Lat
3° 19' 60S Long 154° 45' 0E This is the northernmost
tip of the Solomon / Bougainville chain. It is politically
part of Papua New Guinea's Bougainville Province. Located aproximatly
50 miles NE of Rabaul.
Nuguria Lagoon
A total of 27 Ki
61 Tonys of the 68th Sentai departed Truk on a delivery flight to Rabaul in two groups, each lead by a
pathfinder Ki-46 on April 27, 1943. Of the first group's
13 planes: 2 returned to Truk, 2 went MIA, one landed at Kavieng and
the remaining eight ditched at Nuguria Atoll.
The second group arrived at Vunakanau
Aerodrome safely,
while the first group never arrived. Later, the Navy send
a vessel to the atoll, all they found was only one of the pilots
[identity unknown] in bloodstained
clothes.
John Douglas adds:
"Kevin Baldwin,
has a dive boat, and went to Nuguria to find them a year or two ago. He said
that the planes seem to have landed outside the atoll in deep water. They couldn't
find any trace of them. The locals remembered the incident. When I told him about
one survivor. he agreed with me, but said that the locals had killed the rest,
leaving one survivor who was also beaten up by the locals."
Nugarba Island (Nugava, Paobau)
Small
island in the Nuguria group
G4M1 Betty
Ditched at Nuguria
Wreck (Peiti)
Island
Small
island in the Nuguria group
