Pilot Officer OHLMEYER Jamberoo

About

The Memorial is a concrete stone inscribed with details of Pilot Officer Ohlmeyer's accident, It is enclosed by a white fence. The Memorial is in a paddock behind 362 Fountaindale Road on PRIVATE PROPERTY, and situated between 2 power transmission lines running up the hill.  Pilot Officer Robert John "Jack" OHLMEYERwas a young RAAF Pilot Officer who crashed shortly after 3pm on Thursday 23rd November 1939 in the Jamberoo area whilst on a solo training-flight flying Hawker Demon A1-62 from 3 Squadron RAAF Base Richmond.     From the "Kiama Independent" Saturday 25/11/1939: Mr. Wallace Alexander, jnr., who was working near Wallaby Hill, saw the plane go over in a southerly direction, and then he momentarily lost sight of it behind a cloud.  Only a few seconds later, he saw it again, nose-diving to the earth, with the pilot following it, his parachute not then fully open.   Mr. Alexander, with several others, rode over to the scene of the accident, and found that the pilot had landed about a hundred yards away from the wreckage of his machine.  He was unable to speak, and died within a few seconds.  His parachute was torn, and a large piece of it ripped away.  The plane had struck the ground with terrific force, being buried almost to behind the wings.  Petrol and oil and pieces of machinery were scattered over a wide area.  Another observer, standing near the Jamberoo Factory Lane, had heard the note of the engine change from the normal throbbing to a kind of scream... The body of the pilot was removed by Ambulance to the Kiama Hospital Morgue, and a police guard was placed at the scene of the accident.  RAAF officers and men later came down and took charge. The late Pilot Officer Ohlmeyer, who came from Clare, South Australia, was attached to the Air Force Station at Richmond.  He had recently completed a training course at Point Cook, and was on an authorised flight from Richmond, to which station he was scheduled to return.  The RAAF Court of Enquiry was opened yesterday, when an officer visited the scene of the accident, and also obtained statements from various eye-witnesses.  The wreckage of the plane was salvaged and removed to Sydney.  It was announced that the late Pilot-Officer Ohlmeyer would be buried with full military honours.  From the "Kiama Reporter" Wednesday 29/11/1939:  Yesterday morning (Tuesday 28/11/1939), apparently synchronising with the funeral in his home (town of Clare) State of South Australia, a number of RAAF planes flew over the scene of the accident, circling very low and dipping in salute to their last tribute of respect to a gallant comrade who had paid the supreme sacrifice for his country and had died on active service.  A wreath was also dropped on the site from one of the planes.  A fund is being established at Jamberoo under the auspices of the Returned Soldiers' League for the erection of a suitable memorial at Fountaindale on the site of the plane crash in which Pilot Officer Ohlmeyer was killed.