Mystery "USA" in kunai grass near Tobera Airfield
by Justin Taylan

Sometimes a picture makes us long for a thousand words of explanation.
Was is it the attempt of a downed American aircrew to signal for help?
Was it a trick by the Japanese to lure aircraft over the area?
Will we ever know the truth?

Brian Bennett shared a wartime aerial photograph of Tobera Airfield, south of abaul, and asked what I saw..At first, the photograph looked like any most World War II hotographs, alarge black and white print from high altitude over a target area. Like most, it appeared to be largely featureless, just empty forest, grass and ravines in the vicinity of a target. As I was about to give up, I noticed what he wanted me to see... a clearly visible "USA" and a "V" in a kunai field behind the airfield. Where did this marking come from?

The photographic coding on the bottom of the photo reads:
(17th Photo Squadron) (4B122-0) (4-V) (9) (6:18:1218) (24:20040) (Tobera AD N Brit.)

Brian Bennett adds: "A 17th Photo Squadron Lightning photograph photographed the letters "USA" clearly cut into the kunai grass near Tobera Airstrip. Was this created by a downed Allied pilot, or a trick by the Japanese?"

The 17th Photo Squadron (17th PRS) was part of the 4th Photographic Reconnaissance and Mapping Group, 13th Air Force, operating F-5 Lightnings from Guadalcanal, Munda Airfield and Bougainville.

Henry Sakaida adds: "The National Archives wrote: 'Our collection of Mission reports of the 17th Photo Squadron do not include reports for 18 June 1943 nor 18 June 1944.'"

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