USAAF
5th AF
38th BG
822nd BS
David Gillis 1969
Richard Leahy 1999
John Douglas
2001
Pilot 1st
Lt Math L. English O-792567 (GA)
Co-Pilot 2nd Lt Leonard T. Coby, O-748916 (New York, NY)
Bomb / Nav 2nd Lt Elmer J. Hohman, O-743785 (Pittsburgh, PA)
Engineer S/Sgt Paul J. Molica, 19084181 (CA)
Radio T/Sgt Harry B. Kirk, 35462746 (TX)
Crashed April 12, 1944
MACR 3981
Aircraft History
Engines: R-2600-13 AAF Serial Numbers: 41-29362 and 42-28431. Reportedly, its 75mm cannon was removed, and two .50 caliber machine guns were put in its place.
Mission History
Six 822nd Mitchells took off from Nadzab
for a low level strafing mission against Hollandia. After a
successful bombing raid, English's ship experienced unknown engine failure
and sucessfully forced landed in kunai grass 50 miles SSE of Wewak.
The five crew were all witnessed alive at the site when supplies were dropped to them. Many leaflets, in pidgin were dropped telling any local people to look after the airmen and to get them safely back to Allied lines. On the fourth day after the crash, the crew was gone. B-25G 42-64837 of the 822nd BS was sent to straffe and bomb the intact bomber, to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.
The MIA crew were never found and declared dead in 1946. The wreck site was not visited by RAAF searcher team in 1948 owing to the state of the river and swamps. It is thought that a visit would be possible during the dry season.
Possible Fate of Crew
Local villagers about
this plane crash is that the crew survived, got as far as Paiambit,
where they were captured by the Japanese. They were then taken down
the Sepik River to another village called
Moim, when they were made to dig their own graves, then shot. However
only three graves, not five, are said to remain at Moim from this incident.
Who lies in the Moim graves, if anybody, has yet to be ascertained.
Australian Post-War interrogations at the Australian War Memorial Museum in Canberra. There is a complete file which refers to "Five survivors from an identified aircraft, possibly RAAF", which crashed West of Moim in March / April 44. There were no RAAF aircraft wrecks anywhere near this area. This file, beyond any doubt whatsoever, refers to the English crew.
The file reveals that one of the Japanese interrogated in Wewak by the Australians in late 1945 at Wewak was Lt-General Nakano Hidemitsu, Commanding Officer of the Imperial 51st Imperial Division. He claimed, among other things, that a Colonel Hori Keijiro, Commander of the 102nd Infantry Regiment, then based at Marienberg, had knowledge of the capture of five Allied airmen circa March/ April 44. The Australian legal team then interrogated Keijiro, also captured at Wewak, who signed a statement that five airmen indeed had been brought to him at Marienberg from an unidentified airplane loss in March/April 1944.
Keijiro said he then forwarded the prisoners to Wewak to fall under the jurisdiction of Lt-Colonel Suzuki Notoaki, a staff officer of the Headquarters of the Imperial 51st Division. Notoaki, also interviewed, said however that he could recall only two airmen arriving even though he never saw them. The arriving airmen, whatever number, were then sidetracked to a Major Veda (full name not quoted) of the 4th Kokutai (Air Corps) who interrogated them separately and reported results of the interrogation to Imperial 18th Army Headquarters.
It is clear from Keijiro's affidavit that he deliberately provided a minimum of information. If in fact there are three US airmen buried in a grave at Moim, was it Keijiro who ordered three of English’s crew taken there to be exicuted. If so, were English and another officer taken to Wewak, perhaps under Veda's orders? If an interrogation report was sent by 4th Kokutai as claimed, then somewhere in US or Australian intercept archives might be a signals intelligence intercept which should have two surnames, and the results of this interrogation.
Wreckage
The fuselage is burned out
from straffing after the crew disappeared. Were the five captured here,
or perhaps in the village of Paiambit, as the villagers suggest?
The site is remote, and in the wet season is a half-swamp. You can see a tree-line in the background which would have offered limited shelter, but no food for these men. The nearest Allied base to walk to would have been Dumpu, hundreds of kilometres east, and given that it would take several hours just to cut a few kilometres through kunai grass like this, this was all but an impossibility. The crew therefore had no hope of being rescued, unless an airstrip could have been cut in the dry season, a half year later.
David Gillis visited in 1969:
"As the kunai grass was too high at the time I touched down lightly on the port wing to allow my passenger to get out and take the B&W photos. As you can see the 50 cal links had been taken out of the bins some time before judging by the rust stains on the fuselage. I returned some months later and found a clear area to land so I could check out the wreck myself. The links were still in the same position. As to where the wreck was located I am sorry to say that I cannot give an exact location other than to say “I think” it was south east of Wewak between East Sepik Plains airstrip and the Sepik River. It was located in a large expanse of kunai and very obvious from the air, which makes me think that it would have been recovered (or got at!!) many years ago. Now, after viewing your East Sepik ID, I am 99% sure that it was B-25G 42-64835."
Relatives
Jeff Enlgish (nephew of Math English)
References
Thanks to John Douglas, Michael
Claringbould for information.
B-25
POW / MIA
Matt English by Nephew Jeff English
Photos
4.05
143.40
