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MYSTERY BOMBER WRECK IDENTIFIED
BY
AEROTHENTIC PRESIDENT
Michael
John Claringbould
SEE
A PHOTO OF THIS SITE UNDER INVESTIGATION
Eight hours walk from the small
villages of Nigila and Gopai, and it was 24 February 1999. A native hunter
stumbled across pieces of metal, and a familiar Pacific story was being repeated.
Each year in New Guinea more missing WW2 aircraft are found, and this time
yet another Fifth Air Force bomber. Miles from New Guinea’s small town of
Alotau, in the Milne Bay area, a few weeks later a curious Red Cross worker
was led back to the site by the same hunter. It was what the native had said
it was – the wreckage of an aircraft. An embossed tag found at the site read
:
JAMES W. CARVER
0-725946 T42 A
MRS.P.S. CARVER
543 FORD STREET
EAGLE PASS, TEX
As they scoured the damp jungle floor they came across a watch, a comb, and a dog-tag. They also discovered larger wreckage which had the numbers 12635 stencilled in yellow, and painted on a background of what appeared to be a red vertical stripe. Finally, they found human bones.
This was a major turn of events, and the US Embassy in Port Moresby was provided with the information. This in turn was relayed to the Central Identification laboratory in Hawaii – CILHI – who then emailed Aerothentic's President Michael John Claringbould. Within four hours Michael had provided them with an answer, but by no means the complete one. The serial was clearly that of a B-17E Flying Fortress, and Aerothentic's records confirmed that this Fortress had been assigned to the 30th Bombardment Squadron of the 19th Bombardment Group when it was lost. Ironically, this was one of the last combat missions the 30th Bombardment Squadron would fly with its parent 19th Bombardment Group. After this mission it was transferred temporarily to a new parent Group, the 43rd, before being rotated back to the US.
The aircraft was B-17E serial
# 41-2635, and was lost with the below eight crew aboard:
Hancock, John S. 1/Lt, Pilot
Carver, James W. 1/Lt, Pilot
Burns, Robert H. Sgt
Cipriani, Edward R. Sgt
Groesbeck, Mac S. Sgt
Maxwell, Raymond A. Sgt
Longenberger, Curtis F. Cpl
Wilkinson, Hiram D. Cpl
US Army records quote the
following on this loss
"The above named
personnel, crew members aboard an unknown type airplane failed to return from a
night raid against Japanese installations near Faisi Island, Solomon Islands on
1 Nov 1942. Subject airplane was last seen in the vicinity of Tonolei Harbor,
Solomon Islands, held by enemy searchlights and receiving heavy anti-aircraft
fire. The aircraft is believed to have been shot down by enemy anti-aircraft
fire over Tonolei Harbor, Bougainville, Solomon Islands."
Alotau is a long way from Tonolei,
some four hundred nautical miles South-west in fact. It is likely that the
aircraft descended too low in bad weather en route to the target, and flew
into the high ridgeline into which it is now embedded. Many more human bones
were found scattered amongst the wreckage on 2 March 1999 by an initial CILHI
Search and Recovery Team. Human remains and other personal effects were also
received from local villagers who had visited the site in the interim. The
aircraft location and serial number were also verified from photographs taken
by the local international red cross workers. However, the main task of fully
excavating the site was only completed in April 2001.
The aircraft was delivered to
the New Guinea theatre via Fiji in May 1942, and was one of six Fortresses
which departed Port Moresby’s Seven-Mile field in the early hours of 1st November 1942 to bomb shipping
in the Japanese Harbour at Tonolei. Interestingly, Tonolei appears often in
American author James Michener’s South Pacific writings, and was a hot-bed
of anti-aircraft guns.For reasons which shall never
be clear, the bomber hit the northern side of the ridgeline in darkness. It
will take time to track down the relatives, some six decades later, but it
will be done.
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