In December we posted information about Bennett’s Mae West, preserved after he was shot down in Norway and now owned by the Australian War Memorial (AWM) at Canberra.
The Bennett Memorial at the small regional Toowoomba Airport in Queensland, close to Bennett’s place of birth, is believed to be the only memorial to Bennett in his native Australia. To say it is somewhat low-key for a man of his attainments would be an understatement. Part of the problem is that the plaque is mounted facing the runway, so that the memorial just looks like a block of granite from the street.
There is also a collection of Bennett material in Queensland which we are hoping to learn more about this year. However, it does appear that Bennett’s memory is not particularly revered in his own country, perhaps because he made his career with the RAF rather than the RAAF, and never returned to live in Australia. This paragraph on the AWM website on 50 Australians who were prominent in wartime, a list which incidentally does not include Bennett, perhaps betrays a historian’s bias against those who gave more allegiance to England than their mother country:
Air Vice Marshal Sir Hughie Idwal Edwards, VC, KCMG, CB, DSO, OBE, DFC (1914–1982)
Edwards joined the RAAF when he was 21. Following pilot training he transferred to the RAF in Britain under a pre-war arrangement. Another to do this was Air Vice Marshal Don Bennett, regarded as the founder of the Path-finder Force. “It was ironic that the two most successful Australian air commanders in Europe earned their reputations as members of the RAF,” noted an air force historian. (AWM: 50 Australians – Sir Hughie Edwards )
Photographs and additional information courtesy of Ian Campbell