I could not find a photo of or the name of the aircraft involve in this incident so have substituted with 191 S/n 44 - 44052
Image Could Not Be Found
(Note: re this photo, 191 was built by Consolidated at Fort Worth as a B24J - 44 - 44052.)
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Darwin, the war touched
Adelaide, on August 22, 1944, when the city was "bombed" … by our allies. A dozen homes in West Parkway, Colonel Light Gardens, became the target when the bomb bay doors of a US Liberator bomber opened accidentally. It was not explosives that rained down but crates of oranges, cartons of Coke and bottles of beer.
After the take-off in the B-24D
the pilot 1st Lt H Woodward decided to “buzz”
Adelaide. Unfortunately when he pulled up sharply the resulting “G” forces caused the wooden racks on which the groceries were stacked to break. As the bomb doors were rigged to give way at 100lbs of pressure, the groceries smashed their way out and
Adelaide was “bombed” by eggs, oranges, jam, beer, coca cola and other liqueurs etc, . The crates and bottles smashed holes in roofs, burst through fences, tore limbs from trees, and littered the ground with fragments of glass.
The bomber was part of the USAF 380th Squadron based at Fenton NT, which ran a flight service that became known as " fat cat" runs. Outmoded D series Liberator bombers flew from
Adelaide to
Darwin carrying food and beverages for the hungry troops up North. A US airman on board the plane that bombed
Adelaide, Mr Charles Earl Edwards (now a resident of New Berlin, New
York State), recalls the day vividly.
"We were loaded up with oranges, booze and Coca-Cola. For take off everyone but me was up on the flight deck while I stood on the catwalk in the forward bay holding on to the bomb racks," he said.
Suddenly the bomb bay doors just peeled off; the temporary storage rack buckled and the entire load went out as if it had been salvoed. It was quite a sight to see case after case tumbling down with crates of oranges flying apart."
A dozen houses received the deluge. A carton of Coke demolished Mrs L.F. MacDonald's washhouse roof. A crate of beer landed in her backyard. a neighboring garden received a shower of sparkling burgundy and Father P.M. Horgan experienced a genuine case of manna from heaven as a crate of beer landed in his backyard, levelling part of his fence. No action was taken or charges were laid and the whole thing was laughed off as one of those things.
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