Forced landing of a B-24 Liberator in a sugar cane field near Sarina, Queensland, on 23 October 1943

FORCED LANDING OF A B-24 LIBERATOR
IN A SUGAR CANE FIELD NEAR SARINA, QLD
ON 23 OCTOBER 1943

At 1930 hours on 23 October 1943, the Volunteer Air Observer Corps informed the Controller at 3 Fighter Sector Headquarters in Townsville of a message from Mackay Control of a B-24 forced landed at 0915 hours in a sugar cane field at Sarina. I believe 3FSHQ worked in Z time or Greenwich Mean Time.

A B-24J Liberator #42-73120, that had just arrived in Australia via New Caledonia made a forced belly landing in a sugar cane field near Sarina in north Queensland on Saturday 23 October 1943. None of the crew were injured during this forced landing. The belly landing was made at night time after encountering bad weather and running out of fuel.

Photo Caption:- (WX3-OCT. 27) SIGNAL FOR W??? -- In need of water after crashing in the bush in Australia. The crew of a U.S. Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber used strips from their parachutes to spell out the chemical symbol for water, H2O. The signal was spotted from the air and water and food were dropped to teh men, who later were rescued.

The damaged aircraft was inspected on 24 October 1943, and it was determined that it was too badly damaged to be worth repairing, but that it could be sufficiently patched up for the short ferry flight to Townsville as the quickest and easiest way to get it to the large Townsville Air Depot where it could be salvaged for spare parts to keep other B-24s flying. The aircraft was scrapped on 24 October 1943.

Two USAAF officers from Texas, 1st Lt. Charles B. Nunn and Captain John Donald Ewing and their trained crews were responsible for the recovery of the damaged B-24 Liberator. Lt. Nunn was first on site with his crew and despite the mud was able to jack up the aircraft and lower the wheels. Then Captain John Ewing moved in and removed the gun turrets and armament to reduce the weight, changed the bent propeller and got the B-24 ready for takeoff. Repairs were also carried out to the belly and nose of the aircraft.

The men worked in the muddy field and rain to clear a runway on a hard beaten cow path. They cleared trees and undergrowth, filled in holes blasted tree stumps with dynamite, removed 500 fence posts and leveled a rudimentary runway.

Somewhere between Tuesday 2 November and Friday 5 November 1943, the B-24 Liberator, which by then had been nicknamed the "Sugar Cane Liberator", was refueled and the engines started. It managed to take off successfully from the improvised airfield.

Since the aircraft was on its delivery flight it would have most likely still been assigned to Air Transport Command (ATC) at the time of the crash. On arrival it would have originally been planned to have it transferred to the 5th Air Force Air Service Command at No. 2 Air Depot in Townsville where it would have been serviced, pooled, and modified where required for local needs and then transferred to the first Bomb Group which needed a replacement aircraft. However as advised above it was scrapped on 24 October 1943.

I'd like to thank Nev Allan, Susan Ewing Wolfe, Bob Livingstone, Pete Johnston and Gordon Birkett for their assistance with this web page.

"Over and Out! - Sam's Story"
World War II Diary
Capt. Samuel Cutler
Army Air Corps
U.S Forces in Australia
1942

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