LEST WE FORGET
Flying Officer Ronald Leonard HURLEY
Service No: 33320
Born: Leichardt NSW, 20 January 1915
Enlisted in the RAAF: 20 August 1940
Unit: No. 76 Squadron
Died: Aircraft Accident (No. 76 Squadron Kittyhawk aircraft A29-343), near Dibiri Island PNG, 18 June 1944, Aged 29 Years
Buried: Port Moresby (Bomana) War Cemetery PNG
CWGC Additional Information: Son of Patrick and Mary Maud Hurley; husband of Florence Lilian Hurley, of Bondi, New South Wales.
Roll of Honour: Unknown
Remembered: Panel 104, Commemorative Area, Australian War Memorial, Canberra ACT
On 18 June 1944, Kittyhawk A29-343 flown by Flying Officer Hurley in company with Group Captain Gordon Henry Steege DSO DFC (O34059) (Discharged: 31 October 1972) flying Kittyhawk A29-359 and Flying Officer Paul Francis Sebire (405026 (Discharged: 15 February 1946) flying Spitfire A58-l75 took off from Momote for Horn Island. Approaching the Fly River at 15,000 feet, Group Captain Steege’s aircraft appeared to develop engine trouble and began to lose height. His aircraft continued to descend and Hurley and Sebire followed him down, until he forced landed on a beach on Dibiri Island at the mouth of the Fly River. The two aircraft circled while Steege wrote instructions on the sand, then with Hurley leading, both aircraft set off for Horn Island. The aircraft were at about 100 feet and Sebire was behind Hurley and overtaking him, when he noticed A29-343 getting lower and lower until it struck the sea. Sebire circled the spot where A29-343 had gone in but there was no sign of Hurley. Sebire’s own engine was cutting in and out and running roughly and without radio contact, he doubted if he could make it to Horn island, so he returned to Dibiri Island and landed A58-l75 on the beach. Group Captain Steege then contacted Radio Cooktown on his aircraft’s set and we they were picked up by a Catalina on 20 June and flown to Port Moresby. Flying Officer Hurley’s body was later washed ashore and was buried on the island. In 1946, Flying Officer Hurley’s body was exhumed and he was buried with full military honours in Port Moresby.
References:
Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour On-Line Records (RAAF Casualty Information compiled by Alan Storr (409804))
Commonwealth War Graves Commission On-Line Records
Department of Veterans’ Affairs On-Line WWII Nominal Roll
National Archives of Australia On-Line Record A705, 166/18/381; A9845, 10