Frank McTaggart survived a Liberator bomber crash in 1943

A US Army Air Force Liberator bomber crashed into a convoy of trucks carrying Australian troops at Port Moresby in the early hours of September 7, 1943.

The crash, at Jackson's Airfield, claimed the lives of 73 men - 60 Australian soldiers, two Army truck drivers and the aircraft's 11 crew. Another 90 soldiers were injured.

The 80th anniversary of the accident fell on Thursday.

Mr McTaggart, a Hunter Valley cattle farmer, commanded platoons in Syria, the Kokoda Trail and the New Guinea jungle.

He had previously been wounded in the neck and chest, but recovered.

His service, though, ended after the plane crashed into his truck.

His daughter Carmel Geer, who grew up on the family farm at Howes Valley, said her dad was found unconscious.

The accident left him with "a big hole in his head the size of a small fist".

"A top American neurosurgeon operated on him on a stretcher in a grass hut in Port Moresby," she said.

"He never got a plate, but they put his head back together.

"His skull grew over perfectly. It never had a dent.

"He still had a very full head of hair with just a scar when he died in 1999 at age 82."

He was left virtually blind in one eye and deaf in one ear and suffered from headaches.

"It was a miracle he survived and went on to live a very good life," Mrs Geer said.

He spent a year in hospital in Australia, before returning to his farm where he married and had three kids.

"He carried on with life as usual."

Mrs Geer attended an anniversary service at the Anzac Memorial in Sydney on Thursday.

One of only two living survivors of the crash, 99-year-old Leslie Thomson was the guest of honour.

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The crash isn't well known because it was kept secret during the war on the orders of General Douglas MacArthur and General Sir Thomas Blamey for morale reasons.

Soldiers were threatened with court martial if they talked about it.

The families of the men killed weren't told about it until after the war.

The accident happened when the Liberator failed in an attempt to take off.

The aircraft crashed into five trucks in an 18-truck convoy parked at the end of the runway.

The convoy was carrying troops of the 2/33rd Australian Infantry Battalion, waiting to be taken to a nearby airfield.

They were to be flown to Nadzab in New Guinea for a battle with the Japanese to help recapture Lae.

There were horrific scenes when the Liberator hit a tree and sheared off a wing, causing fuel in the wing tank to explode.

Two of the Liberator's 500-pound bombs exploded in "a huge fireball on impact".

The area became "a sea of fire".

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