TWO B-26 MARAUDERS PRANG
ONE HITTING A B-25 MITCHELL
ON 25 MARCH 1942

visits since 30 September 2001

B-26 Marauder

The following information is from Roger Mark's excellent book called "Queensland Airfields WW2 - 50 Years On"

Page 164

Greg MacGregor, who was a Fitter/Armourer posted to 23 Squadron direct from Armament School, Point Cook reported in his diary:-

23 Mar 1942
"Busy day - put guns back in P-40, 4 Martin B-26 Marauders (of 22nd Bomb Group) arrived and a nice looking aircraft they are.

24 Mar 1942
Busy day on P-40s

25 March 1942
"Very Busy - rained heavily, 4  -  B-26s (of 22nd Bomb Group) arrived over Archerfield and two tried to land on the wet grass field.  The first one is a write off, landed then braked and skidded on wet grass, hit the tail of a DC3 and then went through the fence across the road and fence and ended up with nose inside of a house.  The second B-26 also skidded on wet grass and smashed into a B-25 Mitchell.  Fortunately no fires. Then a B-25 Mitchell stalled and pranged on take-off - interesting day."

The Red Raiders web site indicates that B-26 Marauder #401-1389 crashed after landing at Archerfield. "After skidding across wet grass, the Marauder clipped the tail of a DC3, took out a fence, crossed the road, and wiped out another fence before sticking her nose through a kitchen. Pilot: Lt. William A. Garnett."

Photo from Rod Jackson

B-26 Marauder with its nose
protruding into a house

Page 165

Walter (Maiersperger) well remembered being surprised by the short grass field at Archerfield but the CO of the 33 Squadron was the only one to over shoot.  In his 1992 biographical note on Maiersperger, titled "The Americans arrive at Archerfield", Ted Wixted added -

'....33 Sqn CO 1st Lt. (William A) Garnett (and) Co-pilot Larsen... continued through the fence and across the (Beatty) road to make the famed intrusion into the local barber shop.'

Trevan Jackson, a welder with AOA/ANA, described the result in his unpublished memoirs -

'...A skidding Marauder shot through the fence across Beatty Road, spun around and put the nose through Butch Freeny's (actually spelt Freney) kitchen and crushed his water tank with a wing leading edge....'

Freney's barber shop was on the corner of Beatty and Boundary Roads with the residence behind.  After this incident and another involving a Lockheed Ventura with Gough Whitlam, later Prime Minister of Australia, in its crew, and 'several trailing aerial strikes on the roof', Trevan told me the house was relocated!

	Photo showing location of Freney's barber shop and house.
	This old photo of Archerfield in early 1931 shows the corner Beatty Road and Boundary Road at the top left hand side of the picture. This where the barber shop would have been located during the war.

NOTE:-  Cy Klimesh told me on 13 June 1999 that he believed that the B-26 that didn't stop due to wet grass on 25 March, was 33rd Sqd.'s #40-1389.

Subject:   Crash at Archerfield
Date:             Sat, 18 Dec 1999 17:43:01 -0800
From:           "Peter Freney" <peterfreney@ozemail.com.au>

I would like to comment on the discussion of the crash of the RAAF Ventura at Archerfield in November 1943.

My name is Peter Freney and my uncle is the person mentioned in your original story. (You mispelt his surname). At the time of the crash, I was seven years old and lived on Beatty Road (now Bowhill Road) approximately one mile south of the my uncle's home which is correctly shown on the photograph. I can confirm that the plane did come to rest against that house because my parents took me to see it and I can still see it clearly in my memory. The plane had skidded across Beatty Road, as you described, and came to rest facing the house with it's nose resting against the west wall, ie. the wall nearest the aerodrome.

For information, the photograph is taken from the south looking north. The place marked on the photograph as the crash site is definitely not correct.

I was brought up in the area and I held a special pass (even as a child) which allowed me to walk that part of Beatty Road which passed through the Archerfield airbase.

I can confirm that my uncle was a barber as I had my hair cut many times by him at that house, although his main business was carried out in a small shop on Beaudesert Road nearby.

Incidently a C47, approaching Archerfield from the south, hit a tree on our land and crashed into one of our paddocks killing all 18 persons (from memory) on board. This was, to the best of my memory, in late 1942 or early 1943 (It was 27 March 1943). I think the aircraft in question was USAAF, not RAAF. We were told at the time that the accident was the worst in Australia's history to that time. Perhaps you have heard of it as well.

I hope that this is of interest to you

Regards,

Peter Freney

Other e-mails from Peter Freney

REFERENCE BOOK:- 

The Forgotten Fifth
A Classic Photographic Chronology of the
Fifth Air Force in Action in the Pacific in WW2
by Michael Claringbould 

The book "The Forgotten Fifth" relates that 2nd Lt. Barry Burnsides was the pilot of the aircraft that hit the house. International relations were mended when the lady of the house invited Barry in for a cup of tea. 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I'd like to thank Rod Jackson for his assistance with this home page.

Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?

Heaps of WW2 books available at Amazon.com

"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 6 December 1998

This page last updated 07 May 2007