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Post by chinapilot on Apr 16, 2014 0:30:53 GMT 12
Chatting the other night with a ex-RAAF guy who flew Caribous in PNG.
We'd discussed PNG many times but he mentioned that when in Rabaul in 1975 (ish) they were asked to look into reports of recently found wreckage.
Wasn't much left evidently but they identified it as a Corsair and they found a 'Commonwealth' type belt buckle which led them to believe it was RNZAF.
I'm sure this was well reported at the time in NZ and wonder if there are more details about it.
It was definitely after 1973 as I had left Rabaul by then and would have remembered any thing like this being found.
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Post by chinapilot on Apr 21, 2014 3:37:17 GMT 12
Just bumping this up before it disappears off the page...
Surely someone has details if there was a MIA Corsair pilot in the Rabaul area?
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Post by angelsonefive on Apr 27, 2014 21:12:17 GMT 12
I remember reading a newspaper article back in those days, and it could well have been in '75, about the discovery of a WW2 crash site in PNG that had been unknown up until that time.
The story was that a missionary, a priest I think, had in the course of his trips around his area noticed something in the distant jungle that glinted in the sunlight. His curiosity was aroused and one day with some helpers he went to the locality and found the wreckage of a plane along with human remains.
It turned out the the aircraft was a Corsair of the US Navy. I think the plane went missing, according to the records, after being hit by flak when attacking Japanese artillery positions.
The aircraft type and the date of the discovery fits.
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Post by chinapilot on Apr 27, 2014 22:39:11 GMT 12
angelsonefive - thanks.
Possibly the one you are thinking off is one near Buin on Bougainville which was found '71.
If the same,it was a Navy one with a red outline around the stars and bars and still mostly in one piece. Had a look a few days after it was discovered. His mother was still alive so there was some closure there.
The one in the Rabaul area was definitely a high speed impact with very little wreckage remaining, ( I talked to the guy again yesterday ) but the 'Commonwealth belt buckle' could be a red herring.
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Post by curtiss on Apr 28, 2014 18:23:20 GMT 12
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