Liberator’s last flight

The roundel remains barely visible on the crashed Liberator.

Weathered wreckage and a memorial are a reminder of the tragic final mission of a No. 24 Squadron bomber, as CPL Nathan Best writes

Approaching midnight on February 2, 1945, a Royal Australian Air Force B-24L Liberator from No. 24 Squadron was returning from a mission to bomb Japanese shipping targets.

Trying to find the runway at Fenton Airfield in the Northern Territory, but with visibility less than a mile and the air full of haze, the tired crew failed to see the flare path laid out for them.

With their fuel almost gone the pilot, Flight Lieutenant Arthur Cambridge, made an approach for the runway and was told by radio that he was too far to the west. He decided to go around for another try.

As he was lining up the heavy bomber for a final approach numbers one, two and three engines exhausted their fuel and stopped. FLTLT Cambridge saw the fuel pressure gauges read zero and also that the number four engine fuel pressure gauge was fluctuating.

Without warning the Liberator swung violently to port. Still 3km from the airfield, Cambridge ordered his men to their crash positions. He switched on the landing lights, left the undercarriage in the up position and selected 20 degrees of flap and prepared for the inevitable crash landing.

Trying to save his crew and himself FLTLT Cambridge guided the Liberator as it crashed through trees and impacted the ground on an almost even keel.

Immediately fire broke out below decks and spread quickly. Sergeant Francis had his foot jammed in the waist gunner’s area position and was freed by Flying Officer Coward and Pilot Officer Rhodes. With the fire spreading,

PLTOFF Rhodes carried SGT Jennings to safety. Flight Lieutenant Scanlon, also injured, had managed to throw himself out of the aircraft and was carried to safety by FLTLT Cambridge and Warrant Officer Crawford. FLGOFF Coward was slightly injured.

As the crew evacuated the crippled and burning bomber, two of their mates could not escape. Flight Lieutenant J.R. Parkinson and Flying Officer J.M. Pitt were trapped in the nose. As the bomber blazed they could not get any closer to help the trapped men. With no way to escape or be rescued, they perished in the ensuing fire.

Three quarters of an hour after the crash, a Tiger Moth from No. 21 Squadron guided rescue personnel through swampy, uncleared timber to the site. There was nothing they could do for FLTLT Parkinson and FLGOFF Pitt, but recover their bodies.

The two men were buried in the Adelaide River war cemetery just north of the base the next day.
Fifty nine years later the wreckage of A72-88 still lies where it crashed, 3km from the safety of its home base. It rests among tall, thin trees and on a slight rise in the ground, with a faint road leading up to her.

Ravaged by bushfires, salvagers, restorers and souvenir hunters the once almost intact wreck is now a shadow of its former self. The largest piece of the aircraft is the bomb bay, still painted in its undercoat pink colour, and the area just to the rear of the bay. The forward section, beneath the flight deck where FLTLT Parkinson and FLGOFF Pitt died, can still be seen with a little imagination. Scattered around the site are what remains of the wings, tail section, fuselage, turrets and ammunition. Large chunks of melted alloy mark the ferocity of the fire where it pooled on the ground. There is a memorial to the two men.

The most telling and haunting part of the wreck is the Royal Australian Air Force roundel that has faded with time and was torn in half during a salvage attempt.

A72-88 was delivered to the Air Force in October 1944 and managed to serve its country for only a few months before being lost. It rolled off the assembly line at the Convair/San Diego plant as USAAF serial number 44-41460, was delivered to No. 7 Operational Training Unit and then on to 24SQN based at Fenton Airfield.
Fenton airfield, 170km south of Darwin, is still one of the best preserved military airfields in Australia .
It was used as a base by Australian and American aircraft and their associated personnel. The remains of the runway, dispersal areas, taxiways and bone yard are all still there along with the remnants of a war that ended nearly 60 years ago. The headquarters area is 1km from the field and can be found by negotiating a weather-beaten track.

Scattered around the airfield are the remains of many Allied and Japanese aircraft, whose aircrews made the ultimate sacrifice for their countries.

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