Browning Mk II aircraft machine gun recovered from Boomerang A46-134: Flying Officer Eric Robert Staley, 4 Squadron RAAF

Place Oceania: New Guinea1, Papua New Guinea
Accession Number REL24796
Collection type Technology
Object type Firearm
Physical description Aluminium, Iron
Place made Canada
Date made 1942
Conflict Second World War, 1939-1945
Description

Browning Mk II* .303 inch recoil operated aircraft machine gun. The barrel and shroud are attached. The electric firing solenoid is present along with the cocking handle assembly. There is an extracted round still attached to the extractor. The gun is complete but rusted out. Stamped into the breech cover is 'BROWNING - MK.II* OT 8060 INGLIS 1942'.

History / Summary

This Browning Mk II aircraft machine gun was recovered in 1981 from the wreck of a Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation (CAC) CA-13 Boomerang aircraft (A46-134) which crashed on 31 December 1943 near Kankiryo on Shaggy Ridge in north eastern New Guinea. The pilot, 401679 Flight Lieutenant Eric Robert (Bob) Staley of 4 Squadron, RAAF, was killed in the crash.

Staley was born on 14 August 1911 in Bristol, England. He enlisted as an aircraftman on 28 March 1941 in Melbourne and was posted to 2 Initial Training School. He was commissioned pilot officer in November and promoted to flying officer in May 1942. Staley served with various training units in Australia before joining 4 Squadron at Bomana, New Guinea on 1 August 1943. He was Mentioned in Dispatches for a dangerous flying mission in which he delivered captured enemy documents detailing the evacuation plans and routes of the Japanese Army’s 51 Division withdrawal from Lae. Staley was promoted to flight lieutenant on 17 November. During an artillery reconnaissance flight in the Mount Kubari area on 31 December, Staley’s aircraft crashed, without explanation, into the side of a hill and caught fire. The following day the crash site was located by a patrol from B Troop, 2/6 Australian Cavalry Commando Squadron who buried Staley’s body nearby. He was later interred at the Lae War Cemetery.

In the last letter he wrote to his wife, earlier that day, he said 'today is the last of 1943. I wonder what will happen next year.... From tomorrow I will be up with the forward troops for a week.'