying Corps . For this he had to accept a downgrading of his rank, which he quickly compensated for. At first he worked as an aircraft mechanic, but was then allowed to travel to England to receive flight training. He received his license on November 22, 1917 and took up his duties in January 1918. He was seriously wounded during an operation in March 1918 and was incapacitated for three months. He finished his service with seven aerial victories and with the rank of captain, but remained in Germany until June 1919 as part of the British occupation forces.
Promotion in the RAAF
Jones returned to Melbourne in 1919, where on November 15 he married Muriel Cronan, a civil servant and piano player with whom he had kept in contact during the war. Their first son was born on October 2, 1920, the second son on June 26, 1934. Jones was persuaded to join the newly founded RAAF on March 22, 1921, together with William Bostock, with whom he had a long friendship as a comrade should. For a long time, the older Bostock remained somewhat higher in rank than Jones and served as a role model and mentor for him. Jones was praised for his qualities as a technician and in administration, but only rated average in questions of command and personnel management. In 1926 he became a flight instructor and a year later became the commander of a flight instruction unit. From 1928 to 1930 he attended the Royal Air Force Staff College in Great Britain, where he graduated from the top of his class. On his return to Australia in October 1930, he was appointed chief flight instructor at the Point Cook Academy . A year later he was responsible for flight training at the Melbourne headquarters of the RAAF and was then appointed Director of Personnel Services of the RAAF in April 1936.
After the outbreak of World War II Jones was again training officer of the RAAF in December 1939 and was responsible for the implementation of the Commonwealth Air Training Plan . He set up flight schools, acquired hundreds of training aircraft and oversaw the training of thousands of pilots. During this time, the number of flight instructors rose rapidly from 16 (1939) to 3600 in 1945.
Appointment as commander of the RAAF
On May 5, 1942 Jones was surprisingly appointed Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), the Air Force Chief of Australia. Previously, there had been several politically and strategically motivated disputes over the post, and for two years, Jones' predecessor Charles Burnett, a Briton, had headed the Air Force. In retrospect, Jones was considered the extreme outsider among the candidates for the head of the Air Force, especially since he was lower in rank than many others. His friend and mentor, Vice Air Marshal Bostock, was considered Burnett's most capable commander and likely successor. The Labor government passed Bostock, presumably on the disgrace of Burnett's recommendation, and favored working-class son Jones. Other candidates were Air Marshal Richard Williams , long-time CAS in the 1930s but also politically banned, and Vice Air Marshal Peter Drummond , whose mission in the Middle East was not over. There have been speculations that Jones' appointment was a mistake due to a misinterpretation of the Air Force's organizational chart.
Jones himself was extremely surprised by the decision, as he had not expected the position of the CAS until much later in his career. He accepted the challenge and was soon promoted to Vice Air Marshal, a par with Bostock. The two long-time friends and now top-ranking RAAF commanders inevitably saw each other as competitors. Jones tried in March 1943, supported by the staff of the Air Force, Bostock to remove from his command and to fill his position with Air Commodore Joe Hewitt. However, Bostock called on his superiors on the US staff, Lieutenant General George Kenney and Commander in Chief Douglas MacArthur , who, through the Australian Prime Minister, arranged for the proposal to be dropped. In the period that followed, Bostock was able to override many of Jones' orders - Bostock was the de facto operational commander for strategic operations in the Pacific War , while Jones was in charge of administration, personnel matters and materials at Melbourne headquarters. In April 1943 and again in June 1944 the Ministry of Defense considered creating a superordinate position to remedy the break in command. At first no one could be found for the post, and later MacArthur himself recommended that the problem should be solved in silence. Kenney, involved in the disputes several times on Bostock's side, noted that "Jones and Bostock fight each other more than the Japsen".
post war period
Both Jones and Bostock were present at the acceptance of the surrender of Japan on September 2, 1945 aboard the USS Missouri (BB-63) . Bostock and several other staff officers were retired in 1946 due to his "inability to work harmoniously with other senior RAAF officers". CAS Jones proved extremely successful in demobilizing the RAAF. The Australian Air Force (fourth largest in the world), which had 175,000 men in 1945, only had 8,000 men in 1948. Jones began recruiting female pilots in 1946, following the example of the WAAAF of World War II and achieved the establishment of the WRAAF in 1950. In addition to demobilization, Jones was responsible for the post-war organization of the RAAF. The RAAF, which he upgraded to 70 squadrons during the World War, was reduced to 16, which should stay up to date. For the selection, Jones traveled to the UK in 1949 and ordered the procurement of English Electric Canberra planes that would later be used in the Vietnam War . He also procured Lockheed P-2 bombers and the Saber and Winjeel from the local CAC . Jones measures would shape the RAAF until the 1970s.
In April 1950, Australia provided troops to deal with the guerrilla war in Malaya . Jones formed the Australian Air Force into a single squadron, No. 90 (Composite) Wing, so that it could operate autonomously from the Allies and would not be distributed among their forces. With the approval of the British Air Defense Ministry, Australia also provided the Commander in Chief of the Commonwealth in the Malaya Crisis. When the Korean War broke out, Jones transferred the No. 77 Squadron, which belonged to the occupation forces of the Allies in Japan, on July 1, 1950 under the command of the UN .
One of his last actions as CAS was the establishment of the RAAF Museum in Point Cook.
Off-duty
Immediately after the Labor government was voted out of office in 1949, the search for a successor to Jones began. The election finally fell in December 1951 on the RAF Air Marshal Donald Hardman, who took office on February 22, 1952. Jones then went into business and was from 1952 to 1957 administrative director in the CAC and from 1952 to the 1970s board member of Ansett Transport Industries . Parallel to his employment in the aviation industry, Jones tried in 1952 for the Liberal Party for the seat of parliament of Flinders (near Melbourne). In 1958 he moved because of his leftist positions to the Labor Party and in 1963 again unsuccessfully applied for the seat in Henty (near Melbourne).
Jones expressed an interest in UFOs from the late 1950s , but admitted that he would not publicly express an opinion in order to avoid being mistaken for crazy.
In 1988 Jones published his autobiography From Private to Air Marshal . In it he wrote that he would have served loyally under William Bostock had he been appointed CAS instead. He did not intrigue for his appointment. Jones, the last Australian flying ace of the First World War, died in 1992 .
Appreciations
Jones was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross in 1918. Admitted to the Order of the British Empire as Commander in 1941 , he was made Knight Commander of the Order in 1953. He was also accepted into the Order of the Bath in 1943 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ^ Air Marshal George Jones, KBE, CB, DFC. Short biography in the Australian War Memorial.
- ^ A b c d e Peter Helson: Ten Years at the Top. University of New South Wales, 2006.
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Alan Stephens: The Royal Australian Air Force: A History. Oxford University Press, London 2006, ISBN 0-19-555541-4 .
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Jones, George |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Australian fighter pilot, RAAF commander |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 18, 1896 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Rushworth , Victoria |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 24, 1992 |
| Place of death | Melbourne , Victoria |