Page 14 - John Francis Ryan

These comments by Peter Cuffley talking to Kevin John O’Conner, a fellow pilot in the same
training intake as John.

Brian got to wondering if our uncle might have travelled up to Canada and then across to the UK. I
decided to see if I could answer that question by ringing up Kevin John O'Connor who trained with
our uncle and travelled with him. I seems they trained in Victoria, Tasmania and in South Australia.
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Kevin turned 98 on the 25 of March this year (2020) and thankfully is still as bright as a button.
He is in a nursing home in Hawthorne East in Melbourne. Quite a few years ago I contacted him
and we swapped material. I loaned him transcripts of our Uncle’s letters and he gave me copies of
photographs from their time in training. He told me has always felt a kind of guilt that he was
directed away from Bomber Command into a special area of research such as Distance
Measuring Equipment. He flew eighteen different types of aircraft and did lots of test flights off the
west coast of Britain. He was so upset that his good mate Johnny died in such way that in later
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years he did all he could to research the raid of the 16 /17 March, 1945. I think he followed up
records in London, before they became freely available from the Australian National Archives.
My question to Kevin last year was about their voyage to the UK in 1944. He readily answered,
'We sailed out of New York on the S.S. 'Ile de France', along with over 5000 American soldiers.
There were so many on board that bunks were allocated in eight hour shifts.' It was interesting to
hear that they disembarked in Greenock, Port Glasgow, but I suppose that was a safer direction to
take. On its following voyages the 'Ile de France' sailed from Halifax, Nova Scotia. Kevin, Johnny
and the others then travelled by train down to Bristol. I need to contact Kevin again and check on
who is in the attached photo taken at Luna Park in Sydney on the 8th of December, 1943. I think
Walter Ronald 'Wally' Searle (428077) is front left, and Kevin John O'Connor (034725/419098) at
right. Uncle John 'Jack' Ryan is in the middle at the back. I would think Peter Felix 'Pete' Sattler
(428077) who went to 576 Squadron is also there, and also Leslie Walter 'Richo' Richardson
(428125) who went to 170 Squadron. Wally Searle told me a great story about him being an
observer with an all Canadian Lancaster crew. They all parachuted to safety and he was in a POW
camp on the edge of Nuremberg on the night of the 16 of March, 1945. They had a spectacular
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view of the raid. The American standing next to him said, 'I'm glad it’s your fellas up there and not
ours!' The RAF were apparently known to be more accurate with their bombing. Wally said that a
few days after the raid someone came up behind him and said in the typically Aussie way,
'Searley you bastard!' It was Pete Sattler who had also parachuted to safety and been captured.

The small RAAF group who travelled via America, left Spencer Street Station, Melbourne on the
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evening of the 5 of December, 1943. They travelled to the border town of Albury on the legendary
'Spirit of Progress' which was hauled by a big streamlined S Class locomotive. In 1953 we were on
that station seeing off relatives on 'the Spirit' and my grandpa Ryan took me up to see the
locomotive. It was an unforgettable sight. We went on 'the Spirit' in 1955, but sadly steam had
been replaced by diesel, so while the 'moderne' steel carriages were the same, much of the
romance had gone. I can imagine the trip for Johnny and his mates, because in 1955 we were
steam hauled in vintage carriages from Albury to Sydney and came into the historic Central
Station, just as it would have been in 1943. Being the only one of the nephews and nieces born
before 1945 and having received a First Birthday present from him, I feel a special bond with my
uncle. He refers to me in a number of letters.

My mother and I lived at the family home in Black Rock in 1949 while my father was building our
house. Also I went to the same primary school for a short while. Kevin O'Connor says there were
only 30 to 40 Australians on the Willard A. Holbrook. I was amazed to read that the entire
collection of American troopship records was deliberately destroyed in the 1950's, much to the
distress of modern researchers.