BRIGADIER GENERAL KENNETH NEWTON WALKER, USAAC
17 JUL 1898 - 5 JAN 1943

Brigadier General Kenneth Walker with General Ralph Royce at the right.
Can anyone please identify the person at the left of the photo.

Photo:- via Douglas Walker

Probably at Charters Towers during an initial tour after his arrival assuming
command of 5th Bomber Command as General Ralph Royce can be
seen third from the right and Colonel Big Jim Davies 4th from the right.

Photo:- via Douglas Walker

General Kenneth Walker's personal B-25 Mitchell was called "Red Headed Gal".
Big Jim Davies can be seen talking with Gen. Walker. I don't know the dog's name!

Photo:- via Douglas Walker

If taken in Townsville it was possibly on 2 October 1942.
General Walker at the left and General Kenney at far
right with General MacArthur leaving the aircraft.

Walker visited the 19th Bomb Group in Townsville. He joined a B-17 Flying Fortress as an observer on an unaccompanied reconnaissance mission to search for a Japanese convoy. They found the convoy and climbed from 6,000 to 10,000 feet. They were hit in the right wing by some anti-aircraft fire. Walker flew on two other combat missions with the 19th Bomb Group.

His inspection tour took him to places such as Torrens Creek, Fenton, Iron Range and Horn Island. By the time he returned from his tour, General George C. Kenney had taken over command of the 5th Air Force from Brett.

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

Article from Seattle Times

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

Brig. Gen. Kenneth Walker on the right greeting Major Philip J. Kuhl,
Commanding Officer of the 319th Bomb Squadron, 90th Bomb
Group on the unit's arrival in Australia on 23 October 1942.

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

Brigadier General Kenneth Walker with stick and Captain Dollenberg, General
Walker's Aide and pilot is located at the far left of the photograph.

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

David and Catherine Oastler, Eva and Arthur Overturf,
 Harrison Overturf, Ethel and Charles Overturf

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

John, Ethel and Harrison Overturf

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

Capt. Freddie Dollenberg, & Major Harrison Overturf, & General Kenneth Walker
 in the South West Pacific. It is believed that Harrison is Walker's
 cousin. Dollenberg and Overturf were General Walker's Aides.

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

Brigadier General Kenneth Walker in the chow line (5th from the left)

Photo supplied by Paige A. Harris

Major Harrison Overturf

Kenney ordered Walker to command the Allied Air Forces in the North-Eastern area with the assistance of Group Captain Garing of the RAAF. The RAAF combat units at Townsville, Cairns and Horn Island were attached to Walker for operational control. Kenney asked Walker to reorganise the North-Eastern Area Command which Kenney described as a "scrambled outfit of Australians and Americans that resembled a can of worms". North-Eastern Area command headquarters were located in the Commonwealth Building in Sturt Street in Townsville. Kenneth Walker was also made the Commanding Officer of the Fifth Bomber Command, officially started in Townsville on 3 September 1942. General Walker soon clashed with Kenney over bombing tactics and procedures.

While he was in Townsville, General Walker's regular driver was a WAAAF driver called Jan Arthur (100044) who served, mostly in Townsville as a transport driver. She was assigned to the Americans as personal driver to various General's. She was General MacArthur's driver during his stay in Townsville, something she has been very proud of to this day. Jan Arthur turned 90 on 13 July 2004.

Jan Arthur remembers driving General Douglas MacArthur, along with General Kenney, and General Walker to the 'Cream House', "Duncragen" at 4 Cleveland Terrace, Melton Hill, Townsville, the Headquarters on top of the hill.

Photo:- Peter Dunn 16 July 2019

The 'Cream House', "Duncragen" at 4 Cleveland Terrace, Melton Hill, Townsville

5th Bomber Command

Personal Account of Bomber Command Station Life
Prepared by Major Morternson - Historical Officer, V Bomber Command, 1942-1944

General Walker inspects Uranium deposits in the Northern Territory

General Walker was later killed on an operational mission to Rabaul on 5 January 1943. Their B-17 Flying Fortress #41-24453 from the 64th Squadron of the 43rd Bomb Group, was shot down by Japanese fighter aircraft.

The whole crew were killed as follows:-

The above list shows Marguerite P. Walker as his next of kin. She was was actually Kenneth Walker's first wife. They were divorced shortly after their son Douglas was born. General Walker's home base at the time of his death would really have been Washington, DC not Glendale, CA which was where his former wife lived with their two sons.

Michael Moskow sent me the following crew list details that he obtained from the MACR records:-

There were varying reports as to the fate of the crew. Some reports suggested that they all died in the plane crash, others had some surviving and being captured by the Japs and placed in prisoner of war camps.

In mid 2001, Drew Wesche's father, Fred Wesche, dictated  his reminisces of WW2 for the Rutgers Oral History of WW2 site,. This included some information on the mission that General Walker was killed in. Unfortunately Fred Wesche passed away in late 2001.

Fred Wesche was with the 43rd Bomb Group and 19th Bomb Group in New Guinea in '42 and '43. Fred was on the January 5th mission over Rabaul and his plane followed General Walker's plane after it was hit. Drew's father's crew were the last to see the plane before it disappeared. He stated:-

"On January 5th of 1943, I was on one of what most of us thought was a suicide mission. This is a formation of six planes and I was one of them (he is referring to a photograph during his interview) The Japanese were getting ready to mount a large expeditionary force to relieve their garrisons on New Guinea, and Brigadier General Walker, who was the commanding general of the Fifth Bomber Command there was flying in the lead ship, and I was flying on his wing. When it was announced that it was going to be done in broad daylight at noontime, as a matter-of-fact, at low altitude, something like 5000 feet over the most heavily defended target in the Pacific almost...most of us went away shaking our heads. Many of us believed we wouldn't come back from it. Anyway, we went over the target and all of us got attacked. I was shot up. Nobody was injured, fortunately, but the airplane was kind of banged up a little bit. We had to break formation over the target to bomb individually and then we were supposed to form up immediately after crossing the target., but no sooner had we dropped our bombs that my tail gunner says, "Hey, there's somebody in trouble behind us" So we made a turn and looked back and here was an airplane, one of our airplanes, going down, smoking and on fire, not necessarily fire, but smoke anyway, and headed down obviously for a cloud bank with a whole cloud of fighters on top of him. There must have been 15 or 20 fighters. Of course they gang up on a cripple, you know, polish that one off with no trouble, but he disappeared into a cloud bank and we never saw him again. It turns out it was the general. General Walker was on board."

There were a number of B-17's called San Antonio Rose. This has lead to a certain amount of confusion for researchers like myself. As best I can determine here are the details:-

Brigadier General Kenneth N. Walker was awarded the Medal of Honor which is bestowed by the President of the United States in the name of Congress for deeds of surpassing valour, of devotion far above the call of duty. The book "The Official World War II Guide to the Army Air Forces AAF" describes Walker as follows:-

Headstone at Arlington Memorial Cemetery

A Memorial Service for Brigadier General Kenneth Newton Walker was scheduled to be held at Arlington Memorial Cemetery on Friday 7 December 2001 at 1PM. The service will include full military honours. A "fly over" was originally planned as part of the ceremony, but this was cancelled for security reasons as a result of the tragic terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon on 11 September 2001.

There have been some suggestions that a documentary may be made that would include the search for "San Antonio Rose", the aircraft in which General Kenneth Walker and the crew were either killed or taken prisoner by the Japanese on 5 January 1943.

Left-to-right: Mr F.M. Forde (Minister for the Army); General Douglas MacArthur; General Sir Thomas Blamey;
General George C. Kenney; Major-General C.A. Clowes; Brigadier General Kenneth Walker.

Left-to-right: Mr F.M. Forde (Minister for the Army); General Douglas MacArthur; General Sir Thomas Blamey;
General George C. Kenney; Unidentified, Major-General C.A. Clowes; Brigadier General Kenneth Walker.

Brigadier General Kenneth Walker
possibly taken in Queensland. There is a eucalyptus
tree in the background. Could it be at Mareeba or Townsville?

Can anyone identify where this photo was taken?

Photos taken in the Northeastern Area HQ officer's mess

2nd from the right in the front row is Air Commodore F.W.F. Lukis

3rd from the right is Air Commodore A.H. Cobby

4th from right is Brigadier General Walker

Can you identify anyone else in the photo for me please?

Closeup of the photograph on the left

Do you recognise anyone in this photograph?

Air Commodore A.H. Cobby with the pipe

Group Captain "Bull" Garing is the person
above the blurred head in the right foreground

Kenneth Walker's honorary membership of the
North Eastern Area Headquarters Officers Mess

REFERENCE

"Kenneth N. WALKER"
"Airpower's Untempered Crusader"
By Martha Byrd

"The Official World War II Guide to the Army Air Forces AAF"
by Bonanza Book, New York

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I'd like to thank Douglas Walker, son of General Kenneth Walker for his assistance with the information and photographs which appear on this home page. I'd also like to thank Drew Wesche for his assistance with this home page.

I'd like to thank Paige A. Harris for assistance with this home page and the above photographs. The photos were from Paige's Aunt Marion Overturf. It is believed that Harrison Overturf, who is pictured with Walker, is his cousin.

I'd like to thanks Juliet Reynold's, daughter of Jan Arthur.

I'd also like to thank Steve Birdsall for his assistance with this web page.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 31 March 2000

This page last updated 21 February 2020