Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Son of Norman and Isabella McDonald.

Extract from Gillison, D.N. (Douglas Napier) (254475) Royal Australian Air Force 1939-1942, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 1962 – Pages 450-1

On the 11th three Hudsons led by Wing Commander John Margrave Lerew (73) (Commanding Officer No. 24 Squadron, flying in A16-91), with Flight Lieutenant William Pedrina (264) and Flying Officer Gibson (A16-126) piloting the others, again attacked Gasmata and made the first mast-height attack on enemy shipping in the New Guinea campaign. One of the crews put four bombs across one transport directly amidships, another made a direct hit amidships on a second transport, while the third aircraft made a low-level sweep over the first transport using incendiary ammunition which set the ship on fire. Both ships were enveloped in clouds of black smoke. As the Hudsons climbed away they were intercepted by five or six enemy fighters. Pedrina’s aircraft was attacked several times. His gunners shot down one of the aircraft in flames and probably destroyed another. The crew saw Gibson’s aircraft, with one engine on fire and enemy fighters pursuing it, dive steeply into a hillside. Gibson and his crew—Pilot Officer Thorn and Sergeants Quail and Coutie—were all killed.

Lerew was just bringing his Hudson out from the attack when his second pilot, Flying Officer Watt, reported that it was on fire. While Lerew took evasive action to throw off an enemy fighter, Watt broke the window and tried to put the flames out with a hand extinguisher. When this failed and the intensity of the fire increased, Lerew ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft. Watt and the two other crew members, Sergeants McDonald and Henry, then moved to the rear door to bale out. As the flames reached the cockpit Lerew, using the control column as a step, climbed up and tried to force himself through the window. The Hudson went into a dive so he pulled the column back with his feet, kicked the trimming tab and, as the aircraft climbed again, pushed his way through the window and baled out. In landing he fell into a tree and was suspended above the ground by his parachute with his “Mae West” life-jacket almost choking him, but he succeeded in getting free by pulling himself up into the branches of the tree. There was no sign of any of his crew. Living off the jungle, and several times evading parties of Japanese troops, he endured hunger and exhaustion until found by some friendly natives who eventually guided him to a coast watcher’s post. Nine days after he had been officially posted missing, he arrived back at Port Moresby in a schooner. The other members of the crew were lost.

The crew members of A16-91 were:

Sergeant Raymond Cherrington Henry (416181) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Wing Commander John Margrave Lerew (73) (Pilot) Baled Out, Discharged from the RAAF: 8 November 1946
Sergeant Kenneth Duirs McDonald (11095) (Wireless Air Gunner)
Flying Officer William Albert James Watt (270846) (Observer)

No. 24 Squadron lost Hudson A16-126 (Flying Officer Graham Ian Gibson (290657) (Pilot)) on 11 February 1942.