ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 192649
This information is added by users of ASN. Neither ASN nor the Flight Safety Foundation are responsible for the completeness or correctness of this information.
If you feel this information is incomplete or incorrect, you can submit corrected information.
| Date: | Thursday 7 January 1943 |
| Time: | |
| Type: |  Martin B-26 Marauder |
| Owner/operator: | 408th BSqn /22nd BGp USAAF |
| Registration: | 40-1421 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Hercules Bay, Morobe -
 Papua New Guinea
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | |
On 5 January 1943 the Japanese transports Brazil, Chifuku, Clyde, Nichiryu and Myoko Marus escorted by DesDiv 17’s destroyers Maikaze, Urakaze, Tanikaze, Isokaze and Hamakaze left Rabaul to carry troops of the IJA 51st Division to Lae (under the code name Operation 18). The convoy was seen by Allied airmen on the next morning and attacks followed. Allied airmen flew a total of 43 sorties and dropped 90 bombs, 56 on ships, claiming 1 hit and 3 near misses and actually scoring no hit.
On the next day (7 January 1943) Allied aircraft (USAAF B-17s, B-24s, B-25s and B-26s, supported by Lockheed P-38 "Lightnings" and Curtiss P-40 "Warhawks", RAAF or RNZAF "Hudsons" and RAF PBY "Catalinas") flew 19 missions and 154 sorties against the convoy and Lae, dropping 258 bombs and claiming 3 hits and 3 near misses on ships. Japanese fighters were engaged several times and 28 Japanese fighters were claimed shot down, 14 probables and 2 damaged. The only naval loss was the 5447-ton IJA transport Nichiryu Maru that was hit by three bombs dropped by the Catalina A24-1 (Flt Lt David Vernon and crew) of 11 Sqn RAAF at 0430 hrs. It was carrying two companies of the 3rd Battalion, 102nd Infantry Regiment (that reported 456 men killed or missing and 85 wounded) and medical supplies for the garrison at Lae, and sank next day at 06°30’S, 149°00’E. The IJA cargo ship Myoko Maru was forced aground south of Arawe at 06° 49’ S 147° 04’ E. Allied losses were one B-25 and one B-26 shot down, one Boston, one B-25 and one B-26 crash-landed and one B-17 ditched due to lack of fuel.
22nd BG flew three missions during the day. The second started at 1530 hrs with 3 B-26s to attack ships at Lae. 15 P-38s (eight carrying bombs) flew with them. Oscars were met over the target and 4 claimed shot down and 8 probably so by the fighters. The bombers scored no hit and were also attacked by Japanese fighters, 1 being claimed probably shot down and two damaged. But one B-26 was shot down and one crash-landed.
The B-26 Marauder 41-1421 of 408th BS, 22nd BG, was forced to ditch at sea after Japanese AA fire shot out one of its engine over Lae Harbor, New Guinea. The ship landed just off-shore in Hercules Bay, near Wu Wu River. S/Sgt. Joseph P. Papp, radio operator, and Sgt. Jack C. Mosley, bombardier, went down with the ship. Lt. Norman E. DeFreese, died from injuries before reaching shore. Ambushed by natives, who mistook him for a Jap, S/Sgt. William Brown was shot and killed. The others, Lt. Leonard Nicholson, pilot, Lt. Jack I. Childers, co-pilot, and Cpl. T. A. Moffit scattered into the jungle. Moffit, Nicholson and Childers, each on their own, were found by friendly natives and returned to Port Moresby within two weeks.
The story, as reported in a newspaper clipping of unknown origin:
Ordeal of Crew of U.S. Bomber
"SOMEWHERE IN NEW GUINEA. Monday - Three of the crew of an American bomber destroyed by the Japanese have gone to Australia after having played their parts of one of the most exciting of New Guinea’s "escape" dramas. Lieutenant Leonard Nicholson (pilot), Lieutenant Jack Childers, (co-pilot), and Corporal T.A. Moffitt (gunner) are the only survivors of the crew of seven. A fourth, a staff sergeant, swam to shore after the plane crashed but was later killed.
"Lt. Childers said that one of the engines of the plane was shot out by anti-aircraft fire and the bomber crashed into the sea. The radio operator and the bombardier were drowned. Moffitt got ashore and was picked up by a friendly native, who led him to an Australian camp. The American was taken to a jungle airstrip and flown to Port Moresby.
"Escape was not so easy for other survivors. Nicholson, Childers, and the staff sergeant, who was later killed, swam ashore. They carried the navigator, who had been hit by an anti-aircraft shell that had almost severed his leg. He died soon after his friends put him on the beach. The other three believed they were in Japanese territory and worked southeast along the coast, expecting to meet an enemy patrol.
"Next day they saw an R.A.A.F. Beaufighter. The crew of the Beaufighter, Warrant Officer Ken Kirley of Cootamundra, and Flight-sergeant Cummins, of Camperdown (Vic.) saw the Americans waving their yellow Mae Wests. Realizing how close the party was to the Japanese, the airmen dropped them a map showing their position and some food. Next day while they were getting ready to start make their way to an Australian camp, shots were fired at them and the staff sergeant was killed. Nicholson and Childers were parted in the scrub, and alone on the beach next day Childers saw two Beaufighters coming, and scrawled in big printed letters on the sane: "
"In the Australian planes, Flight-sergeant Fred Anderson, of Sydney, and Flight-sergeant J. G. Yeatman, of Newcastle, took off their boots and tossed them to Childers. Yeatman took off his flying suit, and dropped it to the American. The Beaufighters dropped food, a medical kit, and a map of the locality, with a message; "You are one hour’s walk from the Japanese. An enemy patrol is close at hand."
"With the aid of the map Childers found a deserted native village. Two days later he saw a native. When the native was convinced he was an American, he took Childers up stream to a place on the river where an Australian sergeant had his camp. The Australian told Childers that Nicholson had been at the camp two days before. Nicholson had been picked up in the scrub by two natives who had brought him to the Australian. Both Americans were flown to Port Moresby."
Recalling his ordeal a half century later, Childers wrote: "I noticed natives with children and an outrigger canoe pulled up and partially hidden on the beach on the opposite side of the river. After what seemed like an hour with me waving and gesturing and they waving they finally launched the outrigger and slowly came across. After about an hour or talking and gesturing with the native man in Pidgin English he finally agreed to guide me to ’big white chief at Ioma (pronounced Yoma) on top.’
"Before we left in the outrigger, the native took me about a 100 yards back in the jungle and showed me a crashed Japanese two seat (tandem) plane with two skeletons in Japanese uniforms. These were the only Japanese I saw, dead or alive, on the entire trip. We didn’t stay at the wrecked plane but a few minutes and after I and women and children were aboard the native outrigger we proceeded slowly up river. At any time a plane was heard the outrigger was taken under overhanging branches of trees. We stayed there until the sound of the plane had faded away.
"When I got to Ioma the next day I met Major Watson (who was) an American from, I think, Cleveland, Ohio. At the start of World War II he was commissioned a major in the Australian Army, due to his long time experience with the copra and coconut plantations in New Guinea and his long experience with the natives there. With the aid of Australian corporals and sargeants and radio men he organized small squads of natives, trained them in the use of a rifle and usual with an Australian corporal or sergeant in charge they tried to aid downed Allied airmen and also to keep a close watch on any Japanese patrols that might be in the area. I learned later that it was one of these squads of natives operating at the time without their Australian sergeant who fired on us walking down the beach from ambush. This particular squad of natives had reported back that they had killed a Japanese soldier who was taking two captured airmen down the beach."
Sources:
http://www.redraiders22bg.com/raiders.cgi?plane=B-26
http://www.redraiders22bg.com/stories/Jungle_Misadventure.html
http://www.docstoc.com/docs/132868028/Allied-Air-Force-Attack-and-Reconnaissance-Reports-16-November-rtf
http://www.combinedfleet.com/Clyde_t.htm
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SS_Nichiryu_Maru_%281919%29
https://mapcarta.com/16538078
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 07-Jan-2017 18:52 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 19-Mar-2020 09:13 | DG333 | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 01-Jul-2023 05:50 | Ron Averes | Updated [[Operator, Operator]] |
Corrections or additions? ... Edit this accident description
The Aviation Safety Network is an exclusive service provided by:
Quick Links:
| ASN Home | Send Correction / Feedback |
| FSF Home | Disclaimer | Copyright |
| Contact Us | Privacy Policy |
| Press / Media |
CONNECT WITH US:
©2024 Flight Safety Foundation