Death
of A Grim Reaper - Then & Now
by Justin
Taylan. While visiting Hansa Bay in early
November 2003. John Douglas and I visited the same beach pictured
in the foreground of the center photo. In the water just off
the far beach is the wreckage of the B-25 underwater, also several
Japanese shipwrecks. I snorkeled the
water, in hopes of seeing the wreckage of the bomber and the ships
sunk in that raid, but the water quality was too poor that day. Also
of interest, on the beach is the base of a Japanese 75mm Anti-aircraft
gun, partially buried in the
sand. Earlier that year, storms revealed Japanese bones around the
gun. A Japanese delegation that visited Hansa Bay preformed
a memorial service at the gun, their candles and incense were still
present at the gun. We posed for a group photo, with the site
of the B-25 crash behind us. One of our friends used a Japanese
bayonet as a work tool even to this day. For both American
aircrews and Japanese on the ground, this
idyllic
tropical
beach
was
a place of violence sixty years ago.
Veteran
Recollections of the Crash
Veteran
Jack Hyen recalls
from his diary:
"An extraordinary shot, or I should say series of shots. I'm
sure they'd make a wonderful feature news story in any
newspapers, but they will probably never get close to a news press. It is an
8th
Sq. ship on a mission at [Hansa Bay] where it caught
some small shipping. It was knocked down by the bombs from the ship which took
the
picture.
In the top picture he is coming over on his pass and
the bomb that got him has just began its explosion. In the center the ship has
its
tail section and right wing blown clean off and dives to the water.
The last one shows the ship enveloped in smoke as it
hit the water and exploded. I imagine the Japs ot a big bang out of this incident
but I'm sure they didn't enjoy the thorough going over they got from
the rest of the ships in the formation, cause as you
can
plainly see there was plenty of close fireworks for them."
Bill Swain also explains:
"Per Mike Kischkum, one of the Gunners on a plane directly
behind Widener's...
Widener got too close to the plane in front of him and ran into the
the bomb blast of
that plane, which knocked off the right wing and tail, causing the
crash.. This is also
stated in the 3rds album " The Reapers Harvest"
Excerpt from "The Reaper's Harvest" Yearbook
"Death of a Grim Reaper. At Hansa Bay the hazards of low level
bombing are graphically illustrated. An overanxious Grim Reaper
follows too close on the path of the plane that preceded him and receives
the full blast of his bombs. Part of the wing is ripped off and
the plane tossed over on its back. In the final photograph of this tragic
sequence, the stricken craft strikes the water and is dashed
to pieces. The entire crew was instantly killed."
