Crew History
This crew was assigned to the 400th BS on November 16, 1942. John M. Rafferty was born 1919 and was a structural steel worker in his civilian life prior to the war. He was single when he enlisted.

Mission History
Took off from Port Moresby on a single bomber armed reconnaissance mission over the Wewak area. Towards evening, the aircraft radioed their ETA and requested the field lights to be turned on as they were approaching the Port Moresby area. The aircraft never appeared. Instead it crash landed into the side of a hill between Mumeng village, and Tsili Tsili. Declared missing the day of the mission.

Wreckage
Located by Richard Leahy and Alan Cameron in 1984. The crash site was visited by US Army CILHI and remains collected during late August 1984.

Richard Leahy adds:
"Alan Cameron was carrying out charter work for CRA at the time in the Wafi Creek area. Locals informed Alan of the site and after they had cut a pad on a nearby ridge, Alan and I flew in to do a recon on the site which is around 3,000' ASL. Forget now who did the ID but I think that it was Bob Piper. May have been Bruce Hoy. I supplied the details. CILHI were advised and subsequently carried out a full recovery on the site. I accompanied them for the duration of the recovery. The CILHI man in charge of that particular operation was Sgt. Kelly. I think that the officer in charge was Lt Col. David Rosenberg."

Lucas Tuckwell adds:
"I am a geologist with a similar keen interest in aircraft history in the pacific. I worked in PNG at the Wafi prospect about 12 years ago, and came across the wreck of a Liberator that I hope you could provide some extra information about. When the remains of the aircrew were recovered some 14+ (??) years ago, a couple of the 50 cals were left at the camp site. After asking the locals about the location of the wreck, I spent one of my breaks hiking through the jungle with a local guide and we found the site. It was located on the side of one of the ridge lines and was a twisted mass of metal and small pieces. I believe it to be a B24 Liberator, and I think it was a "D" variant, and that the serial number was 41-23769. the serial number on part of one of the tail planes was reasonably visible, however I have not been able to find any references to this particular number on any website that I could find. The aircraft crashed into jungle in Papua New Guinea near the Watut and Markham valleys (near Lae and south east of the old tsile tsile airstrip). I lent all of my photos of the wreck to the Liberator restoration fund at Point Cook, and only recently received them back, and this rekindled my interest in this particular aircraft. As such, I would really like to know more about this aircraft if possible."

References
Legacy of the 90th Bombardment Group page 29.
Thanks to Richard Leahy, Bruce Hoy and Lucas Tuckwell for additional information

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Last Updated
October 5, 2009

B-24

MIA
(Resolved)

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