MACR 1544
B-25C 41-30771, 405 BS 38 BG, 21-Dec-1943
Hit by anti-aircraft fire south of Madang and crashed into water. No survivors were seen, though apparently the aircraft re-surfaced after striking the water.
1/Lt Charles E Besley, 0-792204 (Pilot)
2/Lt Frank O Burgeson, 0-805750 (Co-Pilot)
1/Lt Gerald Greenberg, 0-666656 (Navigator)
T/Sgt Elden W Protivinsky, 18054138 (Radio Operator)
T/Sgt John A Jenna, 19017267 (Gunner)
Due to the nearness to the shore and the plane hitting the water, going under and then poping back up again.
The crew, some if not all could have gotten out and made it to shore.
If not the remains could be recovered
MACR 1544
Points of interest
Kempei Tai Headquarters compound 16 km north of Madang
POW Executions(1)
During the war, several American aviators were executed at Amron by the Kempei Tai. On August 31, 1943 five aviators who were taken prisoner and interrogated were executed. They included: Robert J. Koscelnak, Louis, Herry, Ritacco and Hugh Anderson of B-25D 41-30118 and Owen Salvage B-25D 41-30221. Other Allied prisoners shot down in the area also might have been executed 'down the mountain to the execution ground' according to interrogations with Japanese after the war. During the war, the Japanese circulated a false story that the POW had been killed in late August 1943 when the area "received a direct bomb hit... [American] fliers... were killed and also the mission horse which was grazing nearby."
Other Americans known to have died at Amron include 2nd Lt. Milton MacDonald pilot of P-38J 42-104355.
(A convenient way to explain the prisoners deaths but by giving this explanation there must have been guilt within the Military Police.)
In 1942 the Imperial Japanese Navy’s Kure 3rd Special Landing Party published a do*****ent in which it stated, “To eradicate the sense of fear in raw soldiers, carnivals of bloodshed or human sacrifices to the war god are most effective. Killings with bayonet should be carried out whenever an opportunity occurs.”
Cheap scans from the MACR via a camera ala 'James Bond'
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Published on: 2007-06-17 (77 reads)
Copyright © by leondus.com All Right Reserved.
