No. 17 AOP Flight was formed at
Cairns on 2 October 1944. It was equipped with seven
Taylorcraft Auster light aircraft, the first of which was delivered to the unit on 22 October. These aircraft were among the 56 Austers the RAAF had ordered in 1944 to equip
Nos. 16 and 17 AOP Flights. The flight formed part of
No. 84 (Army Cooperation) Wing, along with
No. 5 Squadron, which was equipped with
CAC Boomerang and
CAC Wirraway aircraft, and the
Bristol Beaufort-equipped
No. 10 Local Air Supply Unit. The flight began moving from Cairns to
Bougainville in late October 1944, with its main party arriving on the island on 14 December 1944. Some operational flying was conducted in December, but all of No. 17 AOP Flight's aircraft had to be grounded on the 31st of the month as their fabric airframes had been damaged by the tropical conditions. As a result, the unit was inactive until the first aircraft to be repaired returned to service on 1 February 1945. The Austers were used for reconnaissance, artillery spotting and supply dropping as well as evacuating wounded personnel, and proved successful in these roles. By June 1945 No. 17 AOP Flight had conducted 1,328 sorties on Bougainville, though shortages of supplies and pilots hindered the operations of the unit and the other elements of No. 84 Wing. The flight worked closely with infantry and armoured units, and its aircraft were called "the eyes of the
battalion commanders" by
George Odgers in the official history of the RAAF in World War II. In April 1945 another detachment of the No. 17 AOP Flight was established at
Tadji on the mainland of New Guinea to evacuate soldiers wounded during fighting in the
Aitape–Wewak campaign; by the time of the Japanese surrender it had conducted 255 evacuation flights. Following the end of the war No. 17 AOP Flight was disbanded on 7 December 1945. ==References==