The squadron was first formed in December 1943 as part of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), and saw combat in and around New Guinea during 1944 and 1945 equipped with P-40 Kittyhawk fighters.
The squadron was deployed to Iceland with P-40 Warhawk fighters as part of the Iceland Base Command (IBC) as part of a bilateral agreement with the Icelandic Government to provide air defense of their nation.
On 28 March 1942, a USAAF P-40E fighter made an emergency landing at "Wheat Hill" station, after becoming lost in fog during a flight from Canberra.
From England Bodo was sent to the USA where in 1944 he trained on US fighter planes (the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk) at the Royal Netherlands Military Flying-School in Jackson, Mississippi.
The museum collection includes a Lockheed T-33 jet trainer, Douglas C-47, Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, Aero L-29 Delfín Soviet jet trainer, the oldest Stolp Starduster biplane in the world and many other civilian airplanes.
Other planes that operated from the station also included Curtiss P40 Tomahawks, Miles M.9
The first American aircraft landed at Munda on August 14, 1943 with landings by F4U Corsairs piloted by Robert Owen of VMF-215, a 44th Fighter Squadron (44th FS) P-40 Warhawk and a J2F Duck with Marine Brigadier General Francis P. Mulcahy aboard.
A portion of one of the Curtiss P-40 Warhawk aircraft Ray Melikian flew during World War II is also displayed at the Museum of Charters Towers.
One major unit served at Marysville Army Airfield, the 369th Fighter Group, a Replacement Training Unit that trained on A-36 Apaches, P-39 Airacobras, and P-40 Warhawks.
Upon leaving military service he became an attorney and the General Counsel of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, the aviation company that had manufactured the P-40 Warhawk fighter and the Cyclone B-17 engines during World War II.