Whats the story with Frank Keefe

[Luther Moore]

I only just learnt Frank Keefe was killed in a POW camp from my other thread. Anyone know the full story? Did they ever bring the camp guards to justice?

[chinapilot]

All my reference material is in storage but I'm sure others can fill in the gaps...

After being hauled onto a boat he was taken to the POW compound in Rabaul.
Due to lack of medical attention, brutal treatment and various diseases he died.
The camp was infamous for the lack of survivors and most 'enlisted' men died or were killed.
The 'lucky' ones, usually officers,were sent to Japan for interrogation, 'Pappy' Boyington being one of these.

Think Brian Cox had a write up in one of his books but can't recall if any one was tried for war crimes in Rabaul.

[Luther Moore]

Cheers mate. I wonder if there was any attempt made to free the Prisoners from the camp?

[errolmartyn]

From my For Your Tomorrow - A record of New Zealanders who have died while serving with the RNZAF and Allied Air Services since 1915 (Volume Two: Fates 1942-1998) (note: Keefe was not 'killed' but died of wounds):

Mon 15 Jan 1945
SOUTH PACIFIC
Strike against the Toboi Wharf in Simpson Harbour, Rabaul, New Britain (by 36 Corsairs - 1 lost)

14 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1D Corsair NZ5413 - was hit by flak when dropping bombs on the wharf at 0905 and abandoned over the harbour. The pilot, although wounded in the arm, began swimming towards the harbour entrance, but drifted back when the tide turned. Nearby enemy batteries prevented an American Catalina landing to effect a rescue, but throughout the day sections of Corsairs orbited overhead to fend off enemy attempts at capturing the airman. Towards dusk, at 1830, a Ventura with Corsair escort carried out a daring low level sortie to drop two bamboo rafts close by, but by then the pilot was lying face down over what appeared to be a small log just within the harbour entrance. Picked up shortly afterwards by the Japanese, he died of blood poisoning 15 days later in a camp at Naga Naga, south of Rabaul. Buried at Rabaul, he was later reinterred at Bourail, New Caledonia.
Part way back to base 15 of the Corsairs were confronted with a forbidding tropical front stretching across their path. Low on fuel, they had no option but to fly through the darkness, heavy rain and lightning. As recounted below, seven pilots were lost in this vain attempt to help a downed comrade. The eight Corsairs destroyed this day represent the greatest number of aircraft lost in a single day or night’s flying in the history of the RNZAF.
Pilot: NZ417066 Flt Lt Francis George KEEFE, RNZAF - Age 28.
Several accounts of this event claim that Keefe’s family name was changed from O’Keefe during the war, but inspection of birth records show that he was in fact born Keefe.

Rescue mission to Rabaul
16 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1 Corsair NZ5294 - took off as one of a section of four, a Corsair from which returned early with engine trouble, on a rescue mission for the downed pilot of NZ5413, whose fate is described in the previous entry. On returning to Green Island alone, after becoming separated from the others while flying through a tropical front, made a circuit of the base lights, crashed in the jungle at Blue Beach and burst into flames at 1925. The pilot was buried on the 17th at Green Island, but later transferred to Bougainville and finally interred at Bourail, New Caledonia. One of his two section comrades who did return safely was Flt Sgt Bryan Cox, whose fine autobiography, Too Young Too Die (Century Hutchinson, 1987) includes a dramatic account of the rescue attempts over Simpson Harbour and the terrifying flight through the front that followed (see pp 123-132).
Pilot: NZ427230 Fg Off Greville RANDELL, RNZAF - Age 24. 1239hrs (95 on Corsair)

16 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1 Corsair NZ5283 - took off leading a section of four, only two of which safely returned. The formation entered the front at 1500 feet in line astern and continued to lose height until low over the water. While executing a left turn midway between Feni and Green Islands, NZ5283 hit the water and exploded on impact at 1924. The pilot is commemorated on the Bourail Memorial.
Pilot: NZ401276 Flt Lt Thomas Randall French JOHNSON, mid, RNZAF - Age 30. 2518hrs (76 on Corsair)
Johnson was on his second South Pacific tour, his first being undertaken as a Dauntless pilot with 25 Sqn.

16 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1 Corsair NZ5287 - while flying as ‘No 2’ to NZ5283 in the circumstances described in the previous entry, crashed into the sea and exploded on impact at 1924. The pilot is commemorated on the Bourail Memorial.
Pilot: NZ438630 Flt Sgt Ronald Wilfred ALBRECHT, RNZAF - Age 20. 283hrs solo (96 on Corsair)

14 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1D Corsair NZ5408 - took off as one of a section of four, only one of which safely returned. While flying through the tropical front NW of Green Island at 300 feet, collided with NZ5423 and crashed into the sea at 1924. The pilot is commemorated on the Bourail Memorial.
Pilot: NZ413846 Flt Lt Bruce Stafford HAY, mid, RNZAF - Age 23. 2007hrs (220 on Corsair)
Hay was on his third South Pacific tour.

14 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1D Corsair NZ5423 - lost in the mid-air collision with NZ5408 as described in the previous entry. The pilot is commemorated on the Bourail Memorial.
Pilot: NZ427287 Flt Sgt John Seddon McARTHUR, RNZAF - Age 24. 462hrs (125 on Corsair)

14 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1D Corsair NZ5412 - crashed into the sea immediately following a mid-air collision between NZ5408 and NZ5423, as described in the two previous entries, probably as the result of flying debris or taking avoiding action. The pilot is commemorated on the Bourail Memorial.
Pilot: NZ4213297 Fg Off Albert Norman SAWARD, RNZAF - Age 22. 538hrs (226 on Corsair)
Saward, on his second South Pacific tour, had two months earlier survived a Corsair ditching off the island of Malekula in the New Hebrides.

14 Squadron, RNZAF (Green Island Fighter Strip, Bismarck Archipelago)
F4U-1D Corsair NZ5428 - took off as one of a section of four, all of which survived the flight through the front and arrived safely over base. However, while circling to land, NZ5428 was seen to pull up into cloud and disappear from view at 1940. Lost without trace, the pilot is commemorated on the Bourail Memorial.
Pilot: NZ4212589 Flt Sgt Ian James MUNRO, RNZAF - Age 20. 510hrs (215 on Corsair)
Munro was on his second South Pacific tour.

Errol

[chinapilot]

This tragic outcome due to no lack of gallantry on the part of both the US and New Zealand airmen that day typifies the obstacles they had to contend with...

Green Island itself is not easy to spot on a clear day at low level and the weather they encountered along with the approaching darkness gave them virtually no chance of locating the island.

If you fell into Jap hands your future was very bleak,even if you weren't tortured for entertainment or beheaded on the spot your chances in a POW camp were grim.

[Luther Moore]

Good thing the Japs got it at the end when they had to return home after surrendering and from what the Allies gave them back.

Pretty tragic to lose so many good pilots because of weather.

Now to piece together who else was also flying that day.

[shorty]

Also worth bearing in mind is that toward the end of the war the RNZAF was operating over an area some 3000 miles by 2000 miles to the north of New Zealand yet in all this area (about 35% greater than Europe) there were only 36 allied airfields in 23 different places.
If in trouble it was standard practice for pilots to head for the sea where there was a chance they would be picked up by a "Dumbo" Catalina. There was virtually no chance of survival for aircrew who crashed or parachuted into the mountainous jungle islands of the Solomons or New Guinea