Whilst the flying boats were being destoyed in the bay,
other Zeros had been strafing the bombers and transports
on the Broome airstrip, and before long these too were
burning furiously, but fortunately there was no loss of life.

By co-incidence, a Dutch pilot- Fl. Lt. "Gus" Winckel - had
taken a machine gun from his Lockheed Lodestar aircraft
and was servicing it when the raid began.

Firing from the hip, with the barrel resting over his arm,
Winckel managed to hit several of the low-flying enemy
fighters, and was successful in shooting down the Zero
flown by Warrant Officer Osamu Kudo. The Zero was
seen to trail smoke and it vanished into the history books.

Nobody saw it crash and Kudo never returned to his
squadron. His Zero could be lying on the seabed or in the
sand dunes anywhere between Broome and Cape Leveque.

There are unsubstantiated reports that his body was
washed ashore at Roebuck Bay, and he was buried
in an unmarked grave on the beach.

Gus went on to survive the war flying B25 Mitchell
bombers in the Pacific. He is alive and well in Queensland.


Gus Winckels Lockheed Lodestar A16.119 in 1942.

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