Members of the 2/6th Australian Independent Company alighting from a 5th US Army Air Force ...

Members of the 2/6th Australian Independent Company alighting from a 5th US Army Air Force (USAAF) C-47-DL transport plane ("Maxine" Serial Number 41-18585) on a rough runway on the shores of Collingwood Bay, as a preliminary move in the allied coastal advance on Buna. Identified third from right: Trooper J. Lucas, Intelligence Section, 2/6th Australian Independent Company. The bareheaded officer in the left foreground is Lieutenant P.S. Teesdale-Smith, intelligence officer, 2/10th Battalion whose task it was to clear each plane load of troops away from the runway as soon as possible in order to permit the next plane to come in and land. A minimum of movement was desirable as a Japanese air attack was expected. On 16th October 1942, weeks after this image was taken, the aircraft “Maxine” crashed whilst delivering supplies to Australian Army soldiers on the Kokoda Trail with the loss of all crew. In the War Graves Maintenance Details Unit War Diary for New Guinea [September 1943 - November 1944], it was noted that Cpl Hince of the Aust War Graves Maintenance Details Unit visited the scene of the crash in March 1944 and located two American and two Australian bodies. The Australian bodies were removed to Bomana War Cemetery in Port Moresby and identified as N38353 Pte Keith Thomas Sullivan, and N21922 Pte Joseph Thomas Waters, both of the 53rd Australian Infantry Battalion.