John Bede Cusack was born on 22 February 1908 in West Wyalong, a country town in New South Wales. John finished his education at Christian Brothers, Waverley, in the late 1920s. In 1933 John saw an advertisement for sales work at Electrolux. He got the job.
One day in 1939, when John was in Grafton establishing a couple of sales agents, he met two air force officers on a war recruiting campaign for the Royal Australian Air Forde (RAAF). John had given some thought to joining up, but couldn't see any urgency. However, during a rather riotous night of drinking with the air force men, John and five others signed up. Two months later, when the call-up papers hadn't come through, he went down to the RAAF headquarters at Rushcutters Bay in Sydney. Strangely, they had no record of his enlistment. The clerk simply asked him if he wanted to join up, and the answer was 'yes'. He was accepted on the spot.
After training in Australia, being 'volunteered' as an Air Gunner and travelling to England, he started flying in March 1942. His wartime activities from then on are, of course, the inspiration for They Hosed Them Out. After many operations over Europe he had his last flight on 1 September 1944.
John arrived back in Sydney in December 1944.
Robert Brokenmouth is a war historian who has edited books published by Wakefield Press, including They Hosed Them Out and 101 Nights.