CRASH OF A LIBERATOR
NEAR DRYSDALE MISSION, WA
ON 14 AUGUST 1943
USAAF B-24D Liberator, #42-40369, "Shady Lady", of the 528th Squadron of the 380th Bomb Group, made a forced landing on the tidal salts flats on the Anjo Peninsula, near Drysdale (now Kalumburu) Mission after running low on fuel after a 16 hour low-level night time bombing raid on Balikpapan on 14 August 1943. This raid, which started from Darwin, was against oil and shipping targets at Balikpapan. On their return towards Australia they were caught in a tropical storm and became lost.
When the pilot Doug Craig made his emergency landing on the salt flats, the nosewheel collapsed and the depot-installed nose turret was torn loose. The only casualty was RAAF photographer Sandy Rushton, who received only slight injuries. A rescue party from Drysdale Mission included Father Sanz, a Spanish monk, some mission workers and some local aborigines.
Photo by Bob McDonnell supplied by Rick Hanning
Nose-turret of "Shady Lady" photographed in 1990 from a helicopter
Photo Bob McDonnell supplied by Rick Hanning
Close-up of nose-turret
"Shady Lady" was finally repaired about one month later and was flown back to Darwin.
In 1988, 45 years after the crash, Western Australian air historian Lindsay Peet, reunited Father Sanz with two of the crew that he rescued. They were the navigator and the armourer/gunner. The tyre marks of the Liberator could still be seen in the salt pan.
The pilot Doug Craig died in about 1998.
The following photos are frame grabs from an 8mm video (Hi-8) given to me by Daniel Hultgren. The video is dubbed from another video (Hi-8) which was copied from some old colour film. This explains the poor quality of the pictures.
The original film was shot by Eugene Halaas from Canada, who was in the photographic section of the 43rd Service Squadron, previously known as the Material Squadron. He was based at Fenton. He was part of the team that was sent out to recover "Shady Lady". He took colour film footage of still photographs of "Shady Lady" in a photo album.
This is Eugene M. Halaas who took the film
The following photographs were
supplied to me by
David Halaas, grandson of Eugene Halaas
 |
Aboriginal helper |
 |
Rescue aircraft at crash site of "Shady Lady" |
 |
Aboriginal helpers |
 |
Aboriginal helpers |
 |
Shady Lady?? The tail No. appears to be 240369 or 2404389? |
 |
Sgt. Charles Pearson Yank magazine Staff Artist visited the recovery site and sketched the recovery. His sketches were in the 10 December 1943 issue of Yank magazine. |
The following photographs are screen grabs from the film taken by Eugene Halaas
 B-24 crash
landed in a salt marsh |
 B-24 in salt marsh, 500 miles west
of Fenton |
 Rescue plane |
 Aboriginal helpers |
 Equipment
removed from the aircraft |
 Person on
right has a hood made of |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 Refurbished nose section |
 Refurbished nose section |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 His back is covered in tribal scars |
 |
 |
|
 B-24 taking off - it had 1800 feet or clear ground |
 "Shady
Lady" buzzed the rescue crew once |
 Camera
"Caddy" returning photographic |
 Producer,
Director and Cameraman |
NOTE:- I had originally shown Shady Lady as Serial No. #42-40491 in error. That is actually the Serial No of "Poochie" which crash landed near Black Sand Plain near Daly River on 29 July 1943.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I'd like to thank Bob Livingstone and Rick Hanning for their assistance with this home page.
I'd like to thank Lindsay Peet for compiling the following set of Reference material.
I'd also like to thank David Halaas, grandson of Eugene Halaas.
REFERENCE BOOKS
PUBLISHED (* denotes illustrations)Alford, B. 1991, Darwin's air war1942-1945: an illustrated history, Aviation Historical Society of the Northern Territory & Coleman's Printing, Darwin, NT, p. 50*.
Birdsall, S. 1977, Flying buccaneers: the illustrated story of Kenney's Fifth Air Force, Doubleday New York, USA, p. 84.
Fain, J. (ed) 1946, The history of the 380th Bomb Group (H) AAF, affectionately known as the "Flying Circus", n.p. (printed by Commanday-Roth, New York, USA), pp. 20-22, 24*, 86-88*.
Horton, G.R. 1995, The best in the southwest: the 380th Bombardment Group (H) in World War II, Southwest Pacific Area, ed. G.L.Horton, Mosie Publications, Savage, Minnesota, USA, pp. 77-79*, 446.
Horton, G.R. and Horton, G.L. 1983, King of the Heavies, The Authors, Inver Grove Hts, Minnesota, USA, pp. 3-37*, 43, 128, 172-173.
Livingstone, B. 1998, Under the Southern Cross: the B-24 Liberator in the south Pacific, Turner Publishing, Paducah, Kentucky, USA, pp. 62, 65-66.
Nelmes, M. V. 1994, Tocumwal to Tarakan: Australians and the B-24 Liberator, Banner Books, Belconnen, ACT, p. 59.
Odgers, G. 1957, Air war against Japan 1943-1945, Australia in the war of 1939-1945, Series 3 (Air), Australian War Memorial, Canberra, ACT, pp. 109, 113.
Peet, L. 1995, ‘Monks at war: interpretations of the Kalumburu war diary’, New Norcia Studies [WA], No. 3, 1995, pp. 39-53*.
Peet, L. J. 1998, 'The World War II heritage sites of the northern Kimberley', Trust News [WA], vol. 200, pp. 20-21*. (Reproduced in The Listening Post [RSL, WA], vol. 22, no. 1, 1999, pp. 24-25*)
Perez, E. 1977, Kalumburu, Kalumburu Benedictine Mission, via Wyndham, WA, p. 107.
______ 1981, Kalumburu war diary, eds R. Pratt and J. Millington, Artlook Books, East Perth, WA, pp. 123-124, 127-128.
‘Salvage operations in the Never-Never’, Yank Down Under, 10 December 1943, p. 6* (wartime magazine published in Australia for American service personnel).
Sanz, S. 1979, ‘World War II Kimberley recollections’, in North of the 26th, ed. H. Weller, The Nine Club, East Perth, WA, pp. 207-210.
DISSERTATION
Peet, L. J. 1995, ‘Shady Lady the story behind a World War II heritage site in the northern Kimberley’, 86 pp., a major dissertation for the Graduate Diploma in Applied Heritage Studies, Research Institute for Cultural Heritage Studies, Curtin University of Technology, Bentley, Western Australia.
HERITAGE DOCUMENTATION
National Trust of Australia (WA): WYNDHAM-EAST KIMBERLEY 11, 'Shady Lady site, Anjo Peninsula', classified 09 September 1997.
Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?
"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products
|
|
© Peter Dunn 2015 |
Please
e-mail me |
This page first produced 23 August 1999
This page last updated 02 February 2020
