B-24A LIBERATOR CRASHED ON 3 MARCH 1942
LATER BURNT AT BROOME, WA
ON 4 MARCH 1942

USAAF B-24A Liberator #40-2373 of Ferrying Command collapsed its starboard main undercarriage on takeoff on 3 March 1942 after hitting an oil drum marking the edge of the runway. It had 30 passengers on board and was taking off by the light of a flare path. It was delayed getting away by the lack of a suitably qualified pilot to act as co-pilot. It had flown in from Perth on the evening of the 3 March 1942 with doctors and medical supplies. Captain. Francis H. Matthews of Ferrying Command was the pilot of the B-24A Liberator. 1st Lt. Robert W. Evans, a B-17 Flying Fortress pilot, volunteered to be the co-pilot for the takeoff later that evening. 1st Lt. Robert W. Evans was one of the 7th Bomb Group's Project X pilots who had flown into Java on 9 February 1942.

The B-24A was just becoming airborne at the time it hit the oil drum and the impact caused it to “dive into the ground and scoop up dust into the bomb bay”. The Captain of the B-24A Liberator ordered the aircraft destroyed so as it would not fall into the hands of the Japanese as a landing was expected. Photographs of the intact wreckage of the aircraft and later beginning to burn taken in daylight (see below) indicate that the order was not carried out until the morning of 4 March 1942. The RAAF had time to salvage the aircraft’s Bendix transceiver which went to Western Area Headquarters at Perth.

7th Bomb Group 11th Bomb Squadron LB-30 Liberator AL573 flown by Lt. B. M. Zubko arrived in Broome on the morning of 4 March 1942 and flew the crew and passengers of #40-2373 direct to Melbourne. The pilot and co-pilot of the B-24A never knew the fate of their aircraft.

AWM Photo - Accession No. P02039.002

B-24A Liberator #40-2373 - deliberately destroyed by fire on 4 March 1942

AWM Photo - Accession No. P02039.003

Believed to be B-24A LIberator #40-2373 being
destroyed by fire at Broome on 4 March 1942

REFERENCE BOOKS

"Tocumwal to Tarakan"
"Australians and the Consolidated B-24 Liberator"
By Michael V. Nelmes

"Every Day a Nightmare - American Pursuit Pilots in the Defense of Java, 1941 - 1942"
by William H. Bartsch

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank William H. Bartsch, Bob Livingstone, and Daniel Leahy for their assistance with this web page.

Can anyone help me with more information?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 19 August 1999

This page last updated 22 February 2020