CRASH OF A C-47 DAKOTA
70 MILES NORTH OF CLONCURRY, QUEENSLAND
ON 19 OCTOBER 1943

The 6th Troop Carrier Squadron of the 374th Troop Carrier Group sustained its first aircraft loss after returning to Australia on 19 October 1943 when C-47-DL, #41-19466 (C/n 6109), crashed about 8 miles west of Boomera Station (co-ordinates 19 32 / 140 00) which is located about 70 miles north of Cloncurry in Queensland apparently due to bad weather. The C-47 was on a flight from Fenton to Townsville. The aircraft was a complete loss.

Crew members killed were:-

Captain John C. Fredrickson,
1st Lt. Fred R. Mentzer, co-pilot
M/Sgt. Michael Kullich, aerial engineer
Sgt. Robert L. Kerr, crew member
Cpl. Marvin D. Middleton, crew member

Paddy Cusack, a Cloncurry resident, was working at the Cloncurry railway station at the time of the incident. He said that Cloncurry was covered in a thick dust storm at the time of the incident. Apparently the aircraft was advised that it could not land until visibility improved.

John Daly told me on 14 October 2006 that the Manager of Boomera Station indicated that the crash site was located about 200 metres off the side of the Cloncurry--Normanton road, on the right hand side as you drive north. He said that the site has been regularly visited and well picked over, over the years, leaving nothing left. John thought that it may have been salvaged by the RAAF, given its close proximity to an active RAAF base at Cloncurry during the war.

Next of Kin for those killed were as follows:-

Another reference that I have shows that all of the above deceased crew members were buried in the US Military Cemetery at Ipswich in south east Queensland on 16 July 1945, which suggests that they were buried elsewhere in Queensland before this, possibly the US Military Cemetery in Townsville, north Queensland.

Pat Breen visited the crash site on 17 June 2006. Pat advised that the fuselage and wings had been removed over the past few years presumably for scrap but commented that there was a large amount of smaller pieces scattered over an area 500m x 200 m. Pat advised that the flight path was still recognisable 63 years later as some of the few trees in the area show signs of having their tops shorn off and regrowth happening from underneath.

Pat advised that some third hand information relates that the plane circled a small township called Kajabbi where the Railway Station Master tried to signal them in Morse code to tell them their position then the plane headed off to the north only to crash a short while later. Based on the above crash-site co-ordinates, the crash-site was 34.2 miles north of Kajabbi. Some more third hand information was obtained from one of the policemen who was given the task of retrieving the bodies. One of these policeman was Constable Sam Henry. There is an airfield at Kajabbi (20° 1'50.96"S, 140° 1'56.02"E) but I am unsure whether it was there during WWII.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Pat Breen, Jim Moffett and John Daly for their assistance with this web page

REFERENCES

Allied Air Transport Operations
South West Pacific Area WWII
Volume Two:-    1943 - Year of expansion and consolidation
by Robert H. Kelly

Please contact me if you are related to one of the crew members

Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?

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"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 21 May 2000

This page last updated 30 March 2013