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two days before the surrender of Singapore Gorton was evacuated on the
transport Derrymore, but his problems were far from over; the
ship was torpedoed and he only survived after being rescued by the
corvette HMAS
Ballarat. Later that year, once healed, he was posted to No. 77
Squadron RAAF,
flying Kittyhawks. On 7 September, operating out of Darwin, he had to
make a forced landing. It was days before he and the aircraft were
recovered.
Gorton took part in No. 77
Squadron’s operations against the Japanese out of Milne Bay. There he
was involved in a serious accident when his aircraft crashed during
take-off. In March 1944 he returned to Australia to become a flying
instructor. He was discharged in December 1944.
Entering politics after the war,
Gorton was elected as a Liberal Party senator in 1949 and became a
minister in 1958. When Prime Minister Harold Holt drowned in 1967 Gorton
was selected to take his place. He was a controversial and progressive
leader: “A knockabout bloke with the larrikin streak, his scarred
features and crumpled suits, his candid approach and laconic air, jaunty
grin, tousled hair and ever-present cigarette.”
For the Prime Minister, it was a
politically tumultuous time, not the least because of growing opposition
to the Vietnam War. But his strongest critics seemed to have been in his
own party. He was replaced as leader in 1971 after casting the deciding
vote against himself. In 1975 he quit politics. It was only in
retirement during his later years that he was recognised as a party
elder.
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