More human interest brought to you by Aerothentic

It is early morning at Durand Drome near Port Moresby and the crew of a 3rd Attack Group B-25C wait under their Mitchell for take off orders. Note the looks of concern and despair on the faces of these men. Little wonder, for the 3rd Attack suffered badly at the hands of Japanese fighters in their early New Guinea days. Their worst mission took place on 25th May 1942 when five out of the six despatched to bomb Lae failed to return. One of them is still missing in the year 2000.

The first ever B-25 Mitchell lost by the Fifth Air Force was written off in a crash landing at Seven-Mile following the first Mitchell mission in the SWPA. The mission was to Gasmata, and the aircraft lost was B-25C #41-12514. This historic event took place on 6th April 1942, led by the Commander of the 3rd Attack Group, Lt-Col 'Big-Jim' Davies.

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