squadron had moved to Batchelor Airfield. By the end of the month, the squadron had thirty-four personnel, including six officers. It lost one of the Tiger Moths to a bushfire on 1 July, a few days after the plane crashlanded south of Katherine. The squadron relocated again on 15 July, this time to Hughes Airfield. It remained at Hughes until 27 August, when it transferred to Manbulloo Airfield; it operated from Manbulloo until it was temporarily disbanded on 13 December and its aircraft transferred to No. 6 Communications Flight. No. 34 Squadron was re-formed on 3 January 1943 at Parafield Airport, South Australia, from elements of No. 36 Squadron formerly based at Essendon, Victoria. Initially comprising ninety-six personnel and eight aircraft, by the end of the month the squadron's strength had been reduced to seventy personnel and three Dragons operating in South Australia and the Northern Territory. On 11 March one of the Dragons was destroyed on takeoff at Parafield, causing two deaths—No. 34 Squadron's first fatalities. Another Dragon was lost in a fire after it crashlanded near Tennant Creek in April. Beginning in May 1943, the Dragons were augmented by Douglas C-47 Dakotas, giving the squadron a total strength of three Dakotas and two Dragons by the following month. By July, No. 34 Squadron was operating five Dakotas, which had fully replaced the Dragons, and in August its strength stood at seven Dakotas and 153 personnel, including forty-seven officers. It subsequently received an Airspeed Oxford and a Douglas DC-2, and began making supply drops and medical evacuations as far north as Port Moresby, New Guinea. The squadron had its busiest month in May 1944, transporting almost 1,900 passengers and over of cargo. On 1 June it became the first operational RAAF squadron to have personnel of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF) in its ranks, a contingent made up of an officer and twenty airwomen. The WAAAF had been formed in 1941 and eventually made up thirty-one per cent of RAAF ground staff; its members were primarily employed in technical trades and were not permitted to serve in combat theatres. October 1944 saw a detachment of the squadron operating from Cape York in Far North Queensland to bases in the Dutch East Indies. Other detachments were located at Townsville, Queensland, and Coomalie Creek, Northern Territory. In February 1945, No. 34 Squadron commenced a relocation to Morotai in the