A touch of history
30 January 24
The name of 1st Lt George Leo Cantello is probably only known in the Sydney suburb of Hammondville where a street and reserve have been named in his honour, but he played a valiant role in which he lost his life on Australian soil in defence of Sydney during World War II.
There have been a number of public ceremonies this year to mark the 75th anniversary of the Coral Sea battle and the sinking of HMAS Kuttabul by the Japanese in Sydney Harbour on 31 May 1942 and the events leading up to and following that attack.
Lt Cantello, who was 27, was part of a USAAF Pursuit Squadron equipped with Airacobras which was based at Bankstown airport.
One week after the Japanese midget submarines conducted a raid on shipping in Sydney Harbour, the Imperial Japanese navy still had a number of submarines off the east coast of Australia, three of them waiting to recover their midgets and two others which were tasked with shelling the Australian mainland.
Just after midnight on 8 June 1942, a submarine surfaced approximately ten kilometres offshore from Sydney’s Maroubra Beach and rapidly fired ten rounds of 140mm shells from the main deck gun. Six of the shells failed to explode and the remaining four did minor damage to houses in the eastern suburbs and slightly injured one person. The submarine quickly dived, leaving wailing air raid sirens and searchlights sweeping the Sydney sky. In response to the shelling, a call was received by the 41st Pursuit Squadron at Bankstown airport and just before 1.00am, a solitary Airacobra piloted by Lt Cantello, took off in the hope of striking back at the Japanese.
But not long after he took off, while over the small farming community of Hammondville, the plane stalled at 1,000 feet when the engine malfunctioned and crashed to the ground, exploding in a ball of flame and killing the pilot. The cause of the crash was not known but there were suggestions that in the haste to get airborne, the engine had not been properly warmed up.
The body of Lt Cantello was recovered and sent for burial at a military cemetery in Hawaii.
Chipping Norton resident Bro John Jewell of Lodge Liverpool, after months of research, finally found the approximate spot where the plane had crashed and Liverpool Council agreed to name the street after the airman. In 1988 at Hammondville, a memorial park with a monument was opened to the memory of George Cantello by the Australian and United States governments.
Below - 1st Lieutenant Cantello (left)
