25 September 1942 - Crash of a Buffalo at Derby in Western Australia

CRASH OF A BUFFALO
AT DERBY, WA
ON 25 SEPTEMBER 1942

RAAF Buffalo A51-5 crashed on Mowanjum Mission near Derby in Western Australia on 25 September 1942. The wreckage of this aircraft was recovered by Stan Gajda in about 1980/81.

This aircraft was one of 17 Buffalos that were transferred to the RAAF in 1942. They had earlier been part of the Netherlands East Indies Air Force (NEIAF). With the fall of Singapore twenty Model 439D's and one 339D were sent to Australia in March 1942. They initially were transferred to the USAAC. They still had their Dutch serial numbers and their original US "NX" test numbers. Once they arrived in Australia, most of them were allocated temporary numbers.

Seventeen of these aircraft were transferred to the RAAF and became A51-1 through to A51-17. The first six were sent in crates to Essendon near Melbourne where they were assembled at the Ansett Airways hangar. Cameras were installed and the aircraft were allocated to the newly formed PRU at Laverton, in Victoria in June 1942. The rest of the Buffalos were moved to the PRU at Darwin where they became operational in August 1942.

Stan Gajda first found evidence of this crash site when he was on his way to Kalumburu in 1977 and stopped at the abandoned Mowanjum Mission on which the Buffalo crashed. He found the tail wreckage accidentally when they were doing a foot search of the bush near the mission. The tail was found on a scrub-covered ridge which run out onto the flats like fingers. The tail wreckage was about 1/2 a mile away from where he later found the main wreckage. Stan Gajda later recovered the wreckage of Buffalo A51-5 in 1980/81.

In 1980 Stan Gajda flew to the area with John Hardie in a Cessna, They were looking for a B-24 Liberator crash site when the found the Buffalo's wing and the impact site. From there they drove out and found the wreckage. They camped near the wreck that night. Stan did not find out the airplane type until after he recovered the remains of the wreck. Geoff Goodall told him that the lettering found on the leading edge of the wing B3-174 was an Netherlands East Indies Air Force (NEI-AF) Buffalo number series.

Photo:- Stan Gajda 1977