Location
Lat 6° 7' 50S Long 146° 27' 57E Wantoat is located at an elevation of 4,353' / 1,326m in the Finisterre Mountains of New Guinea. Located roughly 30 miles to the south is Nadzab. Today located in Morobe Province in Papua New Guinea (PNG).
Wantoat Airfield
Prewar airfield built near Wantoat village
Brian Bennett adds:
"My first aircraft crash site was in 1971 while I was on loan to a government patrol in the Leron Valley. I was to accompany the patrol and report on the feasibility of a road from the Leron Bridge to an inland patrol post called Wantoat. Up in the hills behind a little hamlet called Sira-Sira the Patrol officer and myself went to investigate the source of a piece of wreckage we had seen in the hamlet. This turned out to be a crashed Japanese bomber complete with the remains of the crew. Other that the fact that it was Japanese from an obvious “Rising Sun” on a wing neither of us had a clue what the aircraft type was but we picked up bones which were delivered at a later date to the district Office in Lae. I remember being quite surprised at the time over the crash site and of course the unrecovered crew as I had this idea that after a war was over people went out and cleaned up the mess, it was from this little adventure that I “got into it” as they say. That year, Xmas 1971, I received as a present from my then fiancée later my wife, a copy of Francillon’s wonderful book Japanese Aircraft of the Pacific War and I have been hooked on all things aviation in New Guinea ever since."
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Last Updated
October 23, 2019
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