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WWII PLANE WRECKAGE NEWLY DISCOVERED ON BROOME BATTLEFIELD FEARED STOLEN

ABC Kimberley
/

By Ben Collins

Posted 55mminutes agoSatSaturday 14 NovNovember 2020 at 11:58am

What's left of a Dutch Dornier flying boat, 75 years after it was destroyed by a
Japanese air raid on Broome.(Supplied: Stephen Van Der Mark)
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Part of a flying boat destroyed by Japanese fighter planes in Broome in 1942 has
gone missing before a salvage operation was able to collect the wreckage.


KEY POINTS:

 * There's concern a piece of a newly-discovered WWII-era aircraft wreck has
   been stolen
 * The RSL says the multiple aircraft wrecks near Broome are war graves, and
   need better protection

 * The air raids on Broome were the war's second deadliest attack on the
   Australian mainland

While not as well known as the Bombing of Darwin, the raids on Broome were the
second-deadliest attack on Australia's mainland during World War II.

Nine Japanese Zero fighter planes destroyed more than 20 Australian, British, US
and Dutch aircraft — among them flying boats at anchor in Roebuck Bay, with
other planes destroyed at the airport or shot out of the air.

The number of dead remains uncertain due to poor records at the time, but it is
thought to be at least 80, with more than 20 of these being children fleeing the
Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies, now Indonesia.

Some wrecks of the flying boats become visible on the very low tides in Broome,
and sightseers regularly walk up to a kilometre across mudflats to see one of
Australia's few preserved WWII battlefields.


A piece of WWII aeroplane wreckage on the Broome mudflat that has since
disappeared, feared stolen.(Supplied: Wil Thomas)

But in September, Broome History tour guide Wil Thomas came across some wreckage
not previously recorded.

"In a certain part of Roebuck Bay, a piece of aircraft has surfaced through the
mud," Mr Thomas said.

"We realised it was a significant piece of aircraft, it still had camouflage
paint on it … it's got bullet holes in it and it looks to me like there is a
large section of it missing, which is probably a cannon projectile that has
taken it off."

Thought to be part of the fuselage of a Catalina flying boat, used by many
nations' air forces in WWII, a plan was hatched to preserve the roughly
one-by-two-metre section.

"With much consultation with the Broome Museum and a couple of aviation history
buffs, we decided we should remove it and preserve it and at the end of the day
put it in the museum," Mr Thomas said.

"But certain things have to be lined up: it's been in salt water for 76 years so
it has to go in a tank of fresh water."


A photograph of an unrelated Catalina flying boat with marks showing what part
of the aircraft the wreckage is believed to have come from.(Supplied: Wil
Thomas)


FEARED STOLEN

Only revealed by very low tides every alternate week, when Mr Thomas returned to
the location of the wreckage to prepare for its salvage, he found that it had
disappeared and there were signs that it and other items in the area had been
dug up.

"I went out to continue on the recce on this piece and to see how much work was
needed to get it out, and it was gone," he said.

Mr Thomas had also seen part of an old pearling lugger's anchor next to the
plane wreckage and this had also been dug up.

"A tidal movement wouldn't push a 10kg lump of iron out into the middle of the
stream, which leads me to believe that someone's been there," Mr Thomas said.

> "They probably considered it to be rubbish — no-one would recognise what it is
> — and [thought] it might look good on their shed wall.

"The reality is that it's a major historical piece and there is a law in place
that says wreckage has to be left where it is."


Broome history guide Wil Thomas helps Theo Doorman and his wife Gonne search for
the wreck of a Catalina flying boat destroyed in the 1942 Japanese air raid.(ABC
Kimberley: Andrew Seabourne)


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RSL DEEPLY CONCERNED BY VANDALISM

RSL WA Branch chief executive and former Broome resident John McCourt said the
potential theft was deeply disappointing.

"It looks like someone has decided to souvenir it," he said.

> "Some may call it that, but I consider it historic robbery."

Mr McCourt said there would be merit in pursuing state and federal options to
ensure the site was better protected.

But he said it needed to start with visitors and members of the community
showing more respect.


AWM 009453. Catalinas fly in formation during World War II.(Supplied: Australian
War Memorial)

"It was an incident in war where many men, women and children were gunned down
by the enemy and that's where they laid," Mr McCourt said.

> "Our military history is not for sale, people should leave things where they
> find them."

Back in the Kimberley, Mr Thomas believes a more permanent display of some of
the artefacts at Broome Museum could help educate the community and visitors.

"It's value historically to the town of Broome is really important, but
historically to the world it's really important because it tells the story of
what happened here," Mr Thomas said.

"And if it was to be preserved and displayed on a wall of the museum here in
Broome then it goes further in advancing the story that we believe needs to get
out about what happened here on March 3, 1942."

Posted 55mminutes agoSatSaturday 14 NovNovember 2020 at 11:58am
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DARK




LIVE: TRUMP SAYS 'TIME WILL TELL' WHO TAKES OFFICE IN JANUARY




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BORDER FALLS


analysis


LOOK BEHIND MORRISON'S GLOBAL HEADLINES: WE'RE SEEING THE SAME PROBLEM AGAIN AND
AGAIN




DID THIS TEENAGER WANDER INTO THE MALAYSIAN JUNGLE OR WAS SHE ABDUCTED FROM HER
BED?




AS CASE NUMBERS ROSE, REPUBLICANS BECAME LESS CONCERNED ABOUT COVID-19




WITH TRUMP SET TO WIN NORTH CAROLINA, HERE'S WHAT'S HAPPENING IN THE OTHER KEY
STATES




VICTORIA RECORDS 15TH-STRAIGHT DAY OF ZERO NEW CORONAVIRUS CASES




LIVE: US RECORDS ENTIRE WEEK OF MORE THAN 100,000 NEW COVID-19 CASES PER DAY




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   Posted 50mminutes agoSatSaturday 14 NovNovember 2020 at 12:03pm


 * 'HISTORICAL ROBBERY': WWII PLANE WRECKAGE NEWLY DISCOVERED ON BROOME
   BATTLEFIELD FEARED STOLEN
   
   Posted 55mminutes agoSatSaturday 14 NovNovember 2020 at 11:58am


 * BIDEN BRINGS IN NATIONAL SECURITY EXPERTS, WITH TRUMP STILL KEEPING HIM IN
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   Posted 1hhour agoSatSaturday 14 NovNovember 2020 at 11:32am


 * NSW GOES A WEEK WITHOUT LOCALLY ACQUIRED COVID CASES
   
   Posted 1hhour agoSatSaturday 14 NovNovember 2020 at 11:27am

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