CRASH OF A B-17 FLYING FORTRESS?
3 MILES S.E. OF BLUE RANGE CATTLE STATION
6 MILES S.E. OF CHRISTMAS CREEK
5 MILES NORTH OF CLARKE RIVER TELEGRAPH STATION, QLD
ON AN UNKNOWN DATE BEFORE MARCH 1944

visits since 21 October 2003

On 27 March 1944, the Commanding Officer of 7 Stores Depot (RAAF) at Toowoomba wrote a memo to HQ No. 5 (Maintenance) Group, Darling Point, NSW mentioning that Captain J.W. Mott of 1st Aust. Army had heard during a recent tour of the northern districts, that what he believed was an American B-17 Flying Fortress, had crashed near Blue Range Cattle Station which is north west of Charters Towers in north Queensland. The crew had apparently parachuted out of the aircraft which flew a further 40 miles before it crashed at a location 3 miles SE of Blue Range Cattle Station (19° 9' 42" South, 145° 25' 6" East) in Queensland, or 6 miles SE of Christmas Creek 19° 5' 53" South, 145° 21' 5" East, and 5 miles north of Clarke River Telegraph Station.

It is believed the aircraft had been forced inland by bad weather and had run low on fuel while returning to Townsville from a bombing raid to New Guinea.

George Town, a good friend of Wing Commander Rundle, was droving a herd of cattle to the Townsville meatworks at the time of this incident. He heard an aircraft fly over after dusk. He was lying on his swag at the time and noticed a "funny little white cloud" drifting downwards, which he thought was a bit strange for a cloud. He mounted a night horse and followed the descending "white cloud". He soon found a parachute hanging in a bush. Then he heard a male voice calling out. George rode very quietly up behind the American and whispered "Quiet! Do you want to frighten those bloody bullocks!" The American almost jumped out of his skin with fright.

George took the American back to his camp, and then located the rest of the crew. In the morning he rode across to the Clarke River Telegraph Station and contacted the military authorities. The American crew were picked up and made arrangements with George to meet him again when he arrived in Townsville with his cattle.

A salvage party visited the wreck and recovered the engines and decided to abandon the airframe. The report indicates that the fuselage and one wing are almost intact and contain sufficient aluminium to justify a salvage operation. Capt. Mott advised that the first salvage crew may have accesses the wreckage overland from Charters Towers where road access was less than satisfactory. Capt. Mott advised that good access could be made across the Burdekin River via Ingham after April 1944 when the flood waters would have subsided.

Is it possible that this was the same crash as a B-17 Flying Fortress that crashed somewhere west of Paluma during the Battle of the Coral Sea between 4 - 8 May 1942?

Was this really a B-17 Flying Fortress or perhaps a B-24 Liberator?

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Gordon Birkett 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 21 October 2003

This page last updated 13 June 2004