A RECOLLECTION BY GLENN GILLIS OF GALSTON
I well remember as a 5 year old sitting next to my Grandfather in Church on 13 June 1953. Grandfather, Joe Gillis was sitting beside the window when we all heard a screeching in the sky.
Grandpa looked out the window and saw a Mustang fighter plane nose diving towards the ground. This curious boy could not see the plane, but we all heard the big BANG as it hit the ground.
We rushed home to our property in Cobah Road, Arcadia and found the wreckage about 200metres from our property, in what is now Henstock Road.
It was fascinating to see the crater in the ground about 2m deep and 5m wide. Bits of the plane were scattered over an area of about 400m and I observed gory bits and pieces of Roderick Norman, the pilot, scattered around and hanging from tree branches.
Those graphic scenes are still clear in my mind after 70 years. Apparently the pilot went too high, blacked out, falling forwards onto his joy stick.
Dad had an orchard at the time and a tractor which had the same wheels as those on the plane. While the RAAF came to investigate and clean up the site, they left many parts behind and Dad ended up using one of the Mustang’s wheels on his tractor trailer.
There was so much wreckage left, I guess it has either been covered up or disintegrated by now.
