UNLUCKY
HIT – THE MISSING SWIMMER
Douglas A-20A serial #40-170,
March 26, 1943
89th
Bombardment Squadron, 3rd Attack Group
Two crew bailed out over Lae
Harbour - MIA - Unresolved
See photo of A-20A parked at Kila Drome
This account attempts to trace
the fate of two particular U.S airman, gunner S/Sgt Joseph Fox, and photographer
Pte William M. Ramsay. On 26th March 1943 A-20A MINNIEHAHA attacked a beached Japanese freighter off Malahang
beach, just to the Northeast of Lae. The aircraft was hit by anti-aircraft
gunners at Lae, causing a fire in the RH engine. With flames licking back along the wing into the rear gunner’s
compartment, Captain "Buck" Good, flight leader, ordered the two men in
the rear of the aircraft to bail out. Good struggled to keep the Douglas
airborne as much as he flew eastwards along the coast away from Japanese
territory. He finally ditched MINNIEHAHA well
past Salamaua where there were friendly lines. Back in the Lae area two other
A-20As, flown by Lts Ris Lyon and Brown, meanwhile circled protectively over
the two men, seen swimming in the water. Captain Good flew as far as he dared, ditched
the light bomber, then successfully inflated MINNIEHAHA’s liferaft and paddled to shore. He was collected
by a patrol and was successfully returned to his squadron at KilaKila four days
later. With fuel and daylight both running out, the two ‘rescue’ A-20s left the
Lae area at dusk, and headed back to Port Moresby’s Kila Drome. Upon their
departure only one man could be seen, swimming slowly towards Salamaua.
That evening the men’s squadron mates decided that the two were as good as
dead.
In 1947 the Royal
Australian Air Force effected an investigation into the execution of
Flight-Lieutenant William “Bill” Newton, a RAAF A-20 pilot who had ditched off
Salamaua on 18th March 1943, about a week before the disappearance of Fox and
Ramsay. The investigation had in its possession the added advantage of Japanese
signals intelligence sent from Lae and Salamaua at the time of Fox’ loss. The
RAAF discovered that one of the two Americans, almost certainly Fox due to the
Japanese transliteration of the name, was captured near Malolo village on 27th
March 1943 by the Sumidiani detachment, part of the 41st Imperial
Infantry Regiment of the South Seas detachment. Captured intelligence documents
showed that Fox was to be sent under escort to the Group Headquarters of the
Japanese 51st Division at Lae, under the command of Major-General Okabe, on
evening of 30th March 1943. Fox had a distinctive scar on his upper
lip as the result of an operation on a hare lip. No reference to Ramsay was
found anywhere in Japanese records, and it is presumed that he drowned before
making shore. It was never proven that Fox had actually been sent to Lae.
As part of the RAAF investigation,
a relevant captured Japanese Army document attributed to 18th Army
Operations Section and dated 10th April 1943, headed “Records
of American and Australian prisoners” was submitted as evidence. It showed
that two Australian airmen and Fox were interrogated ruthlessly before one
was executed (Newton) and the others were presumably sent to Lae. These systematic
interrogations were conducted by Japanese Army, not Navy personnel. No trace of Fox was ever found after the war
and both he and Ramsay were declared deceased in 1947. The RAAF investigation
concluded [about Fox] that there was “a possibility that [he] was sent
to Boram where Allied airmen were known to have been imprisoned . . . it is
considered likely, however, that [he] was executed”.
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