Peninsula's Past: Wartime action in Redcliffe’s skies

SOURCE: Redcliffe Remembers: The War Years 1939-194 and History Redcliffe.

There was an influx of American troops and aircraft in 1942 and 1943 to the Redcliffe Peninsula, during WWII but one incident in particular left a lasting impression on the locals.

The American 8th Fighter Group 35, 36 and 80 squadrons arrived in March 1942, greatly improving the defence of Brisbane.

The 80th squadron was based at Petrie but trained on the gunnery range, which is now Redcliffe Aerodrome.

This squadron lost five of its P-39 Air Cobras and four pilots during training crashes at Petrie, Brighton and on the Redcliffe Peninsula.

On April 18, 1942, an American Flying Fortress crash landed at Sandgate.

A few months later, on July 2, 1942, two Airacobras collided at Scarborough.

Lt GL Austin died instantly when his aeroplane collided with another 80th squadron aircraft while flying in formation over Redcliffe.

In his account of the incident, surviving pilot Lt Col Malcolm Sponenbergh said: “Lt Austin was the flight leader, I was his wingman. We were returning from gunnery practice, flying at about 1000ft. He gave me the standard signal to close up a little below but close in.

“We flew along for a couple of minutes, he never looked in my direction nor could I really detect any motion on his part. Then he slumped over the stick and the airplane turned into me and started diving.

“I closed the throttle and tried to turn and dive with him. Seeing that we would soon be in a vertical dive with little altitude I tried to break off, but I wasn’t quite clear of him and we collided.”

Lt Col Sponenbergh did not want to crash “in the town”, so he managed to head out to sea and bale out when crossing the shoreline. He was rescued by local fishermen and his only injury was a scrape on his cheek.

Lt Austin crashed into a local farm, and it was reported that he was likely unconscious at the time of the collision.

There were many witnesses to the crash including Bette Bray, who was a pupil at Scarborough State School that day.

“After colliding, one crashed into the sea and the other crashed into a vegetable garden owned by Mr Rossiter, just over the road from the school,” she said in the book Redcliffe Remembers: The War Years 1939-1949.

“Our school was littered with plane parts and ammunition. Miss Walker, our school teacher at the time, thought we were being attacked and told us to run to the trenches which would have been disastrous because all the bullets were flying around.

“The next thing, she was yelling for us to get under our desks … one of the doors of the plane landed right near the headmaster’s office. They were picking up bits and pieces of the plane for a long time.”

There were reports Charles Rossiter was working in his market garden, between Josephine and Silvester streets, when the aeroplane came hurtling towards him. It crashed about 100 feet from where he was removing weeds.