catalinas - flying boats

Afetr an invigorating session with the osteopath and walking taller, suppler...nay almost sprinting!!..spent an hour or so by the riverside.
In a quiet little grove came across a red granite memorial to the Catalina.

What an amazing story. During WWII the refueling routes on the 'Empire Run', from Australia to London, were lost with the fall of Singapore.
From 1943 to 1945 and known as the 'Double Sunrise' Indian Ocean Operation, Catalina flying boats kept open the communication routes between Australia and England, leaving from this very stretch of water.
Surely the first 'long haul flight', these planes flew non stop from Perth to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), some 3500 miles (5630 to us metric souls) across the Indian Ocean....AND they did this in complete radio silence and without radio navigation.

No luxurious stretch out beds or trolleyed drinks and dinners.

Just incredible and quite surreal to think had I stood on this spot some 70 years ago, a Catalina may well have been preparing to make that long and surely perilous flight.
Now commemorated in this shady spot.