C-47 "Flying Dutchman" 41-18564 Door Diary
Written by the survivors between November 10, 1942–January 1, 1943
Background
On November
10, 1942 at 1:30pm C-47 "Flying Dutchman" 41-18564 crashed near Mt. Obree. After the crash, the survivors used pencil to record a diary on the toilet door that began the day of the crash. Notes were made about
the weather, their optimism, the deaths of crew members and home are
recorded. The last entry was written January 1, 1943. When the crash site was located, the door diary was recovered by Australian Patrol Officer (Kiap)
J. Absolom during the second visit to the plane and taken to Port Moresby.
On March 8, 1961 an aerial search for Piaggio P.166 VH-PAU missing in the same area resulted in the rediscovery of the crash site. At the time, it was unclear from records held by the Papua New Guinea administration if the plane wreck had been found earlier, so cadet Patrol Officer (Kiap) John Arthur Irvine Absalom organized a trek to the crash site. After a difficult three day trek that required a jungle path to be cut, he reached the site and was the second visitor since discovery in 1943. During this visit, the toilet door diary was taken back to Port Moresby.
Display
The door diary was displayed at the PNG Museum (War Museum). In the 1980s permenantly loan to the National Museum of the United States Air Force (USAF Museum). A reproduction was provided to PNG Museum (War Museum) where it was displayed until 2015 when the museum relocated and is presumably in storage. Today, the original door diary is displayed at the USAF Museum as part of an exhibit about the Flying Dutchman that includes the door diary and a fragment of the nose with the nickname and nose art.
Crashed 1:30 pm Tues. 10 Nov 1942
Tue 10 – 17 men alive
Wed 11 – 16 men alive
Thur 12 – 4 men started for help
Fri 13
Sat 14 – tried to put up balloon
Sun 15 – cracker and cheese
Mon 16 – 4 men started for help due south – leaves 8 men left
Tue 17 – small piece of cheese
Wed 18 – chocolate bar
Thur 19 – found one chocolate bar
Fri 20 – 1/3 can tomato juice
Sat 21 – 1/3 can tomato juice
Sun 22 – drank last 1/3 can of tomato juice
Mon 23 – last cigarette – even butts
Tue 24 – first day – no rain
Wed 25 – 2nd day – no rain
Thur 26 – Thanksgiving rain today also clear in morning
Fri 27 – buckets full water this morn still got our chin up
Sat 28 – clearest day we have had
Sun 29 – nice clear day. Boy we’re getting weak still have our hope
Mon 30 – still going strong on imaginary meals
December Tue 1 – My My ! Summer is here – went to Spring today
Wed 2 – just slid by but boy it rained
Thur 3 – kinda cold and cloudy today – still plenty hungry. Boy a cig would do good.
Fri 4 – Boy nothing happened just waiting
Sun 6 – Had service today. Still lots of hope.
Mon 7 – year ago today the war started. Boy, we didn’t think of this then
Wed 9 – Cloudy. God is looking out for our water supply
Thur 10 – Just thirty days ago. We can take it but it would be nice of someone came
Fri 11 – Cold rainy day today. We would like to start out before Christmas
Sat 12 – Fairly nice day – still plenty of water
Sun 13 – beautiful morning everyone has high hopes
Mon 14 – Waiting
Tue 15 – Waiting
Wed 16 – New water place today
Thu 17 – Running out of imaginary meals. Boys shouldn’t be long in coming now, 6 more shoping [sic] days
Fri 18 – Nice and warm this morning. Rained this afternoon.
Sat 19 – pretty cold last night. Cold this morning too. Water pretty low, five moe [sic more] days to Xmas.
Mon 21 – Plenty of water
Tue 22 – Rained all three days
Wed 23 – thinking about home and Christmas. Still hoping.
Thur 24 – Tonite is Christmas eve. God make them happy at home.
Fri 25 – Christmas Day
Mon 28 – Rain every day
Wed 30 – Johnnie died today
Fri 1 – New Year’s Day
Pat, Mart, Ted
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