I am a bit of a A-20/ Boston buff. I have a great interest in early A-20/Boston operations in New Guinea in the 1942/1943 period. I have been researching Australian Boston's for more than 10 years and am trying to find out information about the last 9 A-20A's left with the 3rd transferred to the RAAF in Oct 1943, by that time 22 Sqn RAAF only had 9 or 10 Boston's left and the 89th Sqn was in the same predicament so the last of the 89th's aircraft were transferred to 22 Sqn RAAF and the 89th transitioned to B-25's till the new A-20G's arrived in 1944.The aircraft histories and pictures I am interested in are;
 
40-0085 "She's Right",             became A28-32 in RAAF service
40-0143                                 became A28-33 in RAAF service (Cracker Jack)?
40-3160 Hells Fire/FiFi             became A28-34 DU-B in RAAF service (Aces Up)
40-0162 Kentucky Red            became A28-35 in RAAF service (The Shadow)?
40-0077 War Bond "Special"     became A28-36 in RAAF service (Baby Dumpling)
40-0118 Jr's Joy                     became A28-37 in RAAF service (Bloody Bucket)
40-0139 Maid In Japan            became A28-38 in RAAF service (Cracker Jack)?
40-0144 Salome                      became A28-39 in RAAF service
40-3159                                 became A28-40 in RAAF service
 
Of these a/c only A28-34 and A28-35 saw combat missions with the RAAF and then only one each as the a/c were considered to be worn out and were used as training and hash and trash ships the names in brackets are supposedly the names applied in RAAF service but no photos exist of these a/c in RAAF service, the information I am after if possible are how many missions with the 3rd did these a/c do , what colour scheme were they in (I assume olive drab/grey) and any thing else you may help with, at the same time the A-20A's came into RAAF service 9 second hand A-20C's came strait from the US to the RAAF , these A-20C's and the remaining DB-7B's became the mainstay of 22 Squadron until the US was able to supply 6 early model A-20G's(-10's) and 23 late model A-20G's (-40&45's)in Jun/Aug 44 ,the A-20A's and the -10 G models were only ever used as training a/c except for the 2 missions flown by the 2 'A' models.
Regards, 

Mark Harbour

markharbour@hotmail.com

I joined the RAAF as an Air Frame Fitter Apprentice in 1980 when I was 16. While at RAAF WAGGA undergoing training I worked on my first warbird. I was involved in the restoration of "Saburo Sakai's " Zero fighter which is now in the Australian war memorial. I did 11 years in the RAAF and 5 years in the Army reserve working first on UH-1 Iroquois, then CH-47 Chinooks then back onto Huey's, then S-70 Black Hawks. I also did a bit on Caribou transports and F-111's and my final year was as Tarmac duty crew NCO on C-130's. All my Army reserve time was on Black Hawks and Kiowa helicopters. 

I have been working on civilian helicopters since 1992 , Bell 212,412, 214ST , Sikorsky S-76, S-92 and AS 332 Super Pumas, the main ones in Australia , Scotland , Norway, UAE , Iran, Oman, Indonesia , East Timor , Brunei and the Philippines.

Became interested in Boston's while in my teens after reading about 22 Sqn RAAF and Bill Newton getting his V.C., then was lucky enough to do a bit of work on the DB-7B Boston "Jessica" now fully restored and on display at the RAAF museum Point Cook , this just cemented the Boston/Havoc as my favourite WW2 aircraft and have slowly been building up information on Boston/Havocs in the Pacific ever since , in particular early 1942 to late 1944 ( the time frame the RAAF operated them and also the times of the dire fighting thru 1943). As 22 sqn RAAF and the 89th were the only users of the Boston/Havoc thru till 1944 I have concentrated on these two Sqn's.