War Memorials in Australia

Bakers Creek Air Crash Memorial

Place: Bakers Creek, Queensland, 4740
District: Central Coast - Whitsunday
Orientation: 10 km S of Mackay
Location: Contor Drive and Ivers Street, Bakers Creek (South), in grounds of Bakers Creek Community Hall
Position: 21 13 20 S   149 08 82 E
Ref: 40106

__________________________

The memorial consists of two brick pillars to which flagpoles and plaques are attached.  Between the pillars is an airscrew of the type fitted to Douglas DC3 Dakota aircraft. Fixed above the propeller is a bronze model of a Flying Fortress aircraft that was added on 13 June 2003.

Permission to reproduce the following account has been kindly given by the author, Col Benson of Mackay, Queensland. ©

During the Second World War, the United States Army Air Corps established rest and recreation facilities in Mackay Queensland, Australia. From the end of January 1943 until early 1944, thousands of United States servicemen were ferried almost daily from New Guinea to Mackay by air transport to spend around 10 days on furlough (R&R). They were usually carried by two B-17 Flying Fortresses converted for transport duties and an LB-30 (civil transport version of the B-24 Liberator bomber), stationed in Mackay with the 46th Troop Carrier Squadron, whose parent Unit was stationed in Townsville, Queensland.

On Monday, 14 June 1943, just before dawn, at about 6 a.m., Boeing B-17C, Serial/Tail Number 40-2072, took off headed for Port Moresby. There were six crew and 35 passengers aboard. A few minutes after take-off, it crashed, at Bakers Creek, killing all but one of those on board.

The cause of the crash remains a mystery. The aircraft took off into fog and, soon after, made a turn at low altitude.

Rudy Sabbo and his brother, Dally, lived in Bakers Creek South. They were getting ready to go to work cutting sugar-cane when they heard the noise of a plane as though it flew almost over their home. A short time later, they heard an explosion. Initially, they thought it was a bomb dropped from the plane. When they went outside and looked towards Mackay Airport, they could see the plane must have crashed as they could see something burning through the fog. They ran about 1.6 km (one mile) to the crash along the railway line that passed by their home and across the bridge over Bakers Creek. As they approached the crash site, it looked eerie with fire burning in the fog.

The crash is relatively unknown outside Mackay. According to war time diaries of Captain Sam Cutler who set up recreation facilities for the GIs in Mackay, it was the worst air transport crash in US history at that time. It remains as Australia's worst air disaster. It was also the worst aeroplane crash in the Pacific theatre of WWII, and of the 12,731 Flying Fortresses manufactured and operated in WWII.

Due to wartime censorship, little could be reported in the media. The next day, "The Daily Mercury", Mackay's newspaper, reported that a visiting American serviceman had been injured. It also carried an editorial that expressed the sentiments of locals who knew what had happened. Nothing more appeared in the local media until after the was had ended, in February 1946.

The victims' remains were flown to Townsville where they were buried in the Belgian Gardens US military cemetery. Early in 1946, they were disinterred and shipped to Hawaii for re-burial. Thirteen are buried in the Punchbowl cemetery, Hawaii. The remainder were returned to the mainland. Funeral costs for the latter are believed to have been met by relatives, but this has not been confirmed.

Relatives of the victims received telegrams from the US War Department that said little more than the serviceman had been killed in an air crash in the south west Pacific. Evidence shows small notices appeared in local newspapers throughout the USA. None mentioned details other than the men were fighting the war in New Guinea and that the crash occurred in the south-west Pacific. Some reports have been obtained from US newspapers, such as the Julesburg Advocate, in north east Colorado. It reported the death of Sergeant Dean H. Busse and a memorial service, in June 1943, and a funeral notice when his remains were returned, in 1948. The American Legion appears to have organised those ceremonies.

There is more information about the memorial, some of the personnel on the plane and US military connections with Mackay on Col Benson's website.

East face of south pillar
Metal plaque
ON JUNE 14 1943, A VH-CBA B-17C AIRCRAFT OF THE       
UNITED STATES ARMY AIR FORCE CRASHED SHORTLY    
AFTER TAKE-OFF APPROXIMATELY 1 KM N OF                  
HERE ON THE OPPOSITE SIDE OF BAKERS CREEK           
NEAR THE SITE WHERE THE MEATWORKS NOW STANDS.

ON BOARD WERE FIVE CREW AND THIRTY-EIGHT              
PASSENGERS WHO WERE RETURNING TO NEW GUINEA
AFTER COMPLETING "R & R" IN MACKAY. THERE WAS     
ONLY ONE SURVIVOR.                                                      

THE AIRCRAFT WAS OPERATED BY THE 46TH TROOP      
CARRIER SQUADRON, OF THE 317TH TROOP CARRIER     
GROUP WHICH FORMED PART OF THE 5TH AIR FORCE.    

THE CRASH OF THE B-17C WAS THE WORST ACCIDENT    
INVOLVING A TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT IN THE                    
SOUTH WEST PACIFIC DURING WORLD WAR II.                 

THIS MEMORIAL WAS CONSTRUCTED BY THE                  
PEOPLE OF THE MACKAY DISTRICT IN HONOUR OF        
THE FORTY-TWO UNITED STATES MILITARY                     
PERSONNEL WHO WERE KILLED AND THE ONE             
    SURVIVOR AND WAS DEDICATED ON THE 11TH MAY 1992.

East face of north pillar
Metal plaque
PERSONNEL ON BOARD

CREW

PASSENGERS

Information current to December 2003

Sources:   The Bakers Creek Memorial to WWII American GIs on Col Benson's website http://www.geocities.com/Pentagon/Base/4426/MissEMF/B17C-402072-MissEMF.htm
                         at 9 March 2004
                  Crash of a B-17CFlying Fortress at Bakers Creek near Mackay on Australia at War website http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozcrashes/qld46.htm at 9 March 2004                

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