An early MOTAT Society project was the joint venture with the NZ Fighter Pilots Assn to provide the memorial to eight RNZAF pilots lost in January 1945 as part of an air raid on the Japanese base in Rabaul, New Guinea in World War II which is now adjacent to the Sir Keith Park Memorial Hurricane in the front of MOTAT Aviation Hall.
A US Navy veteran Marvin Birk, who was at Green Island, the RNZAF base in the Solomon Islands at the time, sponsored the memorial. The key organiser was the noted Auckland aviation identity Brian Cox, President of the NZ Fighter Pilots Assn, well known to most of the MOTAT Aviation volunteers. Brian was one of the pilots who survived the raid.
Notably at the blessing of the memorial was Mrs. Francis McConnell, the wife of F/L Frank Keefe whose parachuting into Rabaul Harbour from his burning Corsair aircraft initiated the rescue action, along with a large number of old wartime fighter colleagues.
The Society co-ordinated the function at MOTAT and donated the rock slab on which the memorial plaques are mounted. A display related to the incident was part of the museum at the time.
Family members of the lost aircrew still place flowers on the memorial each ANZAC Day.
The text on the memorial reads:
This memorial is for the memory of eight young New Zealand pilots
lost on 15th January 1945. F/L Frank Keefe bailed out from his burning
Corsair over Rabaul Harbour in the morning, and later in the day
after an unsuccessful rescue attempt, another seven pilots
crashed whilst returning to Green Island after flying into a
tropical storm in darkness. Five pilots were from No 14 Squadron
and three from No 15 Squadron. They were:
F/L F.G. Keefe F/l B.S May
F/O A.N. Saward F/Sgt L.J.Munro
F.Sgt J.S.McArthur F/L.R.F.Johnson
F/O G.Randell F/Sgt. R.W.Albrecht
F/L. Frank Keefe was captured, but died whilst prisoner two weeks later, from injuries suffered when his Corsair was hit by ACK ACK during a dive-bombing attack and caught fire.
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
Marvin Birk of Brooklyn N.Y.
who was based on
Green Island in the U.S. Navy
at the time of this loss
And also by
members of the NZ Fighter Pilots Assn
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