PODCAST: Viking Boys, with Air Vice-Marshal (Ret’d) John Quaife

Joint-capabilities
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By: Robyn Tongol
PODCAST: Viking Boys, with Air Vice-Marshal (Ret’d) John Quaife

In this special cross-over edition of the Defence Connect Podcast and Australian Aviation Podcast, Air Vice-Marshal (Ret’d) John Quaife, AM joins host Phil Tarrant to discuss his new book Viking Boys.

In this special cross-over edition of the Defence Connect Podcast and Australian Aviation Podcast, Air Vice-Marshal (Ret’d) John Quaife, AM joins host Phil Tarrant to discuss his new book Viking Boys.

 

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A former Air Commander Australia, Quaife spent nearly three decades in the Royal Australian Air Force as a fighter pilot. After retiring from the service, he became a member of the Defence Honours and Awards Appeals Tribunal where he learnt incredible stories of untold bravery from Australian service personnel.

Viking Boys tells the story of Beaufighter pilot James Hakewill and his navigator Fred Sides, who died on 5 December 1944 when their aircraft slammed into a German gunboat in a fjord in Norway.

While official records contain no mention of the aircraft hitting the ship, Quaife reveals what truly happened on 5 December 1944.

Enjoy the podcast,
The Defence Connect Team

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Listen to previous episodes of the Defence Connect podcast:

Episode 11: CONTESTED GROUND: Weak, vulnerable, backwater – Australia’s choice between strategic camps and managed decline
Episode 10: PODCAST: Undersea dominance – Australia charts the maritime future through autonomous systems and AUKUS innovation
Episode 9: PODCAST: Australian Army Cadets pathways, submarine industry growth and Australia’s fuel security
Episode 8: CONTESTED GROUND: The blind faith factor – why Australians trust an ADF they don’t understand
Episode 7: PODCAST: Defence preparedness, artificial intelligence productivity, and Australian industrial resilience
Episode 6: CONTESTED GROUND: Shots fired! Chinese missile test shatters Australia’s ‘fog of peace’, with Mike Pezzullo
Episode 5: SPOTLIGHT: Counter-drone innovation, directed energy and delivering operational outcomes, with EOS Defence Systems’ Lee Kormany
Episode 4: PODCAST: Strengthening security ties, Fiji defence pact and Australia’s counter-drone push
Episode 3: CONTESTED GROUND: Lessons from the UK in political polarisation, generational dislocation and intergenerational warfare, with Ben Dullroy, Bravo Delta Advisory
Episode 2: PODCAST: Defence Industry Development Strategy, Defence reform and Australians fighting in Ukraine