JAPANESE SPIES AT MAREEBA,
NORTH QUEENSLAND
DURING WW2

visits since 16 March 2003

Vic, of Camp Hill was a young bank worker in Mareeba during WW2. He wrote to the Good Mail column of the Sunday Mail to indicate that during a visit by General Douglas MacArthur to inspect the 43rd Bomb Group at the Mareeba airfield, he was shown the food preparation area in the kitchen. MacArthur apparently ran his finger over the cutting blade of a meat slicer and found that it had a fine layer of animal fat on it. He commented "You'd better get this cleaned up properly, soldier".

The following evening, Tokyo Rose stated during her broadcast "And how are the Mareeba butchers tonite? Have you got the meat slicer cleaned yet?"

The 403rd Bomb Squadron of the 43rd Bomb Group was known as the "Mareeba Butchers". It has been suggested that they got their name from the above incident.

REFERENCE BOOKS

Good Mail column, Sunday Mail 16 March 2003

Heaps of WW2 books available at Amazon.com

"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 16 March 2003

This page last updated 26 March 2005