Aircraft History
This bomber was the ninth B-25C produced by North American Aircraft. Originally intended for the Netherlands East Indies Air Force (NEIAF) and assigned NEIAF serial number N5-124 during March 1943.

Instead, assigned to the USAAF, 3rd BG, 13th BS in Melbourne in early April, 1942 and nicknamed "Feather Merchant". This B-25 participated in the Royce Mission to the Philippines during April, 1942 piloted by Heiss and co-pilot Townsend.

Gus Breymann adds:
"My uncle, Lt. Gustave M. Heiss, and his co-pilot, Lt. Ed Townsend, flew B-25 41-12442 on the Royce Mission to the Philippines in April, 1942. He was awarded the Silver Star for this mission."

Assigned to the 13th Bombardment Squadron and nicknamed "Irene".

On the morning of May 25, 1942 , this B-25 was flown by Peter Talley from Cooktown Airfield to 7-Mile Drome near Port Moresby . One of eight B-25s that took off on a bombing mission against Lae Airfield. Attacked by approximately 15 Tainan Kokutai A6M2 Zeros in vicinity of the airfield for twenty minutes.

Due to the shortage in bombers, this B-25 was repaired, it was flown to Charters Towers and later Brisbane for more extensive repairs, and converted to a strafer and returned to combat in January 1943 and transferred to the 90th Bombardment Squadron and nicknamed "Feather Merchant".

Next, it was transferred to the 345th Bombardment Group, 499th Bombardment Squadron on November 30, 1943. The crew chief was Ridgeway. Nicknamed "Miss Priority" painted below the cockpit on the right side, and flew combat as a strafer until October 20, 1944.

Taken out of combat service and turned into a fat cat, supply and transport plane around February 1944 with its armament removed, but still in olive drab paint. Later, it was stripped to natural aluminum finish by July 1944. Then was declared war weary, and transferred to a service squadron around October 1944. At the end of the war, it was abandoned at Tadji Airfield, with its tail removed.

Wreckage
It remain in a American aircraft bone yard at Tadji with only its tail missing. Recovered by Charles Darby from Tadji in 1974, and as part of the Yesterday's Air Force export agreement, it was set up as a memorial at Aitape High School in 1974. Charles Darby moved the aircraft, with assistance from Robert Parer who provided the trailer to move the plane to its new location.

As the tail section was missing from this B-25, the tail from B-25D "Tin Liz" 41-30074, shot down off Dagua, was recovered and attached to the aircraft for display purposes.

Charles Darby adds:
"Strange that I went to all the trouble of getting fin and rudder assemblies from a shot-down B-25D "Tin Liz" 41-30074 at Dagua, then found the original assemblies buried in sand on the last day of the work, long after we had taken the bomber down to the school."

References
Warpath Across The Pacific page 203, 387, 404
Pacific Aircraft Wrecks cover, page 41, 57 (upper), 76
Pacific Ghost CD-ROM covers this history of this aircraft and photos
Thanks to Edward Rogers, Gus Breymann and Larry Hickey for additional information

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009

B-25

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