RAAF
Stan
Gajda1981
Aircraft History
RAF serial JL946. Delivered to RAAF July 1943.
Mission History
Crash landed
at Drysdale Airfield in
January 1944. Landed wheels-up alongside the main strip after returning
from a raid over Timor.
Landed heavily and had
a fair bit of damage underneath and the fuselage/wing joint had
sprung apart a bit and the rear end of the fuselage had some damage.
Wreckage
Stan Gajda reports:
"Both airframes had no corrosion,
all interiors were stripped but stringers, frames etc were looking
quite good and everything
was still heavily painted. The exteriors were white by the look of
it with the RAAF roundels having a thin yellow border all around. The airframes
both had the cockpit and tail assembly sections removed as well as
the outer wing panels. There
were undercart doors and one outer wing a bit crumpled up and a lot
of other parts. The salvagers came in 1981 and took every bit
they could
find
at Drysdale related
to Beaufighters."
Recovery
Robert Greinert and
Dennis Baxter recovered them and transported them 6,000-odd miles
round trip back to Sydney. They took every bit they could
find
at Drysdale related
to Beaufighters
Stan Gajda reports:
"My photos
were taken in Derby on
27th Sept 1981, during their transport. In 1988, I saw the Beaufighter
bits being restored in Bankstown. The wing center section was in
a jig and there was more Beaufighter
stuff about. The construction
was a combination of steel box trusses and alloy sheeting and sections.
Although the rivets were still ok the Australian FAA insisted on
total replacement with aluminum alloy rivets.
Current Wherabouts
Robert Greinert reports:
"In the early 1990s a package of Beaufighter parts was acquired by the Fighter
Collection It was a mixed bag of British and Australian built stuff. Some parts
from Drysdale were included and they hung an identity on this. The
majority of the recovered airframes went to RAAF
Museum Point Cook a couple of
years ago in a deal. Of the three and half Beaufighters
I have assembled into projects over the years the Drysdale stuff
was the worst. I still retain a Beaufighter
project and look forward to the day when we can get back into it.
Restoration
The Fighter Collection in the UK is currently
restoring Bristol Beaufighter A19-144.
To help with
this restoration, parts of this fuselage Beaufighter
A19-148 (RAF JL946) were recovered from Drysdale. Pieces from the
tail section of Beaufighter A19-36 were
also used.
Beaufighter
Recovery by Greinert
