Aircraft History
Assigned to the 19th Bombardment Group, this aircraft flew combat missions from Garbutt Airfield near Townsville staging through 7-Mile Drome in Port Moresby.

Mission History
One of four B-17s, led by Major Hardison that took off at 11:00pm from Townsville on a mission to attack Rabaul: Mission S. M. 9/17. Encountering bad weather, lost and low on fuel, this bomber radioed 'we are lost and we are all going to bail out'. The entire crew bailed out near the Coen River, near the Weipa area.

Search Mission
A RAAF PBY Catalina A24-2 searched for this aircraft September 19-20 1942. They finally located the aircraft at the Coen River on the Gulf of Carpentaria. The Catalina landed and picked up four survivors. Another four crew members of the downed Flying Fortress had wandered into the bush. The Catalina flew the first four survivors back to Cairns. The next day they flew to Weipa Mission to check if the other four might have arrived at the Mission.

As they had not been seen, nine Aboriginal trackers were taken by the Catalina to the crash site. The missing four were spotted on a mud flat, and the Catalina landed to collect them. By the time they had recovered the survivors, the tide had gone out leaving the catalina high and dry. Once the tide came back in they took off for Cairns with the final four survivors. Three of the crew were hospitalized afterwards Burcky, Johnson and Schmid.

Memorials
One of the crew was never found: Lt. Meenagh. He is memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Manila American Cemetery. He earned the Silver Star, Distinguished Flying Cross, Air Medal with 2 Oak Leaf Clusters, Purple Heart.

References
Thanks to Edward Rogers for additional information
Crash of B-17E north-north west of Weipa Oz at War by Peter Dunn

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Last Updated
December 15, 2008

B-17

MIA
One Crew Member