7 SEPTEMBER 1944
CRASH OF A C-47 DAKOTA
NEAR MOSSMAN

RAAF DC-3 Dakota similar to the Dutch Aircraft

On 7 September 1944 Cairns rang 3 Fighter Sector Headquarters in Townsville enquiring if they had any information regarding C-47A-20-DK VH-RDK due at Cairns at 1845 hours. 3 FSHQ instructed Radar stations to concentrate on the area north of Cairns. Aeroradio advised that they had heard the aircraft calling Cairns Duty Pilot and the aircraft was then 10 to 20 minutes flying time from Cairns. All Volunteer Air Observer Corps (VAOC) posts were instructed to keep a lookout for the aircraft. Cairns advised that 2 Avro Ansons had departed Cairns to search for C-47 VH-RDK.

Royal Netherlands East Indies Air Force C-47 Dakota DT-941 #42-93015 (VH-RDK) with 20 persons on board, crashed near Mossman on Thursday 7 September 1944. It was on a flight from Merauke to Cairns. It left Merauke on 6 September 1944. There were no survivors. The crashed aircraft was not located until many years later in January 1989.

Those killed were:-

CREW
1e Luitenant Vlieger Hermanus Jan Hendrik Daanen (Captain), Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
Sgt Major Willem Adrianus Torn (Co-pilot), #96774, Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
Sgt Eugene Kerdijk (W-ops), #71322, 22. Plot A Row E Joint Grave 1.
Sgt Jacques Francois Damwijk (Eng), #96914, Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.

120 SQUADRON NEI-AF FIGHTER PILOTS
1e Luitenant Vlieger Rudolf Theodoor H. Braakensiek, #134821, Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
1e Luitenant Vlieger Hendrik Piet Levy, #8767, Plot A Row E Joint Grave 1.
1e Luitenant Vlieger Bernard van Aken, #13620, Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
1e Luitenant Vlieger Otto Leyding, #105120, 24 yrs. Plot A Row E Joint Grave 1.
1e Luitenant Vlieger Robert Jan Salm, #51722, Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
1e Luitenant Vlieger Jan Simon Zwart, 20 yrs. Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
Sergeant Vlieger Abraham Constantijn Scholte, #36520,  Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
Sgt Marinus Boogerman, #90510, Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
Sergeant Machinist Martinus Johannes Straub, #8872, Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.

All the above were on their way to Australia for some R&R.

OTHER SERVICE PERSONNEL
Sqn/Ldr Leslie Roy "Smokey" Dawson (RAAF), #260968, 40yrs (Liaison Officer of 18 Squadron NEI-RAAF)
Lt. Horace William Hammond Armstrong, WX10534, 32yrs, AIF, 157 Gen. Ypt. Coy., Australian Army Service Corps.
Luitenant-ter-zee Joseph Remy Louis Lebeau (NEI intell), #818, 39yrs, Plot A Row E Joint Grave 1.
2e Luitenant Robert Evert Johan Boereboom (NEI Intell), #13620, 29. Plot A Row E Coll Grave 1.
2e Luitenant Samuel Jacob (Reserve ), Plot A Row E Grave 1.
Mevr Waas (female), Plot A Row E Grave 1.
Mevr Wakemau (female), Plot A Row E Grave 1.

The deceased passengers and crew were buried at the War Cemetery at Cairns.

Leslie Roy Dawson was the son of George Alfred Haigh Dawson and Mary Eliza Dawson. His wife was Edna May Dawson of Bondi Beach, New South Wales. In January 2004, I was contacted by Donna Dawson, the great niece of Les Dawson. Donna's father, Geoffrey Dawson flew to Cairns for the Memorial Ceremony held for those killed in this tragic crash.

Lieutenant Horace William Hammond Armstrong was the son of Harry George and Alice Jane Armstrong. His wife was Dorothy May Armstrong, of Victoria Park, Western Australia.

It was originally thought that the aircraft may have gone down in the Trinity Beach area. Last contact was 9 miles out. The wreckage of the Dakota was eventually discovered in January 1989 by an Australian/New Zealand scientific expedition north west of Mossman. 

The curator RAAF Museum, F/Off Pat J. Kenny (This is my wife's cousin) and W/Off B. Hurst aided by a member of the Aus/NZ Team were winched down near the wreck on 21 January 1989 and identified the a/c as VH-RDK, being the missing Dutch Dakota. Recovery was approved on 24 January 1989 and on 5 February 1989 the operation started.

It was carried out by personnel of 27Squadron RAAF, supported by an UH-1H helicopter of 35 Squadron RAAF and ended on 10 February 1989.

On 11 Feb. one of the former fighter pilots of 120 Sqn NEI-AF, Mr Hugo Haye, was received by the recovery team. He paid a final tribute to his comrades.

He was supposed to be on the Dakota (together with 2nd Lt. Theo Gottschalk), but was taken of the flight to ferry a P-40N to Australia. All his luggage however, was on the fatal flight and he was now able to take home his beloved shotguns!

The remains of those killed were recovered from the crash scene in July 1989 and interred at the Cairns War Cemetery.

The Cairns Cemetery is at the end of Martyn Street, off the Bruce Highway. It contains a special plot of service war graves. A paved entrance leads into this plot from an internal roadway of the civil cemetery. Immediately to the left of the entrance is a stone seat into the back of which, facing the approach, is set a panel bearing the name " Cairns War Cemetery ". On the right is a stone pier containing a bronze box in which the register is kept. Opposite the entrance stands the Cross of Sacrifice.

David Mossou, from The Netherlands, contacted me on 25 September 2003 and advised that he has in his possession both the Vliegerkruis and war memorial medals with certificates for 1st Lt. H.J.H. Daanen that were awarded to him posthumously in 1949. They were in the legacy of David's great-uncle, Lieutenant-Colonel (pilot) John Mossou (ret.), NEI-AF, KLu. As far as David knows John Mossou never served in the RAAF as he was captured almost immediately after the Japanese occupation and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp. David has no idea how John Mossou got those medals, and he would like to find out the reason. Can anyone help?

Netherlands East Indies Air Force Home Page

In his book "The Hidden Chapters - Untold Stories of Australians at War in the Pacific", Robert Piper refers to a number of reports on this accident as follows:-

Does anyone have a copy of any of these reports?

Kenney's report indicates that they had searched the coastline along a number of areas between 8 September and 16 September 1944, but had found no sign of the missing aircraft.

Nineteen year old Ivor Edwin Lane (123541) was meant to be a passenger on this aircraft. He was in the RAAF attached to 44 Operational Base Unit and was involved in servicing bomber aircraft. On 7 September 1944, Ivor and several members of his group had been granted leave to fly home to Australia. They were due to catch this Dutch C-47 at Merauke Airfield at 4am.  When they arrived at the airfield they were told that their leave had been cancelled. They returned to their quarters and at about 2pm that afternoon they learned that the aircraft had not arrived at Cairns as scheduled.

10 Worst Aircraft Crashes in Australia

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to thank Bas Kreuger, the Curator of the Military Aviation Museum RNlAF, in Soesterberg, the Netherlands, for his assistance with information on this crash. I'd also like to thank Daniel Leahy and Geoffrey Negus for their assistance with this home page.

SOURCE:-   Aircraft Crash Sites - Australia

Crash:         No. 112

Position:    

Department of Aviation Chart No:       3219

REFERENCES

"Diary of WWII - North Queensland"
Complied by Peter Nielsen

"Aircraft of the RAAF 1921- 71"
By Geoffrey Pentland & Peter Malone

"The Hidden Chapters - Untold Stories of Australians at War in the Pacific"
by Robert Piper 

Obituary - Ivor Edwin Lane, Courier Mail, Wednesday 29 March 2017

Can anyone help me with more information on this crash?

"Australia @ War" WWII Research Products

This page first produced 9 February 1999

This page last updated 16 March 2021