Australia’s Worst Air Disaster

My uncle served in the 2/33rd Battalion AIF in TPNG in 1943 during World War 11. One of the few things that he told me about that time was the Liberator crash. He produced 3 newspaper cuttings to tell us this story. He survived the crash as he was in a rear truck of the transport convey.
Another story that was not told, was the life-long after-effects of Malaria. My uncle suffered constantly during his lifetime. This example ensured that I took every precaution available to ward off infected mosquitoes during my posting to Taurama Barracks (PNG) in 1967-8. The reproduced newspaper articles give a brief insight into the horror of war.

Terry Edwinsmith

Classroom – 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion AIF Association

THE LIBERATOR CRASH
1.
The US Army Air Force Liberator bomber was attempting to take off from Jackson’s airfield at 4.30 am on September 7, 1943, when a wing hit a tree causing the plane to crash into a convoy of 18 trucks parked at the end of the runway and carrying soldiers of the Battalion waiting to be airlifted to Nadzab.
2.
On impact two 500-pound bombs and 2,000 gallons (13,000 litres) of fuel exploded in a huge ball of fire. Worst hit were five trucks carrying men of D Company. All five trucks were destroyed. Sixty men were killed or mortally injured. The 11 crew of the Liberator and two truck drivers were also killed.
3.
Ninety soldiers were injured, many suffering severe burns. In the minutes after the crash there were heroic rescues as men ran from the inferno with their clothes on fire. Some were blown up by their own exploding ammunition. Survivors did all they could to save injured mates. The memories haunted survivors or the rest of their lives.
4.
The commanding officer of the 2/33rd Battalion, who initially thought the convoy had come under a Japanese air attack, ordered that A Company, which hadn’t lost any men, be flown straight away to Tsili Tsili and Nadzab, followed later that day by C Company, some of whose men had been killed or injured. The few surviving members of D Company accompanied.
5.
The cause is still a mystery. A US Army Air Force inquiry blamed pilot error. An Australian inquiry found the crash was caused by factors unknown. The details of the crash were kept secret until after the war. It was feared that news of a US bomber killing and injuring so many Australian soldiers might damage the morale of other Australian and American troops.

2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion | Australian War Memorial

The 2/33rd returned to Port Moresby in late July 1943 in preparation for the operations capture Lae, in New Guinea. On 7 September, while it waited at Jackson’s Airfield at Moresby to be flown to Nadzab, via Tsili Tsili, a fully-loaded Liberator bomber crashed among the trucks carrying the battalion. Sixty men were killed and 90 injured – a third of the battalion’s fatal casualties for the entire war. The remnants of the 2/33rd arrived in Nadzab on 8 September and subsequently participated in the advance on Lae, which fell on 16 September. On 29 September the 2/33rd was flown from Nadzab to Kaipit and spent the rest of the year principally engaged in patrol actions in the Ramu Valley and the Finisterre Range. It returned to Australia on 10 February 1944.

LIBERATOR CRASH REMEMBERED – 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion AIF Association

It was Australia’s worst air disaster, for years shrouded in Military secrecy. Survivors endured the scars of enforced silence until the end of World War 11 when censorship was finally lifted and the full horror of what they witnessed on a cool early morning at Jackson’s Airfield, Port Moresby, on September 7, 1943, was finally revealed, the crash of a United States Army Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber, “Pride of the Cornhuskers”, into a convoy of trucks carrying men of the 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion, killing or mortally wounding 60 of them and injuring 90 others.
Two truck drivers and the 11 crew of the Liberator also perished in the inferno caused by exploding bombs and ammunition, and a sea of fire from ruptured aviation fuel tanks. Relatives were not told about the crash until after the Japanese surrender
Today, it is still one of the least known disasters in Australian history. Memories of mates being blown up or burnt to death before their eyes haunted the survivors for the rest of their lives, among them SX1662 Captain Jack Balfour-Ogilvy.
His grandson and Life Member of the 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion A.I.F. Association, Matt Sloan, designed the Liberator Plaque, the main memorial to honour and remember those killed. It is now on permanent display at the Anzac Memorial, Hyde Park, Sydney. A second plaque is on display at Jackson’s International Airport, Port Moresby. Here Matt Sloan tells the story behind the plaque, the post-war search for answers about the disaster, the re-discovery of the crash scene in 2012 and anniversary services that finally, for the first time, focused national attention on the Liberator disaster and the sacrifice of men of the 2/33rd Battalion serving their country in war.
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