Vultee Vengeance Mystery

On Sunday 27 August 1944, a RAAF Vultee Vengeance dive bomber went missing on a training flight from Pearce near Perth. The plane had apparently become lost and run out of fuel.

The RAAF started a search between New Norcia and Moora without any luck. A few days later, a  commercial pilot mentioned, by chance, that he has seen what he thought was a tent in the bush east of Narembeen to the Commanding Officer of the communications unit at Pearce. Using this tip off, the next morning a bomber identified a parachute in the area by no sign of life. A large number of soldiers from Northam were sent in from Northam.

Four days after the crash, the pilot (Warrant Officer J Ingram) was found at a remote farmhouse having survived by eating goanna. On realising that he was nearly out of fuel, the pilot had warned the navigator (Flt/Sgt CL King) to bale out and conducted the necessary roll to allow him to do so. The pilot then climbed to the required height and baled out himself. On landing, there was no sign of navigator King so he headed west until he found the farmhouse.

A huge effort was mounted to try and locate King and the aircraft. The wreckage was finally discovered 6 days later – the engine was buried ten feet into the ground and strewn over 10 acres of thick scrub. The navigator, Flt/Sgt CL King was never found.

After the war, his father travelled from the eastern states and enlisted the help of Holtfreter to make another search for his lost son, but to no avail.

A plaque has been placed to mark the sight of the crash.

Further information is available to read at the Yilgarn History Museum or in the book “Vengeance of the Outback” written by Charles Page (available for purchase through the Shire of Yilgarn).

Please note: Access is currently restricted due to the closure of King Ingram Road.