"Some of our Airmen are no longer missing"
From RAAF Wings Journal, June 1987

On June 25, 1942 seven Bristol Beaufort bombers of No. 100 Squadron, RAAF, set off from bases at Mareeba, near Cairns, and Port Moresby to attack Japanese shipping and positions at Lae and Salamaua in New Guinea. One of the aircraft, A9-52 under the command of Squadron Leader Charles Sage, a pre-war RAAF pilot, failed to return to base.

It was not until January 1987 that the Royal Australian Air Force could tell the families of Squadron Leader Sage and Flying Officer Joseph Wormald, the observer, two of the crew of the ill-fated aircraft, that they were no longer missing in action.
Five of the seven Beauforts briefed for the attack flew from Mareeba to Port Moresby where they were joined by two other aircraft from the squadron, one flown by Squadron Leader Sage, the other by Flight Lieutenant Lloyd 'Smokey' Douglas. Both Sage and Douglas had been sent to Port Moresby earlier to undertake anti-submarine patrols. The target the Beauforts were after was a 4,000 ton Japanese ship, the Tenyo Maru, that had been reported approaching Lae. The attacking aircraft did find the target and sank it and the results of their work can still be seen off Lae today.

The success of their comrades meant that Squadron Leader Sage and Flight Lieutenant Douglas went to Salamaua as a diversion to dive bomb targets there from a height of 1500 feet. Mr. Douglas, now retired and living in Canberra, did not see his friend Charlie Sage after takeoff from Port Moresby.

“I dropped my stick of bombs (he was carrying four 250 pound (112kg) bombs) on the airstrip and then made four or five strafing runs to empty my guns, this took about five minutes. I do not remember any anti-aircraft fire," he said. Mr. Douglas' logbook reveals that June 25 and 26 were busy days. He flew an anti-submarine patrol during the day that lasted six hours ten minutes and then took part in the raid on Salamaua, leaving Port Moresby about 1 am and returning just over five hours later.

His return to Port Moresby was uneventful and he and his crew returned to Mareeba later that day but for Squadron Leader Sage it was a different matter. At 3.44am on the morning of June 26 Squadron Leader Sage contacted Port Moresby for navigational help. He was unsure of his position and asked for a bearing from Port Moresby.

Using his radio signal Port Moresby was able to place him northwest of the town. Fourteen minutes later he was given another bearing that suggested he was over the sea to the west of Port Moresby. The bearing transmission was not acknowledged but the pilot later requested that searchlights be displayed to aid him. Radar was unable to locate the aircraft.

The request for searchlights was the last heard from the aircraft. In the morning four American Airacobra fighters and two 100 Squadron Beauforts searched without success for the missing aircraft. Charles Sage, Joseph Wormald and the aircraft's two gunners, Sergeant Douglas Desmond and Flight Sergeant Charles Patterson, were the first Beaufort crew to die on operations in the South West Pacific Area in WW2.
And they remained missing in action until November 1987 when, as a result of advice from Papua New Guinea citizens to the Australian Defence Staff in Port Moresby, Mr. Jock Ross of the RAAF Historical Section in Canberra received a phone call from the Air Force's Casualty Section.

"They told me that some aircraft wreckage had been found in the Tapini area, some 60 miles (100klrns) north-west of Port Moresby and that the identification numbers of the wreck were still legible," he said. "But I was a little confused when the number they quoted began with the letter 'T'. You see, all Australian military aircraft in World War 2 had registration numbers beginning with the letter 'A'. To add to my confusion the roundel on the aircraft had a yellow border".

I thought what have we here? until I remembered that the early Beauforts, built by Bristol in England, had been handed over from RAF stocks to the RAAF, their British registrations and markings painted over, and allocated RAAF registrations".
"I went and checked the Beaufort lists and looked up T9604, the number quoted to me and that showed the aircraft to be A9-52". Years of exposure to tropical extremes had weathered away the RAAF markings to expose the earlier British markings, which also explained the yellow surround on the roundel.

Not long after Jock Ross was told about A9-52, a Chinook helicopter of No. 12 Squadron, RAAF, on detachment in PNG, went to the wreck site to attempt confirmation of the wreck. Weather conditions, the terrain and the lack of a suitable jungle clearing restricted the big helicopter's access to a close hover but the crew were able to confirm its registration as T9604 and that human remains possibly existed. Forty-four years is a long time to be missing yet to the RAAF it was only a minor obstacle. The task of co-ordinating a RAAF party to go to the site, the recovery of the remains and tracking down relatives of the four crew fell to the RAAF's Staff Officer Special Projects Wing Commander Phil Morrall.

RAAF Operational Command at Glenbrook, near Sydney, organised a recovery party to go to Papua New Guinea in January to visit the site and recover what remains they could," he said. It was not an easy task. The aircraft had crashed into a mountain with a 70 degree slope that made getting to the site during the rainy season difficult, if not hazardous, at times. The terrain was so rugged that the party had to be inserted and removed from the site by helicopter.

'They recovered some human remains and confirmed that the aircraft was Beaufort A9-52. it was a difficult task but the help we received from the PNG authorities and the Australian Defence Staff in Port Moresby was invaluable. The recovery team deserve praise for a task well done".

What the team discovered at the crash site was that the aircraft was heading inland, with its undercarriage down, when it crashed into the mountain. No human remains were found in the aft turret, which suggests that all four crew were in the forward section of the aircraft possibly looking for the lights of Port Moresby when the crash occurred.

The party was unable to find the wings and one engine, suggesting that the wings were sheared off by trees before the fuselage struck the mountain.

It was the last task, finding the next of kin, that I thought would be the most difficult but I had not counted on the resourcefulness, contacts and hard work of the RAAF Police".

Working only with information from the four airmen's original personnel files. Still retained by the RAAF, the RAAF Police found the wives of both Squadron Leader Sage and Flying Officer Wormald but their best efforts failed to locate the relatives of Sergeants Desmond and Patterson.

Sergeant Desmond was a clerk before he enlisted at Toowoomba. He was just 19 years old when he died. Flight Sergeant Patterson came from East Brighton in Victoria and had been a clerk before joining the Air Force, having been rejected pre-war because of a medical condition. He was 24 when he died.

"We had run into a brick wall with the two sergeants until we gave the discovery some publicity in RAAF News'' The papers in Queensland picked it up and as a result we found that Sergeant Desmond's sister was alive and living in England and a nephew lived in Perth. As it happens a distant relative of Desmond's is retired Air Vice Marshal Jim Flemming".

The final step for the four dead aviators was their interment in properly marked graves and that responsibility was placed with the Australian War Graves Commission.

"The precedent has long been established that those who fall in battle in a theatre of war should be buried in an appropriate cemetery in the theatre, in this case the War Cemetery at Lae".

A formal service funeral was conducted at Lae on April 2 and the RAAF flew the wives of Squadron Leader Sage and Flying Officer Wormald and the nephew of Sergeant Desmond to Lae for the ceremony.

To some people the efforts made and resources committed to identifying the men and aircraft and locating their relatives might seem excessive but so far as the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Jake Newham, is concerned.

'It is the obligation of the nation and the Royal Australian Air Force to acknowledge the supreme sacrifice made by the crew. The efforts made by the RAAF were the very least we could do to maintain and cherish the traditions of our service. Our casualty procedures are second to none. We intend they stay that way," he said.

"For the wives and relatives of Squadron Leader Sage, Flying Officer Wormald and Sergeant Desmond we have removed the terrible uncertainty of the words 'Missing in Action". They now know what happened and where and that is, I am sure, some small comfort to them".

"To the RAAF it also means a great deal. Some of our airmen are no longer missing"

Postscript: Following publicity of the funeral, the RAAF located Flight Sergeant Patterson's brother, living in Queensland.