The American military JPAC
are back in Papua New Guinea continuing the recovery of a B-25 at Lake Myola that they begin several
years ago and have returned to on regular occasions. They are
also seeking out other wrecks in the Morobe (Lae) region reported
previously to them.
I have also details about
a dozen American plane wrecks containing human remains in my files
to give them when I catch up with them. Most of these wrecks
are P-39s lost in the early fighting around Port Moresby. I
located these planes several years ago, but have not had a chance
to pass on the discoveries to them as yet.
More recent wrecks
include an A-20 near the Sepik River and a C47 in the foot hills
behind Wewak. The C47
is not yet identified, but there are several missing on the flight
path from Hollandia/Noemfoor to Nadzab that are candidates. Some
of these C-47s had quite big passenger’s listings, over
20 in some cases.
Villagers from
the Murik Lakes have sent me photos of their recovery of an Oscar
engine they pulled out of the Lakes. The engine
is well preserved and makes me feel that other similar wrecks in
this area may also have survived the past 60 years quite well.
I’ve had one of my camera men exploring
the (Japanese) Alexishafen
Airstrips. There are several known
wrecks there but we have turned up several more including Tonies
and Japanese Army bombers, probably Helens and Sallies. These
wrecks are within the nearby sago swamps, which were fairly dry
on my visit. We covered
half of one side of one strip and found another 5 wrecks that I had
never seen before. A follow up report suggest that my crew
located another 7 wrecks, but I have yet to see the photographs. This
wreckage is fairly scattered and there is little to get excited about
however.
I’ve
got a local diver at Wewak who
is following up on stories the local people have provided him about
several wrecks in the sea, that are not known to the expert diving
community. We earlier
found a A6M2 Zero (strange
in the middle of a JAAF Zone) and a P-40
Warhawk that may well have
remains in it. We have got several stories
to follow up.
