Mission History
Took off from Mullinix Airfield on a bombing mission against Mili Airfield. The plane was approaching Mili Lagoon at an altitude of 75-100 feet when exploding anti-aircraft shells damaged the forward part of the fuselage. It crashed in the lagoon to the east of Milli, in front of the Japanese headquarters.

Fates of the Crew
Two died in the crash, and a Japanese patrol boat picked up five surviving crew members who were badly burned and injured. The five crew members received medical treatment and were then brutally tortured and interrogated. After 10 days, Japanese army and navy commanders who were later prosecuted for war crimes, beheaded all five crew members. Their remains have never been located.

Wreckage
Located about a mile from shore, the bomber was discovered during an underwater survey in 2001 by Matt Holly.

Matt Holly adds:
"The aircraft is in excellent condition with the main fuselage and wings intact, however, the tail and engines evidently detached on impact and have not yet been found. The cockpit is also well-preserved with controls, gauges, pilots' seat, radios, top turret with twin 50 caliber machine gun shells, piles of live 50 caliber machine gun shells and both waist guns. The B-25 is protected by Marshall Islands law and the Mili Atoll Local Government has banned diving at the site until the aircraft has been thoroughly documented by the RMI Historical Preservation Office."

Memorials
The entire crew is memorialized on the tablets of the missing at Honolulu Cemetery (Punchbowl). The crew was declared dead on February 2, 1944.

Relatives
Douglas Womack (cousin of Wages)
"James Alvin Wages, my father's cousin, was shot down on my father's birthday. My father, (then Tec 5) Douglas M. Womack, was serving in Mac Arthur's Headquarters at the time James was lost. Both men were from Marietta, Oklahoma."

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Last Updated
November 12, 2009

B-25

107'

Aprox Crash

Discovery