Air Commodore Peter Frank Raw, (5 June 1922 – 14 July 1988) was a senior officer and pilot in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He saw combat in a heavy bomber unit in the European theatre during the later stages of World War II and as a senior officer in the Vietnam War, and served in many flying, training and administrative roles.
Raw joined the RAAF in 1941, and served as a flight instructor, bomber pilot and the commander of a communications unit during World War II. After the war he became a specialist navigator. He was appointed commanding officer of the bomber-equipped No. 2 Squadron in January 1953, but temporarily left this position for part of the year to participate in the 1953 London to Christchurch air race, in which he placed second. He returned to lead No. 2 Squadron at the end of 1953 and held the position until 1955.
Raw subsequently served in staff and diplomatic roles until 1965, when he took command of No. 82 Wing, which comprised all of the RAAF's bomber units. Between May 1966 and April 1967, he served as the air support co-ordinator for the Australian forces in South Vietnam. His initial reluctance to commit RAAF helicopters to assist the Australian Army force that was in danger of being defeated during the Battle of Long Tan in August 1966 generated lasting controversy and contributed to a later decision to transfer battlefield helicopters to the Army. Raw served in various staff and training positions until 1972, when he was appointed the commander of RAAF Base Butterworth. He returned to Australia in 1976 and retired from the RAAF two years later.
Early career Peter Frank Raw was born in the Melbourne suburb of Glen Huntly on 5 June 1922 to Alfred and Eleanor Raw. He was educated at Tooronga Road State School and later attended Melbourne High School. Raw began an electrical apprenticeship at Carlton & United Breweries in 1939, and studied part-time at Melbourne Technical College.
Raw attempted to enlist with the Royal Australian Navy as an electrical artificer in 1941, but was rejected and told to reapply in twelve months. Instead, he joined the RAAF on 15 August that year. He departed Sydney bound for Southern Rhodesia in November 1941 to be trained as a pilot under the Empire Air Training Scheme. Arriving in Southern Rhodesia in January 1942, Raw completed his training and was commissioned as a pilot officer in December that year. He subsequently served as a flying instructor in Southern Rhodesia. In May 1944 Raw became engaged to Dorothy Maggs, whose family lived in Southern Rhodesia and South Africa.
In mid-1944, Raw was transferred to Egypt and undertook an operational conversion course that prepared him to fly Consolidated B-24 Liberator heavy bombers in combat. In July that year he was posted to No. 178 Squadron RAF, a British B-24 Liberator unit based near Foggia in southern Italy. While serving with this squadron, Raw took part in operations in the eastern Mediterranean region as well as Hungary, Romania and Yugoslavia. During one of his first combat operations, a raid on an oil refinery near Ploiești in Romania, Raw successfully bombed the target despite heavy anti-aircraft gunfire and later evaded an enemy fighter.
In August 1944 the long-range bomber units controlled by No. 205 Group RAF, including No. 178 Squadron, took part in the Warsaw airlift to supply the Polish Home Army during the Warsaw Uprising. These missions were very challenging due to the long duration of the flights, adverse weather and German opposition. The bomber units involved suffered heavy casualties. Raw made three flights to Warsaw. His bomber was the only aircraft to deliver its cargo to Warsaw during a mission on 16 August; Raw received the Polish Cross of Valour in February 1945 for this achievement. One of his other flights to Warsaw took place on 1 September, but due to bad weather Raw was unable to see the city at the time he dropped the load of supplies.
During a raid on the northern Italian city of Verona on 12 October 1944, Raw's aircraft was hit by two anti-aircraft shells that destroyed its hydraulics system and an engine, wounded the radio operator and opened 166 holes in the fuselage. Despite this damage, Raw was able to return the B-24 safely to its base. He suffered frostbite to his feet, as damage to the plane's nose caused icy winds to enter the cockpit.
In December 1944, Raw was promoted to flight lieutenant. He assumed command of No. 205 Group Communication Squadron in 1945. On 20 February that year, he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for having "completed a notable tour of operational duty" in which he displayed "exceptional skill and devotion to duty" and developed a high-performing aircrew. Raw's brother Norman also served as a RAAF pilot, and was deployed to New Guinea as of February 1945.
Following the end of the war, Raw returned to Australia in November 1945 and was demobilised on 17 January 1946. Two days later he and Dorothy Maggs were married at St Mary's Church of England in Caulfield; they had a daughter.
Raw rejoined the RAAF in May 1946, and retained his wartime rank of flight lieutenant. Between 1947 and October 1949 he was posted to Britain to undertake specialist training in navigation. On his return to Australia, Raw served as an instructor at the RAAF's School of Air Navigation, and later held training positions at No. 78 Wing and No. 2 Operational Training Unit (No. 2 OTU). For a period in 1952 he served as the acting commanding officer of No. 2 OTU, which at the time was training pilots for combat in the Korean War with No. 77 Squadron.
Commanding officer
In January 1953 Raw, who was by now a squadron leader, was appointed the commanding officer of No. 2 Squadron, a heavy bomber unit equipped with Avro Lincolns. On 23 February he also became the initial commander of No. 1 Long Range Flight, which had been formed to participate in the 1953 London to Christchurch air race using two of the RAAF's new English Electric Canberra bombers. He handed this position to Wing Commander Derek Cuming in May, but remained a member of the flight. In July, Raw temporarily vacated his position at No. 2 Squadron so he could focus on preparing for the air race. The Canberras piloted by Raw and Cuming departed Australia for the United Kingdom on 10 September, and the race began on 9 October. Raw's aircraft suffered damage to its nose wheel while landing to refuel at Woomera, South Australia, but was able to be repaired. This accident cost him the lead in the race. Raw arrived at Christchurch at 6:27 am on 10 October, finishing second behind an RAF Canberra piloted by Flight Lieutenant Roland (Monty) Burton.
Raw returned to lead No. 2 Squadron on 18 December 1953. That month, drawing on a nucleus of personnel and aircraft which had served with No. 1 Long Range Flight, the unit became the RAAF's first jet bomber-equipped squadron when its Lincolns were replaced with Canberras. Later in December a Canberra piloted by Raw established a new record for the fastest flight between New Zealand and Australia, completing the crossing between Auckland and Sydney in two hours and 49 minutes. On 31 December, Raw was awarded the Air Force Cross for his role in the London to Christchurch air race; the decoration was presented to him by Queen Elizabeth II at Brisbane on 10 March 1954. A September 1954 story in The Courier-Mail described Raw as a "shy young commander".
After completing his term as commanding officer of No. 2 Squadron on 11 July 1955, Raw was posted to the UK to undertake training at the Royal Air Force Flying College. Upon his return to Australia in January 1956, he was promoted to wing commander and assigned a planning role at RAAF Headquarters in Melbourne. From December that year he was a liaison officer to the RAAF force supporting the British nuclear weapons tests in the Montebello Islands off the coast of Western Australia. Raw was posted to the Joint Planning staff in 1957. In this role, he was part of the Australian delegation to a SEATO military advisers' conference held in Canberra during March 1957. He and Dorothy divorced during 1958, and Raw subsequently married Helen Dorothy Hammond on 21 June that year at St Margaret's Presbyterian Church in Balaclava. This marriage produced another daughter and a son.
In December 1960, Raw joined the directing staff of the RAAF Staff College in Canberra. In 1963 he became the first president of the amateur Canberra Astronomical Society. Later in 1963 he undertook further training at the United States Armed Forces Staff College, after which he became the assistant air attaché in the Australian Embassy in Washington, D.C. In February 1965 Raw assumed command of No. 82 Wing, which controlled all of the RAAF's bomber squadrons. He was raised to acting group captain at this time, and was confirmed in this rank in January the next year.
Vietnam War
In May 1966, Raw was posted to South Vietnam as the air support commander for the 1st Australian Task Force (1 ATF). This force was composed primarily of Australian Army units, and had recently arrived in the country as part of an expansion of Australia's commitment to the Vietnam War. Although he did not have any background in air/land warfare, Raw's main responsibility in this position was to co-ordinate helicopter support for the Task Force's two infantry battalions.
Raw was given only two weeks to prepare for his new role between handing over command of No. 82 Wing and departing for South Vietnam. During this period he received briefings on the situation in the country and began to familiarise himself with the operations of the RAAF's tactical transport units. Historian Alan Stephens has written that "Group Captain Raw's background as one of the RAAF's most respected bomber leaders was inappropriate for the job of task force air commander: too often he struggled to make the timely decisions demanded by tactical air/land operations". The commander of the RAAF contingent in South Vietnam, Air Commodore Jack Dowling, also lacked expertise in these kinds of operations, and Stephens has argued that the Australian Air Board should have selected officers with more relevant experience.
As air support commander for 1 ATF, Raw came under the direction of its commanding officer, Brigadier David Jackson, for most purposes. Raw was also the commander of the RAAF units stationed at Vũng Tàu and the deputy commander of the RAAF force in South Vietnam. He regularly flew on combat missions with the UH-1 Iroquois helicopter-equipped No. 9 Squadron as well as No. 35 Squadron, which operated DHC-4 Caribou tactical transports.
From the time No. 9 Squadron arrived in South Vietnam during June 1966 there were tensions between the Army and RAAF over how the unit was employed. The squadron's early operations were hindered by rushed preparations, equipment shortages and a directive from the Department of Air that prohibited it from operating in areas where there was a high risk of the helicopters being fired upon. This quickly led to a perception within 1 ATF's headquarters that the squadron was not providing enough support and the RAAF high command had a peacetime mentality. Jackson regarded the RAAF contingent as being slow to respond during operations and was frustrated that it did not always immediately follow his orders. Raw believed that the Task Force headquarters had unrealistic expectations as the Army officers did not understand the difficulty of maintaining and operating helicopters. The two men frequently ended up in heated arguments over the employment of the squadron. At Jackson's request, Raw moved from Vũng Tàu to the Task Force's base at Nui Dat in what proved a successful attempt to improve the relationship between the Army and RAAF. Raw also established an air transport operations centre there.