Aircraft History
One of 25 D-7 model bombers made by Consolidated in San Diego, California.

Mission History
Departed Garbutt Field at 0815 hrs on 18 December, 1942 and was one of 6 aircraft heading north to New Guinea. When they were passing Cairns, they ran into bad weather and "Texas Terror" was last seen heading out to sea apparently with some kind of mechanical problem. The bomber crashed on Mt. Stralock (3,000'), Hitchenbrook Island. Searches found nothing, and after 30 days, the plane and passengers were declared missing.

Wreckage
In 1943, two Aboriginals prospecting for tin in the upper gullies of Mr. Stralock discovered the wreckage of the B-24 and reported it to local authorities. According to official records, navigational error was the cause of the crash.

The remains of the crew were removed and interned in Ipswich. After the war, they were moved to a group grave at Ft McPherson National Cemetery, Maxwell, Nebraska. In 1959, climbers uncovered more remains at the crash site and a US Army CILHI recovered them. At this time a group of Ingham RAAF training cadets decided to place a memorial at the location. A six-foot aluminum cross was made at the RAAF Garbutt Airbase and erected at the crash site. The cross bears the names of those who died in the crash.

Memorial
A 1999 memorial to the airplane and its crew was erected at Ingham, a more accessible location than the crash site, for the crew to be honored.

Michael Hughes visited the site in July 2001:
"The wreck is spread over a large area. The impact site is about 10m up the cliff face & the wreckage has fallen down from there. The easily recognizable parts are the wing sections, the engines & props, the undercharge part & some larger sections or the tail & fusalarge.There are a couple of .50 guns laying around. There is a lot of wreckage that is just twisted metal & some that has been burned in the fire but if you look hard there are a few remnants of the cockpit & radio station laying about. The aeroplane was brand new at the time of the crash & the manufacture date stamped on one of the props is still mostly legible& reads 10-10-42."

Justin Taylan adds:
"For unknown reasons, the dogtag of Waldo Kellener ended up in Port Moresby (likely Durand 17-Mile) and the Dog Tag was discovered by Henry Mayer in 1995.  It is unknown how his tag got there, was he station there before the crash? Did a friend have his tag and subsequntly loose it there?  If anyone has any details or is a relative of this crew member, contact us to have the tag returned."

References
Legacy of the 90th Bombardment Group page 32

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009

B-24

Peeter Dunn
Australia @ War