Doco tribute to WWII Catalinas and their crews awaits take-off

But as Japan swept down the Pacific to Australia during WWII, destroying Allied aircraft and airfields, these old Catalina flying boats, and the crews who flew them, performed incredible feats.

Now a new documentary argues that they were indeed The Plane that Saved Australia - the name we gave the film.

Inspired by a remarkable group of men now in their 90s - the last surviving WWII RAAF flying boat crews - the doco produced by me and edited by Noel Sadler tells a true and uplifting story of everyday genius against impossible odds.

It was an audacious US plan to send the "Cats" in night after night, low level, under fire, to lay mines right inside every major enemy port across the Pacific all the way to China.

Crews flew vast distances on missions up to 24 hours long, stopping Japanese warships, oil and supplies ever reaching the frontline. Countless lives were saved and vast destruction prevented.

The Australian Commonwealth war historian estimated Catalinas proved 100 more effective at stopping Japan than fast land-based bombers.

As Catalina crewman Dick Udy told us: "At the end of the war the Japanese admitted that one third of the Japanese maritime fleet was constrained because of the deep-sea mining we did."

Some who were around at the time say the men and their old flying boats did more to stop Japan than two atomic bombs.

Our documentary is also about the men, their daily lives and how they went about their dangerous work that no one wanted, in a plane no one wanted.

Crews relied on their own initiative and daring innovations - like removing the flying boats' heavy protective armour plating to reach their increasingly distant targets.

They were dubbed the Black Cats for painting their aircraft black for some protection. Flying in crews of 10 they grew close to each other and to their antique aircraft.

"We worshipped it!'" navigator Doug Nolan, later to crew Qantas Boeing 707s, told us. "It was such a reliable aircraft. I had about 1500 hours in Catalinas. Lovely aeroplane."

There is humour in the film too. The airmen laugh at the extraordinary ways they pulled off their secret missions and got to grips with the old aircraft.

Inside Australia's only flying Catalina at the Historical Aircraft Restoration Society, former gunner Cyril Payne recalls a crewmate who opened the wrong hatch to go to the toilet.

"Once you lift the hatch the wind comes up!" he says with a laugh. "All his poo was all scattered all through the plane. Poor old Lenny, when he got back to Cairns he spent a couple of hours in the back, scrubbing," Cyril pauses. "Nice bloke, Len. Unfortunately he got killed."

We also reveal forgotten files from the Commonwealth War History found by Bob Cleworth as he searched long-closed records to find out how his brother Reg was lost with his Catalina crew in the South China Sea in 1945.

Tragedy was never far away. The men's unexpected successes saw them pushed further and further from home. More than 322 men were lost. "We were lucky to survive the war," Dick says in the film, linking arms with comrades Doug Nolan and Noel "Tiger" Lyon.

The legacy of the Catalinas deserves to be better known, says army veteran Philip Dulhunty, who is restoring a Catalina at Sydney's Bankstown Airport to draw attention to those forgotten achievements.

"The Catalina was the plane that saved Australia from the Japanese," he says. "They flew the longest distances, they did the most difficult jobs, they had the most terrible weather, mountainous terrain to get around. And it's never really been told."

Philip served in army intelligence. "We used the Catalinas a lot. I was one of the ones who was saved by the Catalinas."

He was posted to Hiroshima soon after the A-bomb was dropped. In the film we ask him: Did Catalinas do more to end the war than the bomb? "Yes, I think so," he says. "We were going to win the war anyway. They dropped the atom bomb there to stop Russia, which had declared war on Japan. I'm hoping there's no need to drop any more atomic bombs."

Dick Udy has spent years seeking recognition for the service rendered by the Black Cats. But sadly, his work has had limited success.

The Plane that Saved Australia has been rejected by Australian broadcasters and film funding body Screen Australia. Production was kept alive by the kind voluntary work of friends like cinematographer Miriana Marusic, who filmed The Castle, broadcaster Mark Davis and many others. Private support has come from Australia and the US, plus a NSW government grant to secure archive film.

We ran into ageism and perhaps sexism: stories about old men are not popular. But the cast paint a vivid picture of the young men they were when flying these missions in their early 20s. As we complete editing, I'm looking for a young narrator, male or female. It is a film for all ages.

But the delays mean some of our cast died before seeing their film: Doug, Cyril, Tiger and Catalina restorer Neville Kennard. More than making a program, their interviews will live as a record of a forgotten episode of Australian history.

The film, hopefully, will be ready for the 75th anniversary of the first atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 - to show a less destructive, more effective way to go to war.