Biak Island Aircraft WWII

[Flat 12x2]

I happen to speak a little bit of Dutch.
NNG = Netherlands (Dutch) New Guinea.

Translation of the text in the photo:
Biak, June 4th 1946 until may 28th 1947. At the American dump. A graveyard of war heroes and gone glory.
source Jan Smit

Handy to speak Dutch if your living there
Thanks for the translation , so would NNG now be the Indonesian/east end of NG island ?

[mennie]

Handy to speak Dutch if your living there
Thanks for the translation , so would NNG now be the Indonesian/east end of NG island ?

True.
I think it's an island on the north side of the Indonesian/west end of New Guinea.

The Military Aviation Museum here at Soesterberg (about 20km from my home ) has a B-25 that was in service in Dutch Indonesia.
It was saved from scrapping by our late Prins Bernhard in 1970 and transported to Soesterberg.
http://www.warbirdregistry.org/b25registry/b25-4431258.html


And we have a flying B-25 painted as KNILM/NEIAF N5-149 "Sarinah".
http://www.warbirdsresourcegroup.org/registry/b25registry/b25-4429507.html

I was lucky to get an almost 1 and a half hour ride on this B-25 last year.

[L. Thompson]

I belive that the pic you are thinking about was in a mid 50`s issue of National Geographic. I remember going through old issues when I was in study hall way back when!

The National geographic may have run an article also, but I am ceratin the spread I often looked at back 35 years ago was a large format thinner rag and I'm fairly certain it was LIFE magazine.

[airnutz]

I belive that the pic you are thinking about was in a mid 50`s issue of National Geographic. I remember going through old issues when I was in study hall way back when!

The National geographic may have run an article also, but I am ceratin the spread I often looked at back 35 years ago was a large format thinner rag and I'm fairly certain it was LIFE magazine.

Might try here LT, a Life mag reference with brief descriptions of issue contents. Interesting titles, such as "Backwash of War" or "Okinawa's Junkheap", 12/19/49.
www.pastpaper.com/List-LifeIndex.htm
Might not find the exact title your looking for, but maybe the memory of a companion
article will jog your memory. Other magazines listed in the reference as well.
The Life stuff seems to be fairly complete, but other titles like National Geo.
Look, and Air Trails are minimal.

[george]

Lowell,
The large picture of hundreds of P-38s, A-20s, P-47s, P-61s, etc., abandoned in the jungle on Biak is LIFE, Feb. 9, 1948, page 40.

The picture of some of the more than a thousand B-24s left in the Biak jungle is NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, March, 1951.

George

[L. Thompson]

George,

Thank you for the reference. That's the one.

I wonder how many years it took for the scrappers to clear it all out.

Imagine if someone like Bill Larkins could have crawled around through that dump with about 200 rolls of film to shoot! They could put out an all new calender every year for 60 years and never repeat the image of the month.

Lowell

[Django]

Cool pics. Keep posting please!

The dump shots are sickening. I see at least 3 P-61s...

[corsairboss]

Here are some more of the Bombers

[corsairboss]

Forgot to add the P-40 photo.

[corsairboss]

Last one, have fun.

[george]

Lowell,

Your hypothetical about if Mr. Larkins could have visited Biak after the war is actually what one collector did. I have read that Earl Reinert went to New Guinea in 1952 and looked around what had been the major U.S. airbases and saw all the abandoned planes. Certainly he took pictures, but I have never heard of them surfacing, nor have the original pictures from Voll's 1986 Morotai trip. Hopefully someday we will all get to see in photos what these collectors saw in person.

[Joe BARBAUD]

I know this is an oooold thread, but one P-38F (or G or H) seen on Biak Island was "Eager Beaver".

There was a picture of it in an old Aircam book:

Any more infos on its mkgs ?...
Thanks !

[Pat M]

My father was on Biak with the 41st Infantry Division, 186 Regiment, I Company. It was the worst place he visited during the war, and his worst experience was being straffed by U.S. Navy fighters. They were eventually waved off by an officer on the beach with a flag. I wish he was around to see these photos.

[CoastieJohn]

I noticed the skull and crossbones on the tail of the B-24 also shows up a few times in the "dump" picture. Is there a story behind that?

[Warbird Kid]

CoastieJohn,

The markings belong to the 90th BG of the 5th AF that served almost the entire war in the Pacific. http://www.jollyrogersweb.com

They consisted of four squadrons:

319th "Asterperious"
Blue Tail

320th "Moby Dick"
Red Tail

321st "Bomb Away"
Green Tail

400th "Black Pirate"
Black Tail


The 320th squadron was the only one of the four that carried the famous "Sharks Mouth" that has been modeled over the years in various sizes. Interesting to note, we've documented over 5 or 6 different kinds of shark mouth designs that we're in the squadron.

This aircraft is of my grandfather's, Peter J. Soltis. Flight Engineer and Top Turret Gunner.

I offer on my Red Bubble website all four squadrons.


http://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/works/8488402-moby-dick-320th-sq-90th-bg-5th-af-emblem-black?c=44088-nose-art-and-emblems


http://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/works/8507632-asterperious-319th-sq-90th-bg-5th-af-emblem-black?c=44088-nose-art-and-emblems


http://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/works/8507682-bombs-away-321st-sq-90th-bg-5th-af-emblem-white?c=44088-nose-art-and-emblems


http://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/works/8488464-black-pirates-400th-sq-90th-bg-5th-af-emblem-white?c=44088-nose-art-and-emblems



As well as the squadron tail emblem. This is how the tails would have appeared.




http://www.redbubble.com/people/warbirdwear/works/6043797-b-24-jolly-roger-squadron-emblem?c=44088-nose-art-and-emblems