Bruce Laird Ada

15/12/1919 — 19/01/2001
A brief biography

Ancestors


Thomas Ada ±1710 —
Thomas Ada ±1734 —
William Ada 1767 — 1837
William Ada 1807 — 1883
Joseph William Ada 1853 — 1944
William Leslie Ada 1884 —
Bruce Laird Ada 1919 — 2001
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Mentioned in

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1983 Letters from Frances Ada to Doreen ...

Spouse/Partner and Children


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Pamela Paton 1925 — 2015   Richard Ada   Susan Ada —   Ada   Ada  

Bruce Laird Ada


Son of William Leslie Ada and Erica Maude Flower. .

Born in Sydney in 1919, the ninth year of the reign of King George V, and died aged eighty-one in Caloundra in the forty-ninth year of the reign of Queen Elizabeth II  He has 15 direct descendants in the family.

Darby and Joan


Supermarine Walrus pilot, Pilot Officer Bruce Ada, joined the British Pacific Fleet in February 1945 following service in No. 9 Squadron RAAF during 1944 in Papua New Guinea. In Papua New Guinea he undertook aerial survey duties flying from Australian Navy ships and rescues, including a spectacular rescue of a P40 Kittyhawk pilot from the jungles in West Papua New  

Mike Walsh recalls

The very last day of the war, 10 August, 1945, Bruce flew Walrus W3085 (“Darby”) to rescue a New Zealand flyer. He had to ditch his Walrus after locating the pilot’s raft and running out of fuel. He recalled later that he was within sight of the raft but could not get near it because the aircraft had no fuel.  


Submarine USS Peto

Air Sea Rescue Unit


HMS Victorious

Bruce became a rescued flyer. He was picked up by a Yankee destroyer, transferred by breeches buoy to several other ships, including the battleship H.M.S. King George 5 and arrived back at base on H.M.S. Victorious, which was 'dawdling along', (heading south) at 26 knots. Flying in the Royal Navy he considered was rougher than the RAN. He flew only  

A rescue off Miyako Island

On April 17 Bruce effected a particularly hazardous rescue off Miyako Island. According to a report by John Loughlin a Special Staff Correspondent with The Argus, Avenger bomber navigator Sub Lieutenant John Gass of Yorkshire, the only survivor of the aircraft hit by anti-aircraft fire, was “snatched from under the guns of the Japanese shore positions by a Walrus biplane  


The Surrender of Hong Kong


From June to August 1945 Task Force 57 joined the American fleet in attacking the Japanese mainland until the Japanese succumbed on 10 August 1945. HMS Victorious did not take part in the formal surrender on 15 August but headed south to Manus Island with most of the British Pacific Fleet. At Manus Bruce transferred from HMS Victorious to HMS  

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