The Dutch military pilot famous in Broome for taking a plane’s machine gun in his hands and shooting down one of the Japanese fighters laying waste to the town has died aged 100.
Captain Gus Winckel had been transporting Dutch refugees as Japanese forces rapidly invaded what was then the Dutch East Indies during World War II in 1942. Stopping in Broome to refuel, his plane was amongst 22 others caught by a surprise attack by nine Japanese Zeroes making a long range raid from a recently captured airfield in East Timor.
But while the Zeroes started their attack on the flying boats in Broome’s Roebuck Bay, killing tens of Dutch refugees including over 20 children, Winckel was able to get his passengers to safety on Broome’s airfield. Knowing his plane was a sitting duck, Gus Winckel removed one of the mounted machine guns and positioned himself at a safe distance and waited for the Japanese fighters to turn their attention to the airfield.
“And luckily, one of them came very, very close to me and I gave him a long burst. And also, I shot him down. I wish I shot a few more down. I hit another one who had to dump in the sea.” Mr Winckel said when visiting Broome for the 60th anniversary of the air raid in 2002.
Broome is not the only Australian town that fondly remembers Gus Winckel. Following the Broome air raid Mr Winckel was based out of Moruya in New South Wales from where he flew patrols of eastern Australia. It was on one of these patrols that Gus Winckel is credited with sinking a Japanese submarine. Today a statue of Gus Winckel stands in Moruya to remember his bravery and that of the other airmen who fought in WWII.
Gus Winckel was awarded the Dutch Gold Cross for his wartime efforts.
Gus Winckel died on 17th August 2013 from complications following a broken hip from a fall six weeks earlier. He was aged nearly 101 and is sadly missed by his 92 year old wife Yvonne and sons Shayne, Jean-Paul, Michael and many in the Broome community and beyond who remember his bravery.
Source: www.abc.net.au, 20 August 2013
