Tell a little about yourself, and your background
My name is Shaharom Ahmad. Currently I working at Bernama ( Malaysia News Agency ) as web artist. I was 27 years old. I was married and have 2 lovely kids.

How did you become interested in WWII Pacific history?
I did become interested in WW2 Pacific History especially in Malaya when I was told from my father about his experience in war. His hard live in childhood make me wonder how many people survived in Japanese Occupation. Then I learned about how Japanese can beat British which were superior from Japanese. But after a short time, I realised that the Japanese use many new technologies and new kind of warfare to beat British. For 2 and half month, Japanese were mastered in Malaya and Singapore. My father also was a seamen in KD Pelanduk ( Training vessels - Penang ) in late 1950's before retired. From this, I was love to find and to draw any aircraft which I can imagine and see.

Did you have any family involved in WWII, if so, please share a little
So far, none of my family were involved in WW2. But several people on my relatives were involved in WW2 as anti-aircraft gunners, seamen and volunteer soldiers. All were station in Malaya at the outbreak of Pacific war. None were survived to tell me the story since they all passed away long time ago.

How did you get started visiting wreck sites? I starting visiting and searching for WW2 wrecks in last 3 years ago when I encountered one journalist who find Japanese aircraft in Pahang. From there, I was keen to find myself any aircraft wrecks. I was amused to see the aircraft which so heavy were flying like bird now hoplessly lying in the jungle. I visiting many wreck sites which was given some information from friends, relatives and often did not find anything left. All wrecks which crashed near population areas were clean as whistle.

C-47 Dakota crash site.Shaharom Ahmad is wearing dark blue shirt.

Please share a bit about your recenent travels & discoveries
Our recent discoveries was Dakota serial number 633 which flew from Kuala Lumpur on SAR mission. It was crashed in 1948 near Rawang town. It was a lend lease from USAAF to RAF. All people were killed or missing and still not found to this day. Not so much parts were left by since some scrap hunter were visiting before and take as many parts left by. The only parts were still left were 2 engines ( Pratt & Whitney R-1830-92 Twin Wasp ) and undercarriage and small bit of pieces of instruments.

Share a little about your website - what are your hopes and visions with it?
My website was design and published last year due to show our activities and some stories about air aviation history and battles throughout Malaysia. It is important for us to show younger generations about this forgotten war which claims so many lives from different countries just for freedom and peace. Many people didnot interested about this stuff and no wonder, we get a hard job to find some information about wrecks. The only people who can assist us is the younger people which we knew that it can be a tug war between time and us.

What do you feel should be done with wreck sites?
My feel about this wrecks are to be removed from the recent places and to be located to safer places as Museums to protect them from scrap hunters. This wreck can be preserved as actual aircraft or can be display as origin when we found it. Better not to left them on the jungle. For this tropical climate, these valuable piece of history can be destroyed and prevent them from scrap hunters. For me, every single piece of the wreck is history. Precious than gold.

What challenges face Malaisian wrecks - scrapping, theft, etc?
The most challenging that we encountered is scrap hunters and theft. Many people which didnot know the significant of this metal were interested only on money. When they found one, the will removed any parts and sell if to scrap dealers. Some wrecks were safe from this kind of theft since it was crashed far from village and located deep in thick jungle which we need take some 1 week to reach it. Others were simply dumped into the hole and leveled just to build some housed on top of it.

Any future projects or searches upcoming?
Our future project are to visiting RAF B-24 wreck in Kampung Langkap and Ki-51 Sonia wreck in Pahang. We will taken some details step to examine the wreck and to identified the wreck since there were some human remains on both wrecks.

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