We were equipped with PV1 (Vega Ventura) Aircraft after the squadron was destroyed in Timor where they had Lockheed Hudson aircraft.

On 17 Nov 1943 we flew from Canberra to Archerfield Airfield. It rained heavily for the next three days then on 19 Nov (actually was the 22 November 1943) the duty pilot authorised our take off even though we thought the ground too heavy. There were three aircraft on this detail, pilots being Bill Birdsall, Ian Sinclair, & from memory Jack Batho. We all started our engines & were doing our preflight checks when Ian Sinclair who was flying Ventura A59-54 asked permission to take off first. Bill Birdsall who was in charge of the detail okayed his departure. We watched him take off & he obviously was laboured by the wet ground (it was a grass surface) & he immediately notified us by radio not to take off as it was too dangerous we watched as he attempted to land. He applied his brakes & both wheels locked & he skated out of control into an embankment which surrounded a power sub station or pumping station which had been set into the ground. Hitting this embankment made him airborne again & he passed over the roadway spilling his bombs & depth charges from his damaged bomb bays onto the roadway & into the farmer’s paddock in which he came to rest. By the time we parked our aircraft & ran over to the crash scene the American MPs were holding the assembled aircraft workers & citizens about 20 yards back from the badly damaged bombs apparently to protect them should one explode? We had seen each head of the crew appear above the Pilot’s compartment look furtively round then seeing the bombs ran off in the opposite direction. We knew all were safe.

This crew crashed again when we were stationed at Gove in the Northern Territory & all were killed with the exception of Gordon Cathro who lives in Adelaide

There was no barber’s shop involved in this incident. Gough Whitlam was not on this detail. Gough was an outstanding navigator.

We landed at Rockhampton (on route to Cooktown) we landed on several occasions at Garbutt (Townsville) we were stationed at Cooktown. We went to Charters Towers on two occasions to collect spare parts. We landed at Cairns on several training flights. So far as I can remember these are the only Queensland Airports we used during the war.

Gough Whitlam was in a crash at Camden airport. He was in charge of the convoying of the American Fleet from the Coral Sea Battle & they were the aerial escort from there to Sydney & used Coffs Harbour & Camden aerodromes for this job.

It is interesting to note that the Ventura Aircraft in our squadron crashed in consecutive order of numbers from A59-49 to A 59-57. The plane which crashed at Archerfield was A 59-54 & our plane was A 59-55. We put our plane in for service shortly after our return from Archerfield on 1/12/43 & a new crew borrowed it for a training flight on 7 /12/43 & it crashed 7 minutes after take off at Gundaroo near Canberra.

E R Simons

UPDATE:- It is with regret that I have to advise that Ernest Rupert Simons passed away on 31 May 2002