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At 1720 hours on 10 April 1945, Beaufort bomber A9-670 of 32 Squadron RAAF, crashed at Greenbank, SSW of Brisbane, killing the crew of four. It crashed after completing an air to ground gunnery practice exercise at the nearby Gailes Gunnery Range (also known as the Gailes Armament Range or Gailes Bombing Range) which is now part of the Greenbank Military Camp.
An unveiling Ceremony was held on 27 May 2009 at Grande Park, Grande Avenue, Springfield Lakes in Memory of the following men who were all tragically killed in this accident.
F/O Eric David Stephenson, Pilot
Flt. Sgt. Neville James Barron, Wireless Operator Air Gunner
P/O John George Harvey, Observer
LAC Raymond Patrick McGuigan, passenger
Unveiling of the Memorial by Mayor Paul Pisasale, Mayor of Ipswich, Councillor Sheila Ireland and Darlene Clark, Project Director Delfin Springfield Lakes
The "missing" Barron Family at the Beaufort Bomber Memorial ceremony.
L to R:- Monica Barron (sister-in-law), Maree Wylie (nee Barron - niece),
Neil Barron (nephew), Sandra Kerr, Jack McClelland (brother-in-law) and
Garry Burton (nephew). Except for Sandra Kerr, all are related (as indicated)
to the late Flt. Sgt. Neville James Barron
Congratulations to Don Clark who confirmed with me that he was the half millionth visitor to my "Australia @ War" web site at 8:20 pm on 26 May 2009 (US Time).
A copy of the "Australia @ War" Data DVD will be in the mail to Don for being the 500,000th visitor to the main page.
Regards Peter Dunn
Webmaster of the "Australia @ War" web site.
Gidday ALL,
My "Australia @ War" web site started on 22 June 1996. I just noticed a while ago that the counter for the front page was 499, 372 so in a few days time it will have its half millionth visitor.
I'd like to point out that this is a counter for visitors just to that page only. It is not a site counter, just a page counter. These days I usually get somewhere between 70 and 100 visitors a day to the main front page. I now have well over 5,000 different web pages in the "Australia @ War" web site.
www.ozatwar.com
If you do happen to be the half millionth visitor to the site, send me a screen shot. Just press the "Print Screen" button and paste it into an e-mail or save it as a file and attach it to an e-mail.
Send it to me and I'll send you a complimentary copy of my "Australia @ War" Data DVD.Regards Peter Dunn
RAAF B-24 Liberator
RAAF Spitfire
On 18 September 1944, Flying Officer Arthur Keith Kelly (401968) of 452 Squadron RAAF, piloting Spitfire A58-435, was taking part in an interception and attack exercise on B-24 Liberator #42-40935 of the 380th Bomb Group, 5th Air Force over Cape Van Diemen. During a head on simulated attack, F/O Kelly's Spitfire collided with the B-24 and spiralled into the sea. His body was never found.
RAAF Tiger Moth
I already had a web page on this crash and at that stage I knew that the pilot, Captain "Hoot" Bevlock, had been killed in this crash and his passenger had bailed out safely. There was a suggestion that the Tiger Moth had collided with another aircraft.
I went through the photos I had received earlier in the week and found two photos of "Hoot" Bevlock and then to my amazement I found a photo of a Tiger Moth at Ross River Airfield in Townsville with the following caption written in pencil on the back of the photo:-
"Bill Bennett - standing. 'Hoot' Bevlock in Gypsy Moth, Ross River, Townsville, Aust. August 1942. 'Hoot' was killed in this plane same day picture was taken. Collided with a P-39 flown by Lt. Grover Gholson."The above caption incorrectly stated that it was a Gypsy Moth and also stated that the crash was in August 1942 rather than on 10 September 1942. This caption did however confirm that the Tiger Moth had collided with a P-39 Airacobra piloted by Lt. Grover Gholson.So this would have been the last photograph taken of "Hoot" Bevlock sitting in the Tiger Moth on the day that he was killed.
I have now added the new photos and added some more information about the crash to the following web site.
www.ozatwar.com/ozcrashes/qld133.htm.
Unveiling of the Memorial by Mayor Paul Pisasale, Mayor of Ipswich, Councillor 
