During early December 1941 six machines were sent to Malaya and, when based at Singapore, some Beauforts located, during long-range reconnaissance missions, the Japanese invasion fleet. On 25th February 1942, after the Fall of Singapore, No.100 Squadron was transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) as RAF abandoned its own plans to have a torpedo-bombing unit operating in the South Pacific Area. All Australian Marks served with various RAAF squadrons and Operational Training Units (OTU). Much of the Beauforts operational flying was centered around maritime roles, specially anti-shipping and anti-submarine duties until March 1943 when long-range bombing strikes against Japanese-occupied ports and naval bases were conducted, one of them took place in October 1943 against the Japanese naval base in Rabaul. These missions lasted until February 1944 with the Beaufort completing also reconnaissance and transport missions.
No.100 Squadron's first offensive took place on 27th May 1942 and sank the Japanese destroyer Hayashio which was already damaged by an American Boeing B-17. During the same operation they also seriously damaged the Hiyodori torpedo boat.
Two Beaufort-equipped RAAF squadrons, Nos. 7 and 32, were not assigned to torpedo-bombing duties. Instead they carried out patrol and bombing missions. During one of those, a Beaufort from No.32 bombed and damaged the Japanese submarine I-174 on 17th June 1943.
During 1943 there were few torpedo successes until the merchant ship Keisho Maru was sunk by a torpedo from No. 8 Squadron off Rabaul on 13th October. Shortly later, on 22nd October Beauforts from Nos. 6, 8 and 100 Squadrons (which formed No. 71 Wing) dive-bombed and severely damaged the Japanese light cruiser Kiso, off Cape St. George, in New Ireland. Kiso was towed to the island of Truk for repairs. By December the Japanese realized it was too dangerous to operate large ships in the Rabaul area, so no more torpedo attacks were carried out after December 4th. That day was the last when a Beaufort made a torpedo attack.
No. 2 Squadron RAAF acquired the Beaufort on 15th December 1943 and it was followed by No. 1 Squadron RAAF in February 1944. These two units operated in the Arafura Sea and Timor areas, where they sank a Japanese minesweeper, WA 4, at the port of Dili, in Timor on 19th July 1944.
No.15 Squadron was the last frontline unit to receive the Beaufort. This unit became operational on 22nd April 1944, making a total of nine operational Beaufort squadrons to serve with the RAAF. Both Nos 1 and 2 Squadron switched their Beauforts for another aircraft. No. 2 Squadron was converted to the North American B-25 Mitchell and No. 1 Squadron after having flown its last mission on 9th January 1945, transitioned towards the De Havilland Mosquito.
During 1945 most of RAAF's Beauforts were based at Tadji, in New Guinea, to provide ground support and perform tactical bombing duties in order to help Australian Army to secure Aitape and Wewak regions. In this role the Beaufort was surprisingly good, as it proved to be very agile and could fly many short duration sorties. On 11th May a force composed of sixty Beauforts bombed targets close to Wewak.
Australian-built Beauforts were generally better than the British-built ones as their agility allowed them to evade enemy fighters.
During the year 1944 there was a shortage of transports, so many airframes of all marks were converted into nine-seat high-speed communications and transport aircraft. These machines had no armament, a fairing-over the rear fuselage and double tail-wheels. The prototype of the Mk.IX 'Beaufreighter' flew for the first time on 4th February 1944 and a total of 46 machines were reconverted for this role.
After World War 2 almost every frontline Beaufort was either stored or sold for scrap in 1946. Some few Mk.IX transport were tested but, after October 1948 they were not flown again. Many of the stored Beauforts lasted until 1953 but, when it was foresaw that the Korean War would be soon over, they were discarded. One machine was briefly used to test some fire extinguishing equipment for the New South Wales Department of Civil Aviation.
Sources:
1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bristol_Beaufort
2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Bristol_Beaufort_operators
3 Hall Park Books - Warpaint 50 - Bristol Beaufort
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