Spreading The Word About Australia's Worst-Ever Crash

It was an anniversary virtually unmarked here in the United States - except among a few families of 40 soldiers who mysteriously died in the Pacific in 1943. In fact, there's almost nothing about the B-17 crash in USAF archives. Slowly, however, 60 years later, details are coming to light, and relatives and descendants of the victims have made a pilgrimage to a town near Brisbane, marking the anniversary of Australia's worst-ever air disaster.

Diary Of Disaster

"I put the men on the ship and so had a direct part in sealing their fate. Also, I was at the scene of the crash and saw the mangled bodies, killed while flying at 200 mile per hour. Terrible."

That entry from the diary of Samuel Cutler as quoted in the Washington Post. Cutler was the Officer of the Day at the USAAF airfield near Mackay, Australia, on June 14, 1943, when the heavily loaded B-17C took off for New Guinea. On board, 35 American soldiers returning to the battlefield after some much-needed R&R. The aircraft, a bullet-scarred veteran of the early Pacific air campaign, climbed to 300-ft. MSL - through a bank of thick fog - before suddenly entering a steep turn. It appeared to be headed back to Mackay. But the B-17C never made it, crashing near Bear Creek, just five miles short of the runway. The entire crew of six and all but one of the 35 soldiers was killed in the crash.

For years - decades - the families of the victims knew virtually nothing about the tragedy. They were told simply that their loved ones had died somewhere in the Pacific. Gen. Douglas MacArthur, commander of American forces in the Pacific, didn't want the Japanese to know anything about US troop movements, so the crash was deemed secret. And it stayed that way for so long that, when declassified, the incident was the subject of not a single inquiry.

It was only this year that the Air Force finally acknowledged the crash and joined in the search for victims' relatives.

Miss EMF

The B-17C, "Miss EMF" ("Every Morning, Fix It"), had been badly chewed up in a bombing raid on Japanese forces at Mindanao in the southern Philippines on Christmas Day, 1941. It had been hit more than 1100 times by bullets and shrapnel and was deemed virtually worthless. So Miss EMF sat abandoned at Batchelor Field in Darwin, Australia, for more than a year.

But in March, 1943, the aircraft was ordered restored to flying condition. It might not have been suitable to return to combat service, but USAAF officials figured it would be good enough to fly cargo and troop transport missions. It was overhauled and put on the milk run from Mackay to Port Moresby, New Guinea. There, it picked up tired, hollow-eyed, combat-weary soldiers and flew them back to the Red Cross R&R Center in Mackay.

Even after that first major overhaul, Miss EMF continued to live up to her name, becoming a real maintenance pig. One mechanic estimated that, for every eight hours Miss EMF flew, the B-17C required up to 12 hours of maintenance.

Just the day before its last mission, Miss EMF underwent yet another overhaul. Ground crews installed a new fuel tank and two new engines. The new engines have become the centers of interest for amateur investigators who believe the B-17C suffered some sort of mechanical failure that led to the crash. One eyewitness to the crash of Miss EMF said one of the bomber's engines sounded "like a car stuck in the mud."

Add to that the weather, which, on June 14, 1943 at Mackay, consisted of dense, low fog. And the flight crew - all relatively inexperienced and in their 20s, may have been unable to handle whatever went wrong with the heavily loaded flight as it departed Mackay.

The End Of Miss EMF

Joan Moody, a 17-year old school girl in 1943, remembers vividly what happened as the bomber made two 90-degree turns in a vain attempt to get back to Mackay. "I've heard the plane, the noise the plane was making, ran out of the building onto the veranda and there I heard my father call out to go ring the police, there's a plane crashed, ring the police, and got there to see the bushes all torn off at the top, the trees and so forth, and there was bodies and there was bits of seats and there was all sorts of fabric and that in the trees and it was covered over a wide area," she told the Australian Broadcasting Company.

Struggling To Remember

Robert Cutler, son of the American OOD serving at Mackay at the time of the crash, has taken on investigating the events of June 14, 2003 as a personal crusade. "This air crash, as you know, was repressed from any publication anywhere for 15 years after World War Two ended, and therefore it lost to any researchers or even family relatives about it. There's 22 families of the 41 involved on the airplane that still do not know that the crash occurred, that it occurred in Mackay, Australia, or that there's memorial built by your local citizens in Mackay that have their loved ones' names on that," he said in an interview with the ABC.

As mentioned above, there was a single survivor from that terrible crash in 1943. Cpl. Foye Roberts, however, is unable to help investigators find out what really happened to Miss EMF. He's 81-years old now, living in a Texas nursing home, and virtually unable to communicate. "The survivor is in poor health and he has suffered health problems since that day. He has very limited communication ability, he does recognise his brother and sister, but other than that it's like Alzheimer's that he has, but it's attributed to results of that crash 60 years ago," said Australian veteran-turned-historian Col Benson.

"He always said a prayer when he was taking off," Roberts' sister, Mozelle Russell told the Washington Post. "That was the last thing he remembered. The next thing he knew, he was stumbling from the aircraft."

Memorial Service Down Under

Saturday, 60 years to the day after Miss EMF went down, several victims' relatives, finally enlightened as to what happened, attended a memorial service for the soldiers in Mackay. Among them, Maureen Metzger of Tuscon (AZ). Her husband, Jim, had planned to attend this weekend's ceremony in Mackay. But Jim Metzger, who was 69, died in a diving accident off the coast of Hawaii last year. Mrs. Metzger remembered that her husband wanted his ashes scattered at sea off the coast of Mackay - to be near the remains of his brother. "Maybe he was just joking, but I took it seriously," she told the Washington Post. So, after the memorial service at the crash site near Bear Creek, Mrs. Metzger was to travel just a few short miles to the edge of the Coral Sea, where she would lovingly fulfill her husband's last wish.

The Victims

The USAF declassified details surrounding the crash of Miss EMF in 1958. To this day, more than 20 families of the victims don't know what really happened. Below is a list of those killed in the crash of Miss EMF, June 14, 1943:

• ABRAHAM, Jerome Pfc 49th Fighter Grp, HQ Sqn FLORIDA
• BERTHOLD, John O. Capt 49th Fighter Grp, 8th Fighter Sqn NEW YORK , Woodlawn National Cemetery, Elmira
• BRIGGS, William A. T/5 478th Service Sqn, 1037th Signals HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• BUSSE, Dean H. Sgt 35th Fighter Grp, 40th Fighter Sqn, COLORADO, Hillside Cemetery, Julesburg
• COPELAND, James A. T/Sgt 8th Service Grp, HQ Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• CUNNINGHAM, Carl A. Sgt 49th Fighter Grp, 8th Fighter Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• CURTIS, Lovell Dale (Crew Chief) S/Sgt 317th Troop Carrier Grp, 46th Troop Carrier Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• EHRMAN, George A. T/5 5th Fighter Command, Signal HQ Company CALIFORNIA, Golden Gate National Cemetery, San Bruno
• ERB, William C. (Co-Pilot) F/O 317th Troop Carrier Grp, 46th Troop Carrier Sqn CALIFORNIA
• FINNEY, James E. Pvt 27th Depot Repair Sqn PENNSYLVANIA
• FLETCHER, Leo E. Sgt 38th Bombardment Grp, 405th Bombardment Sqn KENTUCKEY
• FREZZA, Alfred H. T/Sgt 27th Depot Repair Sqn PENNSYLVANIA (Altoona?)
• GIDCUMB, Vern J. Jr. (Pilot) 1/Lt 317th Troop Carrier Grp, 46th Troop Carrier Sqn ILLINOIS, Wolf Creek Cemetery, Eldorado
• GOETZ, Norman J. Pfc 480th Service Sqn ILLINOIS, St. Mary's Cemetery, Evergreen Park
• HATLEN, Roy A. S/Sgt 35th Fighter Grp, 40th Fighter Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• HILSHEIMER, John W. S/Sgt 35th Fighter Grp, 40th Fighter Sqn Unknown (Arlington indicated in records - not buried there)
• JOHNSON, Vernon Pfc 440th Signal Battalion, Company A HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• KYPER, Donald B. Sgt 38th Bombardment Grp, 405th Bombardment Sqn PENNSYLVANIA, Riverview Cemetery, Huntingdon
• LaRUE, Charlie O. Sgt 49th Fighter Grp, 8th Fighter Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• LONGABAUGH, Raymond D. Pvt 842nd Aviation Engineer Battalion HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• MANN, Kenneth W. Pfc 36th Service Grp, 374th Service Sqn MISSOURI, Jefferson City National Cemetery, Jefferson City
• METZGER, Marlin D. Cpl 374th Troop Carrier Grp, 6th Troop Carrier Sqn NEBRASKA, Hillcrest Cemetery, Omaha
• MONTGOMERY, Charles D. Pvt 49th Fighter Grp, 7th Fighter Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• OGREN, Jack A. (Navigator) 2/Lt 317th Troop Carrier Grp, 46th Troop Carrier Sqn Unsure - thought to be OHIO (Army records not located)
• PARKER, John W. Pfc 809th Chemical Company SOUTH CAROLINA
• PENSKA, Frank S. Pfc 374th Troop Carrier Grp, 6th Troop Carrier Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• POWELL, George N. Maj 49th Fighter Grp, HQ Sqn VIRGINIA, Arlington National Cemetery, Fort Meyer
• RUDNICK, Anthony Sgt 565th Signal Battalion, Company A NEW JERSEY, Beverly National Cemetery, Beverly
• SAMPSON, Charles W. Cpl 8th Service Grp, 11th Service Sqn NEW YORK
• SEIDEL, Arnold Pfc 5th Air Force, 415th Signal Company MINNESOTA, Fort Snelling National Cemetery, Sth Minneapolis
• SKAGGS, Jacob O., Jr. Cpl 27th Depot Repair Sqn OKLAHOMA
• SMITH, Franklin F. Cpl 38th Bombardment Grp, 405th Bombardment Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• SMITH, Raymond H. Cpl 35th Fighter Grp, 40th Fighter Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• SWEET, Frederick C. Pfc 481st Service Sqn, 46th Ordinance Company MICHIGAN
• TENNY, Edward Cpl 479th Service Sqn WEST VIRGINIA, Big Bend Cemetery, Upshur County
• TILESTON, David E. (Radio) Sgt 317th Troop Carrier Grp, 46th Troop Carrier Sqn HAWAII, National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, Honolulu
• Van FOSSON, Dale Pfc 8th Service Grp, 1160th Quartermaster Company WEST VIRGINIA, Grafton National Cemetery, Grafton
• VAUGHN, Ruben L. Pvt 5th Fighter Command, HQ Sqn TEXAS
• WHELCHEL, Frank E. (Crew Chief) S/Sgt 374th Troop Carrier Grp, 22nd Troop Carrier Sqn GEORGIA, Lyons City Cemetery, Lyons
• WILLIAMS, Charles M. Pfc 455th Service Sqn MISSOURI

FMI: http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozcrashes/qld46.htm