Richard Saunders - Tarakan

This interview is part of the ongoing DVA Veterans' Stories project. See transcript below:
"Borneo was an almost wholly Australian attack, and the first of those was Tarakan, and I had been asked to provide a report on the airfield at Tarakan. And we flew down the airstrip at about 1000 feet, and then I reported to our Australian Army headquarters on my considered state of the airfield, which I felt was no longer useful. Subsequently, I learnt that the airfield used to rise and fall with the tide. On Tarakan, we then started the pre-invasion bombardment, and on the day of the landing, three Air Liaison Officers were made Air Support Observers ... Sorry, Support Air Observers, and our task was to inform the general staff on the ship offshore, the state of the shore landing, the first being an hour before the landing, two hours after the landing. And at two hours after the landing, I took over for the next three hours, giving a ball to ball description of the progress of the battle. The ground troops had fluorescent panels which were coloured and these were a guide to me as to which company or battalion line I was dealing with from the air, so that at no stage there was the possibility of misleading attacks by aircraft on our own troops. At a later period of the battle in Tarakan, we received a request for urgent bombing of a group of Japanese preparing what was possibly an attack on the troops. I asked the Commander of the 13th airport permission to fly over and assist the Australians, and he posted me into the lead aircraft to ensure that the accuracy of the bombing was going to where our troops were, in fact. And the bombing was carried outline astern. Some months later, we received a letter from Washington, stating the bombing in that particular attack, the accuracy had been such that it was considered to be a world record for close support. And the unit, the American unit, received a presidential citation for each member. That's the main things that I recall from Tarakan... I forgot to mention, on Tarakan, there was an interesting situation. During my flying for three hours on the first day, I discovered a gun on a ridge was firing in our direction. The pilot took instant action to change his course, and I radioed the headquarters ship in harbour that we had been fired on by a twin-barrel gun. And the staff on the ship said for me to hold on and see if they could get a destroyer to attack. A short time later, an American voice came on the radio. "Hello, Aussie. You ever done any firing from aircraft?" And I said, "Yes, I've been trained to assist artillery." He said, "Right. The first shell is going now." I reported back, "Your direction was very good, but you were about 200 yards beyond the target." He said, "Right. Second shell going." I said, "That was good. It was 200 yards short." He said, "Great. That's all I needed. Get out of the way, because the whole armament of the destroyer is now going to hit that target." There was no gun left. Their accuracy was very good."