The aircraft was en route from Townsville to Brisbane with a scheduled stop in Rockhampton.[2] The crash is believed to be caused by a fire in one engine, which caused an explosion, destroying part of the aircraft and causing it to disintegrate and crash.[1][3]
Due to wartime censorship, there was very little press coverage of the accident, with the few newspaper articles that were published focusing on the non-combatants on-board such as Harold Dick (war photographer), Nigel James MacDonald (YMCA) and William Tibbs (Salvation Army).[5][6][7] However, those stories only mentioned that they had been "killed in a plane accident" with no specific details about the disaster.[5][6][7]
Canal Creek war memorial
With many locals still unaware of the disaster and no historic marker in its place, Yeppoon resident John Millroy began campaigning in 2011-2012 for a permanent memorial at the crash site to commemorate those who died.[1][8] After securing $14,000 in government funding, a monument was unveiled by World War II servicemen Neville Hewitt and Yeppoon RSL president Wayne Carter on 16 June 2012.[9][10] Rockhampton mayor Margaret Strelow and Queensland GovernorPenelope Wensley attended the ceremony.[9] Wensley said it was good the tragedy was being remembered while Strelow praised Millroy for his part in organising the memorial.[9]
Annual memorial services are now held at the crash site.[11] A 75th anniversary commemoration was held in 2018.[12][13]
2nd Lieutenant William Randall "Randy" Crecelius was born on November 21, 1918 in Gibson County, Indiana. He was the first of five children born to Henry Crecelius and Maude Miley Crecelius.
Crecelius enlisted in the United States Army Air Corps on September 26, 1940. He was eventually assigned to the 22nd Troop Carrier Squadron, 374th Troop Carrier Group. This Squadron operated the Douglas C-47 Skytrain in the South West Pacific Area (SWPA) during the war.
He was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross on May 29, 1943. His citation included the following: "He took part in more than fifty missions, dropping supplies and transporting troops over territory that was continually patrolled by enemy fighter aircraft. Often landings were made on fields only a few miles from Japanese bases. These operations aided considerably in the recent success in this theatre."[18]
After his death, it took more than four years to return his body to the United States. He was buried on March 11, 1948 in the family plot of Warnock Cemetery in Princeton, Indiana.
^"Canal Creek Memorial Service". Department of Defence. Australian Government. 24 July 2015. Archived from the original on 27 August 2019. Retrieved 27 August 2019.
^ abO'Brien, Mary (2013). The 1943 Canal Creek Air Crash and other aircraft disasters in Central Queensland during WW2. Capricorn Host Historical Society.
