During World War II, the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) established several operational training units to convert recently graduated pilots from advanced trainers to combat aircraft, and to add fighting ability to the flying skills they had already learned.

After preliminary training, pilots went through a six-week conversion to Lockheed Hudsons and Bristol Beauforts, while observers and gunners underwent instruction on Airspeed Oxfords and Avro Ansons.

The base's living quarters, recreational buildings and 88 tents could not fully accommodate this influx, so the RAAF rented hotels in Bairnsdale for 320 airmen.

1 OTU Detached Flight, consisting of 15 Hudsons and 108 personnel including air and maintenance crews, was sent to North-Eastern Area Command to help fulfill urgent transport requirements in New Guinea.

[2][3] This force joined a military Douglas DC-2 and eleven civil aircraft pressed into service to form RAAF Special Transport Flight, which operated out of Wards Airfield from 14 December 1942 to 11 January 1943.

Its fleet of aircraft included 55 Beauforts, 35 Oxfords, 25 Hudsons, 14 Fairey Battles and one de Havilland Tiger Moth.

[2] Garing organised an aerobatic display by a Beaufort for the benefit of students, and an open day at the base on 16 October 1943; he also ordered extensive ground testing on the aircraft.

[4] Accidents continued to occur, and it was ultimately through the efforts of Wing Commander Charles Learmonth immediately prior to his death in a Beaufort off the Western Australian coast that the nature of the problem was recognised and overcome.

1 OTU was required to periodically release instructors, students and aircraft for maritime patrols to protect Australian shipping lanes.

[7] A year later, four Beauforts were deployed to Mount Gambier, South Australia, to carry out a two-day escort for the Dutch transport ship Van Ruys.

1 OTU were also ordered to locate and destroy the German U-Boat U-862, which had shelled the Greek tanker Illosis off Kingston, South Australia, on 9 December 1944.