This aircraft is the Subject of Profile 18 in our book Forty of the Fifth in a chapter titled "Half-Century Phoenix"

"I attempt to recall events of 50 years past about a plane that I always thought would be ravaged by time and sunk out of sight if the New Guinea natives hadn't stripped it first. I have vivid memories of a time in my life that is hard to believe ever happened. I doubt I'll ever forget the days that Burke and I spent in that swamp and jungle of New Guinea and our attempts to get out"

(Big Nig's pilot Thomas Reading, in a letter to the RAAF dated 29th May 1995).

The account of Big Nig spans exactly half a century. It is the chronicle of an aircraft which was forced-landed in a New Guinea swamp, then abandoned and forgotten forever - or so it seemed. In 1994 - exactly fifty years after it was put down - the aircraft was salvaged, raised to the surface by air bags, then carried out by a giant Mi-26 Helicopter. The recovery team was delighted with their find. The aircraft was virtually intact, saved from souvenir hunters by its extreme isolation. The find was entirely due to an errant piece of Japanese flak . . .

After having been assembled in the Commonwealth Aircraft Corporation factory outside Melbourne, Australia, and flown up to New Guinea, Big Nig was assigned as a new aircraft into the 89th Bombardment Squadron in February 1944. The squadron had been the first Fifth Air Force squadron to commence operating the A-20 in the SWPA, which it did in September 1942 using early A models. The aircraft participated in a strafing attack on the Japanese stronghold of Wewak on 3rd May 1944 as part of the Fifth Air Force's ongoing mopping-up operations against the Japanese subsequent to Operation Reckless - the invasion of Hollandia. The aircraft was assigned to 1/Lt James L. Folse and fell under the mechanical eye of crew chief S/Sgt R. J. Campbell. Folse was rostered off for the mission however, and instead 2/Lt Tom Reading took Big Nig to Wewak, with S/Sgt Burke L. Cock, from Brownsville, Pennsylvania as his gunner. From Illinois, Reading was twenty-five and had attended De Pauw University at Greencastle from 1939-40, then enlisted in April 1942 and was commissioned just over a year later.

Reading arrived in Port Moresby in February 1944 and for the first few weeks ferried new A-20Gs from Port Moresby to Nadzab. Afterwards he flew orientation and low-level combat training missions until his first combat mission on 14th March 1944 against Japanese troops and supplies at Brandi Plantation. This fateful combat mission of 3rd May 1944 was Reading's tenth, and unlike previous ones, this one would be at a medium-altitude of 5,000 feet. The A-20s would be led over the target by a Mitchell from which they would drop their bombs on queue. The standard Nadzab-Wewak return combat run for the Group took three hours and forty minutes, winds depending, but today Reading would be airborne only three hours. Nine 89th Squadron A-20Gs would fly the mission, the other eight having equally eccentric nose-art and named Big Butch, Educated Edmund, Hot Horse Herbie, Izzy Cheese Cake, Little Isadore, Paddy the Link, Slugsy Sachs and Spanish John. The entire 3rd Attack Group would participate, including its other 8th, 13th and 90th Squadrons, each with nine A-20Gs.

After the four squadrons departed Nadzab they assembled over the Markham Valley and headed for Wewak. Reading recalls,

"All went well, some ack-ack and small arms fire. We cleared the target and out over the sea we made our turn to head for home base. A few miles south of the target and over the Sepik River Valley my right engine blew and I could not feather the prop. I adjusted for single-engine operation but the windmilling prop was causing tremendous vibrations to the plane and I had to reduce power on my left engine to reduce the problem. My gunner was also concerned about our chances and would bail out if I made the decision, but we both hoped for a safe landing somewhere. I told my gunner I would attempt to keep power on and try to stabilize the plane and hold some altitude. I had cut back on power and had lost altitude, but tried to maintain 1,000 feet. Two planes stayed with me to help direct and guide me to flat land or a swamp. The swamp around the Sepik looked good, and my two escorts said they would stay with us until we were down and hopefully safe".

With reduced power on one engine, and a dragging propeller on the other, Big Nig could not maintain altitude. After jettisoning his canopy hatch Reading touched down with gear retracted and slid some three hundred yards before lurching left and coming to rest. Reading had successfully put the aircraft down at 1125 hours with almost no damage. The forced-landing bruised both men however, and cut Cock's right hand deeply in two separate gashes. Reading's biggest injury was a bad bruise to his forehead which had impacted against the armor plate when the aircraft first touched down. Reading recalled, "We crawled out of the ship, and much to our surprise, found that what I thought was a field turned out to be nice deep swamp on which our ship was resting on the bottom with the wings level with the surface of the water. We knew we had to get out of the swamp before dark because the bugs and mosquitoes were very disagreeable. We patched each other up, took what supplies we thought we would need and one of the other squadron ships spotted us and dropped medicine and more food. By this time we were ready to head for high ground, so I stepped off the wing and sank up to my neck. That way was no good so we then climbed back to the tail and stepped off on to the grass the ship had crushed down and that was only hip deep. I checked my compass and we started through the seven-foot grass and three-foot water to land approximately 3/4 mile away. The trip wasn't very eventful except that we lost quite a few of our supplies and for five and a half hours we pushed through. It was very tiring indeed ! At sunset we reached land and spent a very uneventful night under small bush in the rain with plenty of bugs for company".

The next morning the men persevered onwards to a small clearing where they started to build a hut. At mid-morning a B-25 appeared and searched for nearly half an hour before spotting the men. It dropped instructions for them to stay in the area at all costs. The note also suggested they move to some nearby substantive native huts. The B-25 also dropped supplies nearby, but they were lost forever in long kunai grass. The men did soon reach the huts however, where they dried their clothes and spent the next two days waiting. Two L-5s appeared on the third day and dropped five parachutes of supplies, of which they retrieved three. Reading recalled, "they contained everything we needed and two big boxes of food. Things were very bright for us !" The next eight days were spent in various scouting trips, bathing and eating.

On the tenth day the men found trails through the jungle to a larger clearing where they started to build a strip. Over the next two days they cleared an estimated two hundred feet, but on the third day Malaria overcame both. They spent the next five days succumbed to fever, and on 19th May 1944, P-40s and P-39s strafed and burned off a larger field about a mile and a half away. Notes in New Guinea pidgin were dropped for the men to read to the natives to ask for their assistance and explain how the strip should be constructed. However most of the natives were unfortunately scared away when the American fighters enthusiastically strafed the strip. After making their way to and inspecting the burned-off strip, their ground-signals were wrongly interpreted that the strip was satisfactory to land on, and thus later that day a Cub dropped a scribbled note, "Dear Tom, Cub will land on burned area. You be at the area then. Cub will land. Will help you make strip to take off, George and Andy". Accordingly, a Cub was dispatched by higher authorities to collect them next morning. On board it carried a ten-gallon fuel drum strapped into the back seat. Such was its payload that it had to land at the site to refuel regardless. When it arrived overhead, its pilot discovered to his horror that the cleared strip (which he describes in his official account as a "small burnt spot") was clearly insufficient in length.

The two men on the ground signaled for the Cub not to land, but the pilot had no choice as he was hurting for fuel. The Cub, flown by S/Sgt William Adair, nosed over on landing and broke the propeller. After their elongated stay in the area, Reading and Cock were near exhaustion from lack of food and the heat. They nevertheless rallied to assist the Cub pilot to try and clear more of the strip, and fill potholes which dogged the clearing. They signaled an A-20 later that day that they required a new prop. One was air-dropped the next day, and on 22nd May 1944 the Cub attempted to depart with Cock occupying the rear seat. It overran the long kunai grass at the end of the strip however, breaking the replacement propeller. Yet another was air-dropped the following day, and for the next three days the three men worked at lengthening the strip yet again. The heat meant they could only work mornings and evenings, and Cock's wounded hand was painful and slowed him considerably.

On 27th May 1944 heavy rain prevented another attempted departure, but at 0830 hours next morning the Cub lifted off successfully again with Cock, the lighter of the two downed airmen, as its passenger. It gingerly avoided trees at the end of the strip, and initially refused to climb, so Adair circled the nearby flat kunai grass to gain altitude through a fifty-foot overcast. Cock was delivered to Faita, and the Cub returned to collect Reading. Adair recorded, "I was worried because he [Reading] weighed 75 pounds more than the gunner". The extract was successful however, Adair employing the same departure technique as previously. Apart from a battle with heavy rain back to Faita, the return was uneventful. After later checking in at Nadzab, both rescued men were placed in hospital for observation for several days. They had each lost about fifteen pounds weight, and after convalescence were each given two weeks leave in Sydney before returning to combat duty.

In the year 2002 the disassembled Big Nig lies in storage near RAAF Point Cook base, Victoria, Australia, under the custody of the RAAF Museum. Its future is as yet undermined, but it is likely that the RAAF will exchange it overseas for another aircraft or parts thereof.

This profile draws on photos taken of the salvaged airframe at RAAF Amberley in 1996.