American Sgt Hank Paolillo, a veteran of
WWII and Korea sits astride a fallen tree trunk across the crater left
by B-25C
"The Happy Legend" 41-12907 in the Owen Stanley Range. He
has just surfaced after diving into the icy cold water in an attempt to
pinpoint some wreckage.
References From The Searchers, page 138-139:
"Several villagers had told of two aircraft wrecks in the Myola area.
The first proved to be [B-25C "The
Happy Legend" 41-12907] little more than a hole in the ground
with some scattered wreckage around it. The aircraft, which they subsequently
identified as a B-25 had evidentally crashedwith a full bomb load, leaving
a water-filled crater roughtly fifty feed in diameter and thirteen feet
deep. Hank Paolillo, braving the icy water began delicately to search among
the aircraft parts they could see just protruding through the mud at the
bottom of the crater. Each time he disturbed the mud, gasoline fumes
and oil slick would rise to the surface of the water. They found
a piece of the aircraft bearing the nickname beginning with 'Happy' but
they had no pumping equipment to reomove the thousands of gallons of water
on top of the wreckage they had to abandon further efforts."
Credit: via The Searchers page 138-139 Date: July 1961
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