of the Wirraway had occurred, an official State of Emergency was declared; on 3 September 1939, as the Second World War broke out in Europe, Australia decided to mobilise the entirety of its air force, placing all squadrons on short call for combat operations. However, during the first year of the war, the Wirraway was still being introduced in quantity within many squadrons; this effort was delayed by a temporary shortage of available spare parts. As its American "cousin" the T-6 (both types having been derived from the NA-16) did for many Allied Air Forces during the Second World War, the Wirraway served as one of the RAAF's main trainer types from 1939. Beside serving as a trainer aircraft they were also operated in combat roles, including as an emergency fighter. At the outbreak of the Pacific War in December 1941 Wirraways equipped seven RAAF squadrons: Nos 4, 5, 12, 22, 23, 24 and 25. A group of five Wirraways based at Kluang in Malaya for training purposes was pressed into combat against Japanese ground invasion forces; these were generally flown by New Zealanders with Australian observers, and had some successes. As early as 1941, reports on the capabilities of Japanese fighter aircraft fuelled the perception that the Wirraway would be incapable of effectively engaging such aircraft; however, the type was judged to possess some merits in combat despite being considered to be obsolete. Regardless, the type was often put into action against the advancing Japanese forces. On 6 January 1942, Wirraways of No. 24 Squadron attempted to intercept Japanese seaplanes flying over New Britain; only one managed to engage an enemy aircraft, marking the first air-to-air combat between RAAF and Japanese forces. Two weeks later, eight 24 Squadron Wirraways defended the city of Rabaul from over 100 Japanese attacking bombers and fighters, resulting in the destruction or severe damage of all but two of the Australian aircraft. On 12 December 1942, Pilot Officer J. S. Archer shot down a Japanese fighter aircraft (thought at the time to be an A6M Zero, but found after the war to be a Ki-43) after having spotted it around 1000 feet (about 300 metres) below him and dived on it, opening fire and sending the Zero hurtling into the sea. This was the only occasion that a Wirraway shot down another aircraft (making it more successful than its fighter offspring, the Boomerang). In