7 March 1943 - Crash of a Dehavilland Dragon near Freshwater Gorge

7 MARCH 1943
CRASH OF DEHAVILLAND DRAGON
NEAR FRESHWATER GORGE

dh84.jpg (11989 bytes)
DH 84 Dragon

A DH-84A Dragon, Type 2, A34-24 of No. 5 Communications Flight crashed in the Jigol Peak area in Freshwater Gorge at about 1435 L hours on the 7 March 1943 during a flight from Cairns to Mareeba.

Killed were:-

Sergeant Lindsay James Sutherland McColl, pilot, RAAF (405796), of 5 Communications Flight
Brigadier John Wilson Crawford, Commander (NX378) of HQ 11 Australian Infantry Brigade
Lieutenant Arthur William Morris, AIF, HQ 11 Australian Infantry Brigade

Seriously injured survivors were as follows:-

Lieutenant Colonel Philip Heathcote George Cardale, (NX483) AIF, 31st Battalion
ACI Ronald Henry Appleby, (412876) RAAF crew

The above two survivors were found on 11 March 1943 wandering around in the bush. Lt. Col. Cardale had fractured ribs. haemoperitoneous, pneumothorax, exposure, thirst and shock. AC1 Appleby had exposure, injury to left arm and wrist, burn on left knee, lacerated scalp and concussion.

The Operations Record Book for 9 Squadron RAAF has the following entries:-

CAIRNS - 10 March 1943    F/O Clark in W2783 and P/O Angove in X9510 carried out a search for missing aircraft A34-24. The alloted area was searched without results.

CAIRNS - 11 March 1943    P/O Angove in X9510 and F/O Clark in W2783 carried out a search westward of Edmonton and White Rock to Lamb Range, for report of missing aircraft A34-24.

The 11th Brigade reported ground party located Colonel Cardale this morning and LAC Appleby in the afternoon at Freshwater Creek, both suffering severe injuries.

A Rapide reported sighting broken scrub and timber on range nearby, possibly position missing aircraft.

The Operations Record Book for 11 Squadron RAAF has the following entry:-

Catalina A24-17 S/L Burrage & F/O Ryan - Search for Missing A/C - Time Up 2100/7Z 0200/8Z - Time Down 0123/8Z 0748/8Z - Nil Sightings throughout search for A34-24.

Catalina A24-14 F/L Duigan & Sgt Ross - Search for A34-24 - Time Up 2015/8Z Time Down 0514/9Z - Nil sightings in search for lost aircraft A34-24.

Vera Bradley's book, "I Didn't Know That", refers on page 50 to the crash of a DH-84 Dragon hired by the Australian Army from McRobertson and Muir Airways of the Northern Territory. Corporal Ken Hutchinson recollected that it was used for courier work around the district. While flying to Mareeba via the Intake Gorge it crashed, killing the RAAF pilot, and two Army Officers. The aircraft was reportedly carrying a large amount of money for the Army Pay Master at Mareeba. Because of this, its non arrival at Mareeba was of great concern, and search parties were dispatched not long after it became apparent it was overdue at Mareeba. There were two survivors. Ken Hutchinson assumed that the money was recovered.

Ken later climbed up the Intake Gorge with the RAAF salvage crew from Charters Towers to help retrieve the motors and other recoverable parts. During the search, the pair stumbled across a crashed USAAF P-38 Lightning. The pilot's body was still located in the aircraft wreckage.

Stephen R. Fowler, who has been researching wartime aircraft crashes since 1972, contacted me and advised that it took him three weekends in 1995, to locate what was left at that time of the DH-84 Dragon.

The Court of Inquiry for this crash made the following recommendations:-

(i) Steps be taken that No. 25 Operational base Unit and all other Operational base Units keep a proper record of the names of all personnel departing from their respective aerodromes in RAAF aircraft.

(ii) A warning be issued to all pilots regarding the slow rate of climb of HD.84 aircraft. It is understood that the rate of climb of Australian built DJ.84 aircraft is considerably lower than that of English built DH.84s.

The Court of Inquiry found that:-

"The cause of the accident was the failure of the pilot to allow sufficient space in which to gain the necessary height to clear the mountains between CAIRNS and MAREEBA. He entered the mouth of Freshwater Gorge at so low an altitude that he was unable to climb to a sufficient height to clear the ridge at the head of of gorge by the time he had reached that point. When he found that he could not gain sufficient height to clear the ridges, he attempted to turn away from the ridge and in so doing flew into the side of the mountain. The Court considers therefore that the accident was caused by an error of judgement on the part of the pilot."

Edward Rogers made me aware on 28 December 2021 of the following diary entry of an Australian Medical Officer:-

Doc's War: New Guinea - The final Campaign
(Boolarong Press 2015)
by Tom McSweeny
204 pages w/ b&w photos - paperback

"Diary of an Australian medical officer in Queensland and New Guinea (1942-1945)"

Pages 44 - 48

7 March 1943
Brigadier Crawford and several other officers who took off for Mareeba by plane from Cairns are reported missing this evening, patrols have been dispatched and O pips have been manned.

8 March
No sign of missing plane.

9 March
I went out with two of the patrols in a likely area where lights are alleged to have been seen last night; a recce of the evacuation line from the junlge if I am called upon to do it. Extra medical orderlies from the field ambulance have been placed under my command for use with our regimental patrols.

10 March
Areas thoroughly combed. Unless one has been through the dense jungle here it is impossible to realise the difficulties of a search by men who are coming back slashed by vines and stung by Gympie leaf, one was in such pain I had to give him a shot of morphia. Pure Dettol gives most relief to Gympie stings. RAAF planes are also carefully combing the Tableland and its approaches.

11 March
While doing boards at 5 ACH, heard one member of the plane, a Colonel, had been found, battered, scratched and so irrational he was unable to direct patrols to where the plane had crashed.

12 March
The young RAAF rigger, badly concussed has also been found, but not yet the plane or any of the others. I am going down this afternoon to Freshwater Valley to help. Arrived at intake area at Freshwater at 1630 hours.

Proceeded immediately on foot, forward over range and down again into Freshwater Gorge, then up a tributary until we reached a temporary RAP housing Col. Cardale and the RAAF rigger. Here I examined the patients.. The going over the range has been tough necessitating several stops for breathers, it took us approx one hour 40 minutes. Spiller, my batman who was following me like a puppy dog, managed to fall into the torrent and after fishing him out I found our precious ration of army biscuits located in his pockets were now sodden and broken. Anyway, as we had nothing else, we enjoyed them later, along with a brew that Spiller called tea . . . [missing]

On a bed of groundsheets and palm leaves we turned in for the night. We shifted the patients on stretchers we made from the jungle, a track had now been cut over the range and field ambulance stretcher bearers did a sound job of getting the patients back into hospital. Col. Cardale's injuries included haemothorax dextrocardia, fractured ribs and severe dehydration. The rigger's injuries were only slight but he had no memory from the time the plane took off.

Col. Cardale gave me a fairly lucid description of the plane flying up the range, the pilot's consternation when he saw the sheer face of the mountain ahead, his attempt to bank to the left and get out of the gorge and the fatal side-slip into the tree-tops; they hit heavily, the occupants were thrown into and fell out of the nose and fell 10 feet. The plane rolled over into its back. How he got to where he was found on the stream was doubtful, a distance of a mile or two. He remembered taking the others for dead, but left water and rations for the rigger, who he thought seemed to breathe, but who could not be roused.

13 March
1100 hours: A party of 2/3rd Field Regiment excitedly arrived and told us they had found the plane and all remaining occupants were dead. Bombardier Ferguson found the plane when separated accidentally from his party. Lt. Col. Close, who was in charge of the search, then went forward with the finders as guides and a party of officers and or's from the 2/25th Infantry Battalion and Spiller and myself. After one hour's climbing up several creek beds we found the plane lying across a gully and the three bodies in a heap adjacent.

They were markedly decomposed, a brief examination showed me they had all three of them met instantaneous death. [p. 47] The Brigadier and Lt. Morris had compound fractures of their skulls and the pilot had his chest ripped open to the heart. Their faces were little use in recognition and their bodies were much bloated and covered in maggots.

By noting badges of rank, the decorations on the Brigadier's shirt, the black Air Force shoes on the pilot, we decided they were certainly, Brigadier Crawford (with him an acquaintance helped also, I had attended him professionally), Lt. Morris, intelligence officer from 11th Brigade and the Sgt. Pilot, RAAF. The difficult job of wrapping the bodies in groundsheets and blankets and lashing each to a 10 ft pole took us 3 hours and I had to use my small rum issue to keep up the flagging spirits of some of the party. It was a particularly trying job for everyone. The use of Dettol was only of limited value. Eventually we got them back to the RAP site where we spent the night. Here the Brigade staff Captain had the death certificate to sign.

14 March
The parties moved off with the bodies but I maintained a casualty post to deal with any of the patrols if necessary, who had yet to come in. [page 48] In the late afternoon we made the long tedious trip (although the track was cut for us this time) back to the base camp at the intake. From there we drive back into Brigade command post and made our reports. I declined an offer of post-mortems. Although I was the only medical officer who had examined the bodies I was sure of my facts and did not want to make unnecessary work.

15 March
Military funerals with full military honors, guns firing, soldiers marching and all that bunkum. I didn't go, left all that glamour to those who know how to put it over. As I heard the guns firing in the distance I felt the Brigadier was laughing at them; I knew his outlook. I can never forget his own view of brass hats and all that; views that came up spontaneously when I had him under my care. "Save me from that irritating little man, Doc," he said of one particular general. Crawford was the CO at Tobruk, of Edmonston VC and other heroes; he had no time for insincerity or humbug; he was also an educated man, a lawyer by profession and a great admirer of the Catholic church, though not a member. He was worthy of salute. "