Warbird Information Exchange

I was looking up B-17 dataplates, and found one, and found some history on it. The wreck is still in the Pacific. It would seem as though the dataplate had been removed from the wreck. I asked about it and was told it should have still been on the wreck. But the photo of the dataplate shows it has been removed and laying on someones dresser. Anyway, the story of this B-17 crew incensed me! Read on:




Pilot 1/Lt. Ernest A. Naumann, O-427762 (POW, executed November 25, 1943) Baldwin, NY
Co-Pilot 1/Lt Winslow G. Gardner, O-728853 (MIA / KIA) Menan, ID
Bombardier 2/Lt Oliver R. Alvin, O-669943 (MIA / KIA) North Branch, MN
Navigator 2/Lt. Charles H. Lewis, O-791838 (MIA / KIA) Brooklyn, NY
Engineer TSgt Thomas H Fox, 6977438 (POW, executed June 1943, BNR) Mechanicsville, NY
Radio SSgt Paul J. Cascio, Jr., 13072715 (POW, survived) Baltimore, MD
Ball Turret S/Sgt Virgil E. DeVoss, 6917104 (MIA / KIA) Danville, OH
Gunner Sgt Bruno R. Bukalski, 15082036 (MIA / KIA) Kouts, IN
Radio Sgt Albert Smith, 13028645 (MIA / KIA) Philadelphia, PA
Tail Gunner Pfc Charles H. Green, Jr., 12011992 (POW, executed June 1943, BNR) Morgantown, WV
Crashed June 1, 1943
MACR none


Aircraft History
Built by Boeing at Seattle. Delivered to the U. S. Army. Ferried overseas via Hawaii to Australia.

Wartime History
Assigned to the 5th Air Force, 43rd Bombardment Group, 64th Bombardment Squadron. Nicknamed "Texas #6".

Mission History
On June 1, 1943 took off from 7-Mile Drome near Port Moresby at 10:10 on an armed reconnaissance mission over the northern and southern coast of New Britain Island.

At 1410, six hours into the flight, this B-17 was attacked by a a dozen Japanese fighters. Their last radio message received was from over the Wide Bay area. Attacking Zeros hit the bomber's fuel tank near the No. 2 engine, causing a fire and explosion, causing at least four of the crew to be blown out of the bomber.

This B-17 crashed into the summit of Hong Kong Mountain, on the eastern aspect of Waterfall Bay, up the coast from Pomio. Five of the crew went down with aircraft.

Fates of the Crew
Four of the crew: Naumann, Cascio, Lewis, Alvin and possibly Gardner were blown from the B-17 by the fuel tank explosion. Naumann and Cascio were wearing parachutes and were able to deploy them successfully and landed safely. Miraculously, Fox and Green did not yet miraculously landed unhurt. Fox was badly burned. Green had two minor wounds in his left knee which became gangrenous over the next week.

The four surviving crew: Naumann, Cascio, Green and Fox found each other and located the B-17 crash site. Among the wreckage, they located and identified the bodies of five of the crew: Lewis, Alvin, DeVoss, Bukalski and Smith. No trace of Gardner was ever found, it was presumed he was also blown clear but did not survive.

On June 8, 1943 the four survivors were captured by a Japanese Army patrol near a village and became Prisoners Of War (POW).

Postwar, the Japanese claimed that Green and Fox were taken to a hospital at Gasmata. Neither of were seen again and it is presumed they died or were executed. In 1946, a RAAF Searcher Team led by S/L Keith Rundle concluded both were taken to Mal Mal and executed by the Japanese during the middle of June 1943.

Naumann and Cascio were transported to Rabaul and interned at the Navy POW camp. Both were tortured for information and denied food or medical care.

Around November 12, 1943 Cascio was transported to Japan with a group of prisoners. He was the only member of the crew to survive the war.

On November 25, 1943 Naumann and eleven other Allied prisoners were taken from the POW camp. Civilians who were interned at the same camp included Reverand Joseph Lamarre. They were told by the guards that the twelve prisoners were being taken to Japan. Two weeks later a group of Indian POWs informed Rev. Lamarre that the twelve had been beheaded on the outskirts of Rabaul. Nauman and five other 43rd Bomb Group B-17 crew members were executed includng Neuman, Burnside, Mulligan and George from B-17E 41-9011 and Curry from B-17E "Honi Kuu Okole" 41-9244.

S/Sgt Paul J. Cascio, Jr. would later report:
"We were attacked by twelve Japanese fighter planes. They hit our gas tank, which caused out plane to catch on fire. The fire could not be controlled. Lieutenant Naumann, our pilot, ordered us to abandon the plane, but before we could do so the plane blew up approximately a minute an a half after it was hit. I was thrown out by the explosion. ...There were only two members of the crew who came down in parachutes. Lieutenant Naumann was one and I was the other. We landed in the jungle and were with the natives for six days. On the seventh day, while pretending to take us to New Guinea in a small boat, they led us to a coastal village where the Japanese were waiting for us."

Wreckage
This B-17 crashed at the summit of Hong Kong mountain, roughly two and half hours walk form Rem village at aprrpoximately Lat 5.26 Long 151.47. After the crash, the four surviving crew located the crash site and among the wreckage located and identified the bodies of five of the crew: Lewis, Alvin, DeVoss, Bukalski and Smith.

On March 12, 1946, a RAAF Searcher Team led by S/L Keith Rundle visted the crash site and recovered the remains of at least three crew members along with a ring with the first two of three initials being "A. H.".

_________________
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Nathan, thank you for your post. Their story should be told to the world at large. Our freedom has come at a very costly price. I'm just wondering about your comment about being incensed, is that because of the treatment of the survivors or because the dataplate had been removed?

_________________
"If that's a goddamn 'Jug' in front of me, you sure as hell better wiggle your wings." 80FS/8FG Cape Gloucester, December 1943. And the entire 41st Fighter Squadron rocked their wings.

ALWAYS LOOKING FOR P-38 PARTS

treatment of the survivors. I was told the dataplate was left at the wreck.

Yes, all the world should know their story. But they are not the only crew to endure such outcomes. It's a reason I think the Pacific war should get more recognition. It was a brutal war that other theaters could not compare to. It's amazing to think that many fliers that had to bail out or somehow survived the crash sometimes were able to get back to their home base. But the hardship of having to get back in deadly jungles, rivers, and oceans is unthinkable.

_________________
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Betrayal by the New Guinea natives doesn't seem to come up often. Usually it's the natives aiding Allied flyers.

I'm fascinated by the two crew members surviving the aircraft breaking up without deploying their chutes. I don't see how even landing in heavy vegetation would save them. Incredible story and very sad.

As an honorary member of the 43rd BG Association just back from a wonderful weekend up in Baltimore at the annual reunion, this is of significant interest to me.

My friend Jimmie Dieffenderfer, to our knowledge the last surviving B-17 pilot from the 43rd (and possibly the last surviving Pacific B-17 pilot) said that they took a rather fatalistic view of parachutes after the Bismarck Sea battle in which seven of Lt. Woodrow Moore's crew bailed out of "Ka Puiho Wela/Double Trouble" after it was hit hard by A6Ms from the Zuiho Air Group... and the Zeroes then strafed every single one of the men who successfully baled out (one fell out of his harness). Not a one of them survived.

That brutal atrocity was witnessed by every airborne crew from the 43rd BG, and when they returned to Seven Mile 'Drome from the morning mission, word spread like wildfire across the base and people were lining up to get back out to the Huon Gulf to finish off the hundreds of Japanese soldiers and sailors left adrift after the entire convoy of eight transports was sunk. Aboard the B-17 flown by Maj. Ed Scott, the commander of the 63rd BS, one gunner went through 1500 rounds and burned out two barrels on his M2 as he exacted personal revenge for his friends. In the words of another airman, "What we didn't get, the sharks got." The strafing and bombing of the survivors continued unabated from the afternoon of March 3rd through the evening of March 5th. Lifeboats, rafts, barges, driftwood- anything which had a man on it was mercilessly attacked. It was an absolute slaughter. And while not every participant did so with the same anger as the 43rd (some were physically sickened by it), everyone understood that those troops could not be allowed to reach shore to threaten our American and Australian troops in the vicinity of Salamaua. The battle was as complete and overwhelming a victory as any in the annals of American airpower- the Japanese never again attempted to reinforce their forces south of Wewak and the battle for New Guinea was effectively won in the Huon Gulf.

It was a brutal theater of war- no quarter was given on either side.

Do you have any further details on that data plate- who currently owns it? Can you share that photo?

Lynn

The RAAF played a very significant part in the Battle of the Bismark Sea...
http://www.google.com.au/url?q=https:// ... 1EH60Iir2Q
http://www.google.com.au/url?q=https:// ... eC01KMfvIQ

Oh, they absolutely did... in fact, the ad-hoc torpedo attack by two RAAF Beauforts (seven took off, but only 2 got to the convoy) on the night of 2/3 March made the Japanese expect torpedo attacks when Mission 61 unfolded the next day, so when the Beaufighters of 30 Sqn dropped down to mast-head height, the Japanese turned into their attack thinking they were more Beauforts. HUGE mistake... the Beaus completely shattered the bridges and upperworks of all of those ships in their strafing runs, which then left them virtually defenseless for the skip-bomb attacks of the 38th and 3rd BGs. 22 Sqn joined in the afternoon convoy attacks with their Bostons, and 75 Sqn brought their Kittyhawks to the party along with the 49th, keeping the Japanese pinned down at Lae and other bases while the bombing attack went on out in the Huon Gulf.

*EVERYTHING* in the SWPA centered on the defense of or supply of Australia. That's the entire reason we had forces in the region in the first place. The Aussies were as important to that theater as England was in the ETO, and I don't think that point gets made nearly enough. Thank you for reminding me I was remiss in not crediting them with their share of the victory.

Lynn

While I think "betrayal" is a pretty strong word to use in the context of what were essentially stone-age tribal people with no sense of national states or their motives - something similar happened to a gentleman (now passed) I went to church with as a boy.

He was a radio operator on a B-24 shot down over Wewak. They ditched and wound up on the beach confronted by natives, who took care of the crew. The crew was essentially traded from tribe to tribe, until one group decided to trade them to the Japanese.

After a story which could (probably should) be it's own book, he eventually went from POW camp to POW camp, winding up in Tokyo at the same camp as the much more famous Mr. Louis Zamperini.

I suspect that this would not have been altogether uncommon.