Account Of The Calamity: The Case Of Mackay
2. ASSESSMENT OF THE CALAMITY
The crash stunned the people in Mackay, particularly the military. There were few eyewitnesses to the calamity and much confusion. Captain Samuel Cutler, the executive officer of the U.S. Army Rest Area at Mackay, recorded some details of the incident in his personal wartime dairy.16
The day before the crash, he wrote:
Sunday, June 13th, 1943 Saw CBA Flying Fortress test hopping over us. Our Major Diller was aboard with Lt. Gidcumb as pilot. The B-17 was in good shape after having been laid up for almost a month while getting a special gas tank from the U.S. The plane was known as Miss EMF of “every morning fix-it” fame.
Out gardening in the afternoon. My garden looks swell. Corn plants up ten inches in …show more content…
Up at 4 AM and lined up
35 enlisted and two officers to go on CBA to Moresby for 6:00 AM take-off from Mackay Aerodrome. The weather was misty and one of those things DID HAPPEN. Yes, at
6:02 AM, two minutes after I turned my back on the CBA plane (same one I saw yesterday) it crashed into some woods five miles away and exploded killing 40 people, with only one saved. Biggest air crash in American air transport history, to date. Pilot error and poor visibility. As OD, I put the men on the ship and so had a direct part in sealing their fate. Also I was at the scene of the crash and saw the mangled bodies, killed while flying at 200 mile per hour. Terrible.
Army personnel conducted cleanup activities for the next few days. They worked under high pressure, collecting bodies, personal effects, interviewing witnesses – and keeping quiet about the details of the crash.17
Capt. Cutler’s diary notes continue:
June 15th (Tuesday)
All kinds of telephone calls from Brisbane and Townsville. Arrival of planes to carry 40 dead bodies to Townsville (205 miles away). Scenes at the Morgue identifying bodies, etc. Very gruesome, especially as to mangled bodies. Found a book at the crash scene titled The General Died at Dawn. Very
The crash stunned the people in Mackay, particularly the military. There were few eyewitnesses to the calamity and much confusion. Captain Samuel Cutler, the executive officer of the U.S. Army Rest Area at Mackay, recorded some details of the incident in his personal wartime dairy.16
The day before the crash, he wrote:
Sunday, June 13th, 1943 Saw CBA Flying Fortress test hopping over us. Our Major Diller was aboard with Lt. Gidcumb as pilot. The B-17 was in good shape after having been laid up for almost a month while getting a special gas tank from the U.S. The plane was known as Miss EMF of “every morning fix-it” fame.
Out gardening in the afternoon. My garden looks swell. Corn plants up ten inches in …show more content…
Up at 4 AM and lined up
35 enlisted and two officers to go on CBA to Moresby for 6:00 AM take-off from Mackay Aerodrome. The weather was misty and one of those things DID HAPPEN. Yes, at
6:02 AM, two minutes after I turned my back on the CBA plane (same one I saw yesterday) it crashed into some woods five miles away and exploded killing 40 people, with only one saved. Biggest air crash in American air transport history, to date. Pilot error and poor visibility. As OD, I put the men on the ship and so had a direct part in sealing their fate. Also I was at the scene of the crash and saw the mangled bodies, killed while flying at 200 mile per hour. Terrible.
Army personnel conducted cleanup activities for the next few days. They worked under high pressure, collecting bodies, personal effects, interviewing witnesses – and keeping quiet about the details of the crash.17
Capt. Cutler’s diary notes continue:
June 15th (Tuesday)
All kinds of telephone calls from Brisbane and Townsville. Arrival of planes to carry 40 dead bodies to Townsville (205 miles away). Scenes at the Morgue identifying bodies, etc. Very gruesome, especially as to mangled bodies. Found a book at the crash scene titled The General Died at Dawn. Very