Was the last strike before or after the end of the war?(Letter to the editor)

In his article The Last Strike in the June 2006 issue of Sabretache, the late Alan Fraser, a pilot with 7 Squadron, RAAF, wrote of the last strike by the RAAF in WW2.7 Squadron, together with 8 and 100 Squadrons and all flying Beauforts, formed No 71 Wing. On what proved to be the last day of the war, 15 August 1945, the wing was ordered to attack Japanese concentrations in the village of Kiarivu, about 25 miles inland from Wewak on the north coast of New Guinea. The three squadrons, with 100 leading, left Tadji airstrip near Aitape at 0900 hours local time; all aircraft being airborne by 0935 hours. Alan Fraser flew the last aircraft of the force and believed that he and his crew took the last offensive action by the RAAF in WW2. In his article, he states that, as he made a strafing run over the target after bombing, all aircraft were ordered by the base controller to cease all operations and to return to base because the war had ended with the surrender of Japan.

Official records assert that news of the Japanese surrender arrived from RAAF Command HQ just after the Beauforts had made their attack and implies that the recall was signalled immediately by the base controller. Fraser states that news of the surrender had been known before the first aircraft had taken off. A wireless operator of one of the first aircraft to take off reported to his pilot that just after being airborne he had picked up the news on a different radio frequency to that being used for the strike.

Max O'Neil has another version of the event. 407605 Joseph Max O'Neill is a South Australian who enlisted on 11 November 1940. He was a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner who flew a tour with Bomber Command over Europe with 214 Squadron RAF- in Wellingtons and then Stirlings. He had some very hairy times during his tour before serving as an ...