I have known Bill Dawson for a number of years. In those years, I noticed he was very troubled about something. One day recently, he opened up and told me about his nightmares.

As a young sailor he witnessed a RAAF Catalina flying boat crashing into a mountain in Port Moresby on the 8th December 1941. Bill has been troubled for years as to the outcome of that crew and it was getting him down and causing a serious health problem. So I decided to see what I could do to help Bill rid himself of the nightmares. I took on the project to track down the incident and details of the crew. That was two weeks ago.

The story has taken on a life of it's own. I will start with Bill Dawson, born 22 December 1922, enlisted in the Royal Australian Navy, Port Melbourne, Victoria in April 1941, service number PM 3512 and reached the rank Able Seaman Gunnery. He initially did his recruit training at HMAS Cerberus and was allocated to his first ship HMAS Adelaide which was on route taking military supplies to Port Moresby.

Early on the morning of Sunday, 8th December 1941, in Port Moresby Harbour, the Captain of HMAS Adelaide announced to the crew that Australia was at war with Japan. As you would imagine, there was a lot of excitement and apprehension amongst the crew. Bill's duty that day was lookout on the bridge. At sunset, he was looking out and observing a RAAF Catalina flying boat taking off in Port Moresby harbour. For some unknown reason, he had his Brownie Box camera and clicked a photo of the aircraft. Moments later it crashed and burned into the mountain. By then it was dark. The sight horrified Bill. He still managed to take a photo of the flames of the crash site in the distant hill side. He saw the flames all night. To this day, Bill was upset by the thought of that crew and wondered of their fate. Next morning, HMAS Adelaide weighed anchor and sailed for duties elsewhere.

There ended Bill's story, other than that he has been trying ever since to come up with some news of that event and information regarding the outcome of the crew of that accident, with little or no results. Bill was greatly distressed by this and it was effecting his health!

This is where my search begins. Bill had a small piece of paper, typed with eight names. So started my investigation. I went to the WW2 Nominal Roll and found four of the crew, but not the other four. I went on to the Papua New Guinea forum and searched the Port Moresby (Bomana) War cemetery. There I found the other three, but still no eighth. I then searched the Royal Australian Air Force web-site looking for historical records of their Squadron which, by the way, was the 11th Sqn. After many hours, I found the eighth member of the crew but his name was different to the one on Bill's paper. After researching the last name, it was obvious that AC1 K M Sidey was the last link!

There they all were 64 years later, the crew of 11 Squadron RAAF, Port Moresby, Catalina A24-15 which had crashed and burned on the 8th December 1941.

The aircraft was delivered by Qantas as VH-AFP 07/10/1941 to 11 Squadron, Port Moresby and given the serial A24-15. The crew were all killed on 8 December 1941 and initially buried in Hanaudada Public Cemetery, Port Moresby 9 & 10 December 1941 and then reburied in the Port Moresby (Bomana) War cemetery between 18 to 23 November 1943.

Crew :

RAAF 2622 Flying Officer Lincoln James SLOAN (Pilot) Age 29 Bomana B2D5 23/11/43
Roll of Honour Brisbane Qld

RAAF 557 Flt Lt Nelson Prior REID (2nd Pilot) Age 26 Bomana B2 C25
Roll of Honour Brisbane Qld

RAAF 12305 Cpl Neville Lawrence ERNST (First Engineer) Age 23 Bomana B2 C15
Roll of Honour Rose Bay Sydney NSW

RAAF 12257 Cpl Eric John O'DONNELL (Rigger) Age 23 Bomana B2 D1
Roll of Honour Brisbane Qld

RAAF 10436 LAC Charles James MATHESON (2nd Engineer) Age 23 Bomana B2 C 13.
Roll of Honour Wangaratta Vic

RAAF 34551 AC1 Keith Mighell SIDEY (1st Wireless Operator) Age 21 Bomana War
Cemetery Roll of Honour Bathurst NSW

RAAF 33987 AC1 Arthur Wallace MAGEE (2nd Wireless Operator) Age 23 Bomana B2 C19
Roll of Honour unknown, possibly Rose Bay Sydney NSW

RAAF 39219 AC1 George Robert PETERSON (Armourer) Age 33 Bomana B 2 C10
Roll of Honour Henley Beach South Australia

They were together in service and remain together in death; these eight young men, and they were young, the youngest 21 and the oldest 33, most were single except for two. The Two married members were Flt Lt Reid of Brisbane, his widow was Elizabeth Beatrice of Sherwood, Queensland, and Cpl O'Donnell of Brisbane, his widow was Daphne Margaret of Brisbane, Queensland. No record has been found of these young women and what ever became of them. All members are commemorated on the wall, panel 100 in the Australian War Memorial and also in their local area from where their families resided at the time of their death.

I am still currently trying to get a copy of a RAAF "Preliminary Report (external) of Flying Accident No, 440, which investigated and reported on the accident on the 8th December 1941.

Basically, the story ends here, we discovered the names of the crew and that of their families, where they are buried and the place where they are commemorated and hopefully someone will remember these young men who tragically died, the day Australia's long War started with Japan.

Now begins the healing process for an old sailor who has kept this memory alive all these years vowing never to forget these young men and to make sure that we all remember them, well in the twilight of his years he has succeeded, "Lest we forget"