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Post by chinapilot on Aug 6, 2010 8:00:19 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Aug 6, 2010 12:10:15 GMT 12
Great find. Very sad to see.
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Post by chinapilot on Aug 6, 2010 20:10:43 GMT 12
Very poignant to see the serial number so clearly...
I lived in New Ireland for a year in the '70s but didn't know anything about RNZAF losses there. Nearly every beach on the SE coast had a radial engine on it which according to local legend was the result of a formation of Zeros heading to Rabaul from Truk who got lost and force landed where they could.
One tragedy was played out on a beach just a few miles south of where I was...a B-24 ditched just off the shore and the survivors made it to the beach, were spotted and photgraphed by a search aircraft the next day but there was a cock up with communication and the 'Dumbo' that was standing by was never sent. Eventually captured the survivors were murdered in Rabaul except for the commander who was a Colonel and had been sent to Japan.
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