29 MARCH 1945
CRASH OF A BEAUFIGHTER
AT ROCKHAMPTON AIRFIELD, QLD

visits since 15 October 2003

Beaufighter

On 29 March 1945, Beaufighter, A19-170 (LY-C), formerly of 30 Squadron RAAF made a force landing at Rockhampton on arrival at No. 21 O.B.U.

Bob Mullins remembers visiting most of the crashes in the Rockhampton area that I have listed on my web pages. He had a piece of propeller blade from the Spitfire and last year donated it to the Caloundra Aircraft Museum. On the propeller blade he had painted the date and details of the crash. This would be available from the Caloundra Museum. He remembers the Liberator, Spitfire, Beaufighter and Kittyhawk crashes. There was a C-47 Dakota also which overshot the runway and spent some weeks on Canoona Road where the local kids managed to obtain many bits and pieces. Bob had the perspex from the toilet window of the C-47 to make brooches and his friend Bert Cairns (now deceased who eventually joined the RAAF) had the wheel from the joystick and other bits and pieces. After the Coral Sea battle a B-17 Flying Fortress landed at Connor Park all shot up and lost a propeller on its landing approach, with the propeller landing in the mud on the edge of the Fitzroy River. Unfortunately 12 year old kids did not keep diaries so Bob has no specific dates.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I'd like to thank Bob Mullins who as a boy lived near Connor Park airfield in Rockhampton.

REFERENCE BOOK

"Aircraft of the RAAF 1921- 71"
By Geoffrey Pentland & Peter Malone

Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?

Heaps of WW2 books available at Amazon.com

"Australia @ War"

This page first produced 26 April 1999

This page last updated 23 June 2005