B-17C Flying Fortress crash at Bakers Creek, Mackay
Bakers Creek B-17 Crash Memorial
At 6:00am on foggy morning on the 14th June 1943, a war weary B-17C of the United States Army Air Force, took off from Mackay Airport bound for Port Moresby, New Guinea. It was already 30 minutes late, but no one was in a hurry to return to the war in the southwest Pacific. The plane climbed through the fog layer and levelled out at about 300 feet before commencing 2 left hand turns. Then suddenly, it plunged into bushland at Bakers Creek, a small community about 8 kms south of the airport. A fireball erupted and all but one of the 41 occupants onboard were killed. It was and remains today, Australia’s worse aviation disaster.
A similar B-17C with the distinctive tail shape
Mackay, in North Queensland, was an R&R city for US Servicemen. It’s milder tropical climate, good beaches, facilities and welcoming locals made it ideal. There were dances, tours to local attractions, comfy quarters and many were invited into homes for a home cooked meal. They would fly out of Port Moresby for 10 days to leave the war behind them but with the knowledge that they would soon return.
The plane (VHCBA, Serial #40-2072) was one of several B-17 Flying Fortress bombers sent to the Philippines in the later part of 1941, in response to the increase threat of Japanese expansionism. VHCBA had the distinctive tail shape unlike the later models that we are more familiar with. On the same day as the attack on Pearl Harbour, Japan also invaded the Philippines. Although sustaining substantial battle damage, VHCBA was flown south to Australia before the Philippines fell to the Japanese. But due to its damage its was patched up and then relegated to a transport role. At the time of the crash, VHCBA was the only B-17C still flying in the southwest Pacific. Originally nicknamed “Pamela” its was renamed “Miss Every Morning Fix’n” by its crew due to its constant need for maintenance to keep it airworthy. In fact, the day before the crash, it did several test flights after a new engine was fitted and to sort out other mechanical issues.
Rear fuselarge section with the tail in the background
On the day of the crash, it carried 6 crew and 35 passengers, all US servicemen. There was only seating for the crew and the passengers were required to sit on the floor straddling the person in front with no seat belts, in what can only be described as cramped conditions. The pilots were young and lacked experience on that type of aircraft. But that was not unusual in those wartime days. On-the-job experience seemed to be the standard for pilot training.
Due to wartime censorship, the incident was hushed up. Nothing was reported in the media. Mackay’s newspaper simply reported that a visiting US servicemen had been injured and the editorial expressed the sentiments of locals who knew what had happened. It wasn’t until August 1945, after the end of the war, that the story of the crash was told.
Debris field of crashed aircraft
In the United States, relatives were informed that the servicemen had been killed in action in the southwest Pacific area and offered no other details. Censorship was lifted by the US military in 1958 but it wasn’t until the 1990’s and 2000’s after a concerted effort by a handful of historians in Australia and the United States to identify those killed and locate their relatives, that the real story became known.
The survivor of the crash suffered from his injuries for the rest of his life, passing in February 2004 at the age of 83.
To this day, the cause of the crash remains unknown. Was the plane too overloaded, did it encounter mechanical problems after take-off or was it a case of pilot error. We will never know. But what we do know is that these men in their own way, helped to turn the tide against the Japanese and for 10 days in Mackay, they put the war behind them and had no cares and simply enjoyed their time.
Each year on the 14th June, a remembrance ceremony is held at a memorial on the side of the Bruce Highway on the southern approaches to Bakers Creek. Comprising two brick columns separated by an aircraft propeller and with a model of a B-17C above, its lists the names of all crew and passengers on that fateful flight. The memorial is a lasting tribute to those who died and it’s only survivor and Australia’s worse aviation accident.
To the men of VHCBA, we salute them, R.I.P.