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Operation: Photographic Reconnaissance Coral Sea area
Date: 6th May 1942 (Wednesday)
Unit No: 20 Squadron RAAF, 96 Group
Type: PBY-5 Catalina
Serial: A24-20 *
Code: RB:?
Base: Port Moresby, New Guinea
Location: South of Cape Ebola on Misima Island, New Guinea
* Previously RAF Ferry Command V9735
Pilot: Sqn Ldr. Godfrey Ellard Hemsworth AFC, 260275 RAAF Age 32. MiA (1)
2nd Pilot: Sgt. Jack Ronald Coulter 407891 RAAF Age 25. MiA
Observer: Plt Off. Leopold Guy McClintock 403782 RAAF Age 24. MiA
1st Eng: Cpl. Colin Marsden 21371 RAAF Age 22. MiA
2nd Eng: LAC. Kenneth John Arnott 21070 RAAF Age 23. MiA
Wireless Operator: Sgt John Percy William Bandy 401021 RAAF Age 23. MiA
Wireless Operator: LAC. Norman Robert Banvill 23549 RAAF Age 20. MiA
Rigger: LAC. Eric Dorman 15453 RAAF Age 23. MiA
Armourer: LAC. Erwin Bruce Brown 33208 RAAF Age 25. MiA
Above left to right: Plt Off. Leopold G. McClintock, Cpl. Colin Marsden, LAC Kenneth J. Arnott (From their Service Records)
REASON FOR LOSS:
A24-20 took off from Port Moresby on the morning of 6th May 1942 to carry out a daylight reconnaissance in the Coral Sea area as a prelude to what was to form part of the battle of the Coral Sea.
A coded message was received at 14:22 hrs which reported that they had located two (2) Japanese destroyers at were under attack Japanese fighter at Lat/Long 10°40' S 152°29' E, about three (3) miles south of Cape Ebola on Misima Island, New Guinea.
No further signals were received from the aircraft and no further information of the aircraft or crew have ever been found except from captured enemy sources and returned PoWs.
Captured Japanese records show that a crew of nine members of an Allied flying boat were picked up by the Japanese Destroyer "Yubari" on 6th May 1942 and then transferred to the transport "Matsue Maru" on the 7th May 1942 which returned to Rabaul on the 9th May 1942.
Dr. Akeroyd, formerly Maj. John Finch Ackroyd Regimental Medical Officer (RMO) with the 2/22 Battalion, an infantry battalion of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force (AIF), stated that whilst he was prisoner at Rabaul during the month of May 1942, two members of the Australian Military Forces were captured at sea by the Japanese and brought to Rabaul.
They were kept in confinement in the town for a week or so and then brought to the PoW camp. They told him that the crew of an Australian Catalina had been captured by the Japanese and brought to Rabaul and were confined in the town. Dr. Akeroyd never heard any further details and did not know what became of this crew. Tragically the two soldiers were lost on the "Montevideo Maru".
The ”Montevideo Maru” was a military transport which was torpedoed and sunk by the American Submarine “USS Sturgeon” on the 1st July 1942 which unbeknown by the skipper was transporting 1054 people, mostly Australian PoWs and civilians who were being transported from Rabau to Japanl. The sinking is considered the worst maritime disaster in Australian’s history.
This story was rather vague but confirms the information obtained from a captured Japanese diary that an Australian flying boat had been shot down and that the crew of nine (9) had been captured and taken on board the transport "Matsue Maru" which returned to Rabaul and arrived there on the 9th May 1942.
As the two accounts come from such entirely different sources it was thought that they appeared to have some substance. The accounts appear to relate to the crew of Catalina A24-20 which was last heard of when being attacked by Japanese fighters in sight of a Japanese convoy on the 6th May, which was the date on which the Japanese diary records that the crew of the Catalina were captured.
None of the crew of A24-20 were named in the published list of the PoW and Internees aboard the “Montevideo Maru”. The death of the crew was presumed, for official purposes, to have occurred on or after 7th May 1942.
After the Japanese surrender an RAAF search party uncovered thirty (30) bodies from a Japanese Naval execution ground near the Matupi volcano, Rabaul. The majority of the bodies appear to have been executed by decapitation and in some cases the victims had been bound wire before being killed.
Of the identified victims four (4) Australians and three (3) Americans had been known to be in the hands of the Japanese Navy in Rabaul and had been allegedly sent away by ship. The other nine identified RAAF airmen were from 20 Sqn PBY-5 Catalina A24-18 who were not previously known to have been captured.
The recovered remains of two (2) RAAF airmen were never identified as were the remains of nine (9) American servicemen and two (2) unidentified whose Nationality were unknown.
The four (4) identified RAAF airmen were:
Sgt. David Stuart Brown 401489 RAAF who was the Pilot from 75 Sqn Kittyhawk A29-38 lost on operations on the 11th April 1942;
Flt Lt. Geoffrey Hubert Vincent 400866 RAAF and WO. John Pretty Bailey 4240 RAAF who were respectively the Pilot and Observer from 8 Sqn Beaufort A9-244 which was reported missing on operations on the 21st October 1943;
Fg Off. Ross Bryan O’Loghlen 400662 RAAF who was the Observer from 8 Sqn Beaufort A9-262 which was missing on operations over New Ireland/New Britain on the 4th December 1943.
The three (3) Americans were from the USAAF, USNR and USN:
1st Lt. Phillip L. Bek, Silver Star (SS), DFC O-724280 USAAF who was the Navigator aboard B-17F 41-24454 lost on the 13th June 1942;
ENS. Philip Kirk Phillis O-251356 USNR and AAM2c. Paul Munroe Mannon 6603207 USN who were a 2nd Pilot and Gunner respectively from a VPB-52 "Black Cats" PBY-5A Catalina #8428 which was lost on the 20th November 1943.
The investigation team were of the opinion, in light of the discoveries that were made, that the total number of prisoners murdered at Matupi over the whole period must have been at least one hundred (100) and likely to be many more.
With one exception none of the Japanese directly responsible for the murders of Allied airmen in this area were brought to trial. These known criminals can be divided into various classes:
Died or killed in action before end of war;
Committed suicide to avoid arrest, e.g. Rear Admiral (Kaigun-shōshō) FUJITA who was responsible for the murder of Flt Lt. William Ellis Newton VC, 250748 RAAF and Rear Admiral (Kaigun-shōshō) KIYAMA who was responsible for some of the murders at RABAUL;
Because of the cunning with which the Japanese had covered their tracks sufficient evidence had not been obtained when investigations closed;
Criminals that were still alive and at large against whom sufficient evidence of guilt had been obtained.
(1) Godfrey E. Hemsworth was Co-Pilot to Raymond John Paul Parer in the 1934 Centenary Air Race from England to Melbourne, Australia. Their Fairy Fox I, G-ACXO was withdrawn from the Race at Paris and eventually reached Melbourne on the 13th February 1935.
The MacRobertson Trophy Air Race, also known as the London to Melbourne Air Race took place in October 1934 as part of the Melbourne Centenary celebrations.
Also with Parer, he was a pioneer of the use of Aircraft to open up the goldfields and other areas of Papua New Guinea, until he joined the RAAF at the commencement of WWII.
The Air Force Cross (AFC) was awarded to Flt Lt. Hemsworth whilst serving with 32 Sqn, RAAF (London Gazette dated 11th June 1942).
Burial details:
Above: The Port Moresby Memorial (Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Crimes Commission (CWGC))
Sqn Ldr. Godfrey Ellard Hemsworth AFC. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 9, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 2nd January 1910 in Double Bay, New South Wales. Son of Godfrey and Mabel Hemsworth, of Collaroy, New South Wales.
Sgt. Jack Ronald Coulter. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 9, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 7th July 1916 in Prospect, South Australia. Son of Alfred John and Lavinia May Coulter, of Black Forest, South Australia.
Plt Off. Leopold Guy McClintock. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 9, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 6th June 1917 in Mayfield, New South Wales. Son of Mr. and Mrs. E. R. McClintock, of Manly, New South Wales.
Cpl. Colin Marsden. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 19, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 20th July 1919 in Bathurst, New South Wales. Son of William and Marion Ada Marsden, of Merewether, New South Wales.
LAC. Kenneth John Arnott. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 10, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 23rd June 1918 in Kent, England. Son of Kenneth Hamilton Arnott and Ann Caroline Arnott; husband of Margaret Arnott, of Mayfield, New South Wales.
Sgt. John Percy William Bandy. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 9, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 20th December 1918 in Mildura, Victoria. Son of John and Hannah Beatrice Bandy; husband of Joyce Irene Bandy, of St. Kilda, Victoria.
LAC. Norman Robert Banvill. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 10, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 31st October 1921 in Maryborough, Queensland. Son of Walter James Banvill and Jean Duncan Banvill, of Maryborough, Queensland.
LAC. Eric Dorman. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 10, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 20th March 1919 in Penrith, New South Wales. Son of William and Ethel Louisa Dorman.
LAC. Erwin Bruce Brown. Port Moresby Memorial Panel 10, Papua New Guinea. Born on the 5th May 1917 in Sydney, New South Wales. Son of Charles and Christina Isabel Brown, of Darlinghurst, New South Wales.
Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the crew and their families (Dec 2024).
Other sources listed below:
RS 03.12.2024 - Initial upload
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