Aircraft History
Built at Douglas at Long Beach. Delivered to the US Army on September 1, 1943. Crated and shipped to Australia, it was re-assembled at Melbourne, and flown north to Port Moresby in November or December 1943.

Assigned to the 3rd Bombardment Group and nicknamed "Louisiana Belle" and the nose adorned with a shark tooth marking of the 90th Bombardment Squadron. Assigned to an unknown pilot and nicknamed "Gloria" at 17 Mile Drome near Port Moresby.

Assigned to the 312th Bombardment Group, 388th Bombardment Squadron during February 1944. Assigned to Lt. William Mathison, who renamed it "Gloria", but required additional repairs and servicing. After repair by a service squadron,

On March 21, 1944 the repaired A-20 was delivered to Gusap Airfield and assigned to pilot Charles Davidson who nicknamed it "Hell'N Pelican II", his previous aircraft P-40N "The Hell'N Pelican". Crew Chief "Fudgie" Figuerido choose Tail Code "F" (for the first letter of his surname). A white heart was added to the rear fuselage for the 388th BS.

Flew the 312th Bombardment Group first combat mission on March 29, 1944 attacking Bunabun Harbor, and other combat missions until mid-April.

Mission History
Took off from Gusap Airfield on a mission against Hollandia. On the return flight, the formation ran into bad weather and this aircraft ran short on fuel and forced landed near Amaimon on "Black Sunday" when the 5th Air Force suffered the greatest operational loss of WWII. Spotted the next morning by the 25th Liaison Squadron, both Davidson and McKenna were stranded behind Japanese lines, before making their way to the coast and transported aboard the HMAS Matafele.

Salvage & Restoration
Salvaged by the RAAF in 1984 for restoration, the aircraft's complete restoration was finished in 1996 at Amberley Restoration Facility. It was officially handed over to the government of Papua New Guinea in a ceremony on September 12, 1996. Charles Davidson, and his wife Thelma attended the ceremony. The aircraft is in storage pending the completion of display facilities in Port Moresby, to return it to the PNG Museum.

References
Black Sunday pages 7, 32, 54, 77-78, 91, 96
Rampage of the Roarin' 20's pages 106-108. 201, 361, 382-383
Helluva Pelican (out of print) covers the history of this aircraft
Pacific Ghosts CD-ROM covers the history of this aircraft

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009