The hunting for wrecks has for the moment, taken a back seat
to economic survival and I have had the proverbial nose to
the grindstone. I remain hopeful of a financial turn around
shortly; to recommence field works as I have several tales
of wrecks to follow up on.
I hope today to pick up photos of
aircraft wreckage on Dumpu Station (to the west of Gusap) where
there were a couple of
strips in use for a few months in 1944; and also from Shaggy
Ridge where the Australians lost two Boomerangs. One of these
I am told, is still fairly complete.
My friends in the Murik
Lakes have located which appears to be a P47 single radial
engine with a four bladed prop, and another aircraft nearby.
We earlier (re) located an Australian
Beaufort that was first reported immediately post war. The
Japanese had their equivalent of an emergency landing strip
in this area as well.
Justin Taylan visited me for
a month recently, and we went to Wewak for some diving work
(he’s a great
videographer, folks) and we dived a few shipwrecks (and plane
wrecks). I tried to
show him a new wreck every day for a week (and succeeded).
I expect to start work soon on a prospective mine between Salamaua
and South Morobe Harbour, where there are a considerable number
of planes lost. I have some good leads to follow up on. Dive
operators in Milne Bay recently located a mint perfect P-38F that apparently was lost from the 17 Provisional Pursuit Squadron
(I’d never heard of that unit) in November 1942.
Justin
and I also visited the coastal gun battery emplacement around
Port Moresby and a short story should appear soon on
his website. |
