The Victoria Cross is the highest and most prestigious award and honour given out to
members of the British Armed Forces.
It has also been awarded to members of the commonwealth nations, and during the Second
World War there was an Australian recipient who gained it for his involvement in the Air
Force.
William Ellis Newton, commonly known as Bill was a bomber pilot who was noted for his skill
and excellence within the military, but he was killed in barbaric fashion.
He was eventually captured by the Japanese, and was executed in horrific scenes.
He was an experienced pilot during the Second World War, and he remained the only Australian
Airman to recieve the Victoria Cross for this action in the South West Pacific Theatre of
the Second World War.
So join us today as we look at, ‘The HORRIFIC Execution Of Bill Newton.’
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Bill Newton was born in St Kilda on the 8th June 1919, and he was the youngest child of
his family.
It’s assumed that his early life was relatively normal, and he studied at the Melbourne Grammar
School in 1929, but later switched schools as the Great Depression impacted the wealth
his family had.
They could not afford the school, so Bill attended a local state school.
When he was 15 he did return to the grammar school, but then his father died of a heart
attack.
To help support his family, Bill worked in a silk warehouse, but he was noted to have
been a very skilled young man.
Whilst at school, he was a model sportsman and was a very skilled cricketer too rubbing
shoulders with Keith Miller, a man regarded as Australia’s greatest ever all round cricketer.
Bill and Keith were friends, and Newton played cricket regularly in his local teams, and
even gained selection in county teams.
He continued to work inside the warehouse but in 1938 joined the Citizens Military Force,
as he had also been in the cadet corp whilst at school.
He served as a private in the machine gun detachments of the Royal Melbourne Regiments.
As the Second World War broke out in September 1939 following Hitler’s invasion of Poland,
Australia stood with Britain in the fight against Nazi Germany.
Bill Newton resigned from his job and joined the Royal Australian Airforce in February
1940 dreaming of being a pilot.
He tried to enlist at a younger age in the airforce before the war, however his mother
refused to sign the papers but as Australia were at war she gave in and signed the papers.
Bill’s brother’s also enlisted in the forces, and Bill began to train with the Number
1 Elementary Flying Training School.
He learned flying Tiger Moths’ and was noted to have been rather gifted as within a few
months of signing up he was given his wings and was commissioned as a pilot officer.
He undertook further training and then became a flight instructor as he was a gifted teacher
also.
It seemed like Bill Newton had the world at his feet, he was a very gifted person who
was skilled in many things.
He completed further training in the Australian Airforce, but found teaching others to have
been a waste of his time, as he wished greatly to go and take the fight to the enemy and
join the war in a combat capacity.
His work he was doing was rewarding, but he wanted to go on combat missions and take the
fight to the Nazis or the Japanese.
He rose to the rank of flight leftenant in April 1942, and began to train as a navigator
onboard of Lockheed Hudson light bomber aircraft.
Hudsons were used by a variety of allied airforces, including the RAF and United States Air Force
as well as by the Australians, and they were used for a variety of different missions,
from carrying out anti-submarine warfare to bombing transport ships in the pacific.
Newton was posted to the 22 Squadron based in New South Wales who had just began to convert
to using Douglas Boston aircraft, and whilst there Newton was described as ‘ a big brash,
likeable man who could drink anyone under the table, a good pilot, good at sports and
had a way with girls.’
It was during his time with this squadron that Newton got the combat missions he wanted,
entering the fight against the Japanese.
They were involved in escorting convoys and in patrolling the sea around Sydney for Submarines
at the time.
Bill Newton began his first combat operation on the 1st January 1943, and he would complete
52 of these.
The following month he completed missions in monsoon conditions and attacked the Japanese
in mountainous terrain, dropping bombs from his aircraft.
He was involved in the Battle of the Bismarck Sea and bombed airfields to prevent enemy
fighter aircraft taking off there.
Throughout his early combat missions, Newton was known for being direct in attacking his
targets, he would not make evasive actions but instead went straight for the targets,
dropping bombs and because of this he became known as ’The firebug.’
The Japanese even began to nickname Newton as ‘Blue Cap,’ as during his bombing campaign
he wore his old cap from his days playing cricket.
Newton was in a significant position inside of the airforce, and on the 16th March 1943
he led an attack on the Salamaua Isthmus against the Japanese.
It had been taken by the Japanese, and during a sortie, Newton’s Boston aircraft was hit
by anti aircraft fire.
This cause significant damage to the wings, fuel tanks, undercarriage and fuselage.
However Bill Newton continued with his attack, and dropped the bombs on a number go buildings,
fuel stores and ammunition dumps wreaking havoc in the area.
Newton’s reputation for being the firebug continued as he even passed around again for
another run dumping bombs on the enemy, but when he got back to base his aircraft had
98 bullet holes inside it, and it was barely functioning.
It was this sort of fighting that Newton loved, and two days later he along with two crew
members went back to Salamaua with a sortie of five more Boston Aircraft.
As Newton approached the target and he went to drop his bombs, but as he did his aircraft
caught fire and burst into flames after being hit by anti aircraft fire from the ground.
Newton struggled with his Douglas Boston, but it was no use.
He tried to keep the aircraft in the sky as long as he possibly could to guide him away
from the enemy lines, and he ditched the aircraft in the sea around 900 metres from the shoreline.
The forced landing was rough, and it killed Newton’s navigator but he and his wireless
operator managed to survive and both of them swam ashore.
A number of the aircraft in the sortie circled around for a while, and one went to report
to headquarters what happened whilst the rest had to go and refuel.
Newton and Flight Sergeant John Lyon managed to swim to the coast, and were looking to
hopefully link up with the natives but they were captured by a Japanese patrol.
They were taken for a high level interrogation, and Newton who had gained a reputation for
his bombing attacks and raids was known by local Japanese soldiers.
The Japanese treated captured airmen particularly bad, especially those in bombing aircrafts
that had caused much devastation through their bombing attacks on the area.
It’s believed that the two were tortured and interrogated, with their torture being
very brutal.
Many captured airmen wished that they had infact died rather than face the horrific
treatment at the hands of the Japanese.
The two men were taken to Salamaua, the very place which they had devastated with their
bombs, and were interrogated for 4 days until their executions were ordered.
Flight Sergeant John Lyon under the orders of Rear Admiral Ruitaro Fujita was executed
in horrific fashion.
Lyon and Newton had been split up.
Lyon was taken to the perimeter of the Lae airfield, and he was made to dig his own grave.
Whilst the commander was waiting, Newton was then bayonetted to death by soldiers.
Newton was considered a person of importance and someone who possessed a considerable rank,
and he was also sentenced to death, but was executed also in barbaric fashion.
A newspaper article reported of his death, that on March 29th 1943, Newton was given
his last drink of water before being driven from the base guardhouse to a place of execution,
on the edge of a water filled bomb crater.
He was brought here along with many other guards who were there to watch the proceedings.
A diary entry told of his final moments.
It said, ‘He is apparently resigned, the precaution is taken of surrounding him with
guards with fixed bayonets but he remains calm.’
If the executioner didn’t take his life then there were dozens of Japanese soldiers
who were ready to step in to do so.
Newton was then told to kneel down in front of the soldiers.
From the group of soldiers stepped Sub Leftenant Uichi Komai, the naval officer who had captured
Newton.
He was given a commander’s sword, and he then approached Bill Newton who was still
kneeling.
Newton remains calm facing his death in such a brutal way.
He stretched out his neck and it was noted he was very brave.
It was then said, ‘The unit commander has drawn his favourite sword.
It glitters in the light and sends a cold shiver down my spine.
First he touches the prisoner’s neck lightly with the sword, and then he raises it overhead.
The prisoner closes his eyes for a second, and at once the sword sweeps down.’
Bill Newton was beheaded by sword in front of a large crowd of Japanese soldiers in horrific
scenes.
Five days after the report emerged to the public, a headless corpse wearing Austrlian
pattern service trousers and shirt was recovered from a bomb crater around 20 feet from the
shoreline at Kilda Point.
Bill Newton was then awarded the Victoria Cross for his actions when he bombed Salamaua
Island, and his body was reinterred in a war cemetery.
His grave marker states, for god, my king, my country.
There was confusion with regards to a famous photograph, between the execution of Bill
Newton and an Australian commander Len Siffleet.
He was killed by Katan and beheaded, but there were no images of Bill Newton’s execution.
He was an incredibly gifted airman who was well liked by fellow members of the airforce.
Newton wished to see combat inside of the Second World War, but he met his end in a
horrific spectacle, but allegedly met it with bravery and calm.
His execution was one which is tragic and sadistic, and the Victoria cross he was awarded
still does not do justice for his loss.
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