MAYLANDS HISTORICAL AND PENINSULA ASSOCIATION

VH-AXM

The aircraft that would eventually be registered as VH-AXM was constructed as a Douglas C-47A-20-DL (manufacturer’s construction number 9350) at the Douglas plant in Long Beach, California in April 1943.

It was allocated the U. S. serial number 42-23488 and delivered to the United States Army Air Force (USAAF)  on 8 April 1943.

In Australia and New Guinea in WWII

1943 continued to be an eventful year for this aircraft, which:

• arrived at Archerfield airport near Brisbane and was delivered to the 5th Air Force on 24 May, 
• was damaged at Fenton during a bombing raid on the airfield by Japanese aircraft on 30 June,
• was transferred to Wards Strip, Port Moresby in September, and
• was damaged at Gusap, New Guinea during a strafing raid by Japanese fighters on 6 November.

In July 1944, it was transferred to Finschafen with 39th Troop Carrier Squadron.

After WWII, it and thousands of other thousands of retired ex-USAAF fighters, bombers and transports were stored at Clarke Field in Manila, while the US Foreign Liquidation Commission office in Manila worked to dispose of these surplus aircraft.

As an Australian aircraft

In June 1946, the Australian Department of Civil Aviation (DCA) gave MacRobertson Miller Airlines (MMA) approval to purchase surplus C-47s from the USAAF pool at Clark Field in the Philippines. As Clark Field was still under US wartime administration, MMA’s Chief Pilot Cyril Kleinig and Chief Engineer Frank Colquhoun had to get a US government permit to go there and use USAAF air transport to get there.

The aircraft selected by MMA’s Kleinig and Colquhoun was still configured as a troop carrier, when it was test flown at Clarke Field by Cyril Kleinig on 6  June 1946. MMA then had to get approval from USAAF Tokyo Headquarters Command to purchase that specific aircraft.

On its official Date-of-Disposal of 31 July 31 1946, MMA’s chosen C-47 departed Clarke Field for the ferry flight from Manila to Perth  (via Tacloban, Darwin, Broome and Carnarvon) arriving in Perth on 1 August 1946. Aboard were Captain Cyril Kleinig, F/O B. Horan (A.N.A.) and Engineer Frank Colquhoun.

The aircraft was converted to civilian standards as a DC-3C-S1C3G with seating for 21 passengers, but its original double rear doors were retained to enable it to carry freight. It was  the first DC-3 owned by MMA (before the US Foreign Liquidation Commission began its large scale disposal of C-47s, MMA arranged to lease the DC-3 VH-AEU from DCA from 1945 under the scheme where  DCA had purchased 12 Douglas C-47s from the US Army Air Force and leased them to airlines in Australia as civilian DC-3s).

MMA’s new DC-3 was entered onto the Australian Aircraft Register as VH-AXM (CofR 1260) on 11 March 1947 and named ‘RMA Fitzroy’, with the letters RMA indicating that it was a Royal Mail Aircraft.

VH-AXM entered service with MMA on 25 March 1947 on the Perth-Derby route (via Carnarvon, Onslow, Port Hedland and Broome).

With its DC3s in service, MMA moved its passenger, freight and postal services away from Maylands Aerodrome to the new Perth Airport at Guildford.

On 4 October 1947, VH-AXM flew MMA’s first International charter flight (Perth, Broome, Darwin, Koepang, Surabaya, Singapore, Penang, Rangoon, Calcutta) to pick-up the Indian Cricket Team for their Australian Tour. The return flight departed Calcutta on 8 October 1947 with Flight crew: Capt Cyril Kleinig, F/O Arthur Budd,  F/E Frank Colquhoun and the Indian Cricket Team aboard.

The Indian Cricket Team play the Western Australian State Eleven on 17, 18 20 and 21 October before leaving for the Eastern States to play out their Test Match Series.

When the ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) prohibited the use of the ‘AX’ registration block, VH-AXM was reregistered as VH-BXM on 26 November  1948. It was then reregistered again on 14 December 14 1948,  this time as VH-MME, as MMA had begun to standardise on using the VH-MM series for its aircraft.

On 2 July 1949, VH-MME took off in rain from Perth Airport for the night flight to Carnarvon some 800 km to the north of Perth. Only minutes after takeoff, it dived into the ground at the South Guildford Housing Camp sited on a former army camp killing all 18 people on board (Capt W.G. Norman, F/O H. Jackson-Vassie,  Supernumerary Capt E. C. Langford, Hostess S. J. Seymour and 14 passengers). Although there was no explosion on impact, the fuel tanks ruptured and the wreckage caught fire. Except for the rudder, tailwheel and some freight, the aircraft was destroyed in that fire, which took some 90 minutes to put out.  This was one of the worst civil airline accidents in Australia at that time and Western Australia’s worst civil airline accident.

VH-MME was cancelled from the Australian Aircraft Register on 4 July 1949 and the crash of VH-MME led DCA to closely monitor MMA’s operational procedures.

For more information

Our Frank Colquhoun collection includes:

• FC 542. B&W photograph. 1947. The crew of the DC3 VH-AXM for the charter to India. (L-R) F/O Arthur Budd, Flight Engineer Frank Colquhoun and Captain CN Kleinig.This image also appears on page 144 of Frank Colquhoun’s 2001 book Cockpit and Spanner
• FC 550. B&W photograph. 1947. The MMA DC3 VH-AXM used for the charter flight to India to pick up the Indian Test cricket team to play in Australia. The aircraft is standing on the steel panel parking area at Kalang Airport. Such panel material was commonly used on wartime airstrips throughout Northern Australia and the islands. This image also appears on page 143 of Frank Colquhoun’s 2001 book Cockpit and Spanner

See our VH-AXM Flickr Album for digitised images and other digitised information.