Dudley Ferrall Donation

We would like to thank Rob and Miriam Ferrall and their family for sharing the pictures below.
The pictures are a collection of original WWII aircraft nose art.

Trevor Dudley Ferrall, Sgt in the Royal Australian Air Force, was in the No 14 Mobile Works Squadron
(part of No 61 Wing) which built airstrips. In early 1944 they built a 10,000 foot long runway in
Darwin for the deployment of 100 USA AF B-29 Superfortresses. They never arrived due to being
deployed to India to attack targets in Japan and East Asia as part of Operation Matterhorn. In August
1944 they left Darwin and on 18/9/44 No 14 arrived on Moratai (3 days after the Americans) and
started building airfields the next day. No 61 Wing was disbanded at Moratai 22/11/45. Trevor was 12
days from his 26th Birthday. He returned to Australia, settled in South Australia with his wife and died
in 1963 of pneumonia from weakened health brought about by his war service. He left behind his wife,
my husband Rob, then aged 12, and two younger sons, David aged 10 and Greg 6. The photos came
into the family's possession when his wife died in 1999, whilst we were sorting through old papers and
photos. They were misplaced for several years after someone borrowed them from us, but happily we were re-united with them in Sept 2014 when the family started researching them.