CRASH OF AN AVRO ANSON
2 MILES NW OF ROSEDALE, VIC
ON 24 FEBRUARY 1945

Avro Anson

RAAF Avro Anson, AX225, of GRS, crash landed in fog 2 miles north west of Rosedale in Victoria on 24 February 1945.

Avro Anson AX225 had earlier taken off with another aircraft at approximately 7:30pm on a night exercise along the east coast of Victoria. At approximately 11:00pm when the exercise was nearing completion and the aircraft were approaching Bairnsdale, the pilots were instructed to proceed to East Sale or West Sale, because of a layer of cloud which had rapidly moved in at a height of 800 feet over Bairnsdale airfield without warning.

On approaching Sale, the pilot of AX225 found that clouds were still very low and they could not land at either airfield. He then flew to Rosedale to look for a location to land. Unfortunately, at this stage, the aircraft was almost of of fuel, so the pilot gave the crew the option of baling out or remaining with the aircraft. Two of the crew bailed out successfully, but by the time the navigator, Flight Sergeant David Julius Irwin MacLeod (436836) jumped, the aircraft was too low to allow his parachute to open properly. He was killed when he hit the ground from a fractured skull, arms and legs. Other crew members were Flt. Sgt. Kevin Maurice Moloney (14431 pilot), George Spencer Liles (439770) & P/O Albert Milton Ward (431290).

I was contacted by 83 year old Kevin Moloney (pilot of this aircraft) in May 2002.  He passed on the following information on this crash via his friend Heather Tarrant:-

The cause of the crash (which the Court of Enquiry called a phenomenon of the weather) was a low cloud bank, right down to the deck, up to about 2000 feet which rolled in from the sea enveloping our base at Bairnsdale, which is near the coast.

The 13 aircraft engaged in this night navigation exercise were out at sea. My crash was caused by the lack of fuel. I was the first to take off that night and was about 100 miles from the coast when I sent a signal to base reporting that weather conditions prevented some parts of the navigation procedures being carried out. Base notified all aircraft to return to base. Probably about half of them were able to land at Bairnsdale.

After exploring every option available to me the only hope was to bail out because Eastern Victoria was completely covered.

So I was about to climb to 5000 feet when we saw a hole in the clouds and a row of lights which could have been a flare path. After checking the fuel and the time we had been in the air I calculated that I still had 30 minutes of fuel which was sufficient to investigate. The lights proved to be a stationary train.

I immediately started to climb out when the starboard motor cut at about 2000 feet above sea level. The crew managed to bail out just before the port motor cut. I went into crash landing procedure hitting four trees and losing a large section of one wing and a portion of the other. The aircraft was a write off.

F/Sgt David MacLeod was buried in the Bairnsdale War Cemetery.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Rick Hanning, Kevin Moloney, Heather Tarrant and Dean Morahan for their assistance with this home page. 

NOTE:- Official Records spell Kevin Moloney's name as "Kevin Maloney". Kevin assured me on 3 May 2002 that his name is spelt as "Moloney".

Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?

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This page first produced 10 May 2002

This page last updated 03 February 2020