Aircraft History
Accepted by US Army on January 15, 1942. This aircraft arrived in Australia for assembly on February 2, 1942. Assigned to the 8th FG when it was based at Port Moresby.

Pilot History
Born 1916, Rehrer joined the US Army in 1939. He served with the 39th FS. He was awarded the Purple Heart for the wounds sustained on the June 16th mission. Later he served with the 374th Troop Carrier Group, 6th Troop Carrier Squadron.

Mission History
Rehrer had the day off, but volunteered to fly for a sick pilot. A flight of four Airacobras led by Lt. Royal took off from 14 Mile Drome, They were joined by two other Airacobras from 12 Mile Drome and climbed to 22,000' to patrol the Rigo area for enemy aircraft. Rehrer was flying 'tail end Charlie' in the formation, and was experiencing power problems with his fighter. He was not flying his regular aircraft, or formation position.

Tainan Kokutai A6M2 Zeros were sighted directly above at 25,000' proceeding in a southwesterly course.  The Zeros broke away from the main formation and maneuvered for attack.  Without being observed, a Zero got on the tail of Lt Rehrer and open fired from the rear. Rehrer observed tracer bullets from behind him, and before he could react, his aircraft was hit. Its drop tank set on fire and he was seen going down in flames. No parachute was observed by his fellow pilots.

In an inverted spin, he managed to kick out the right door and bail out. When his parachute opened, his shoulder was dislocated. Wartime records say this aircraft was shot down near Rigo, but this was proved incorrect after the discovery of his wreck in 2006.

He landed in the vicinity of his crashed fighter, and remembers hearing ammunition exploding. He then began walking, following the Brown River and climbing ridges. After six days, he came to a native village where he was given food, clothing and rested for the night. The next day, they took him to his squadron. He had been lost for seven days. His wounds saw him hospitalized at the 12th Station Hospital at Townsville.

Wreckage
Discovered in the Brown River area, discovered by Justin Taylan and Keith Hopper on September 21, 2006.

Justin Taylan adds:
"There was rumors of a plane in this area, and we decided to trek there to find out for sure. The wreckage is on a slope at the base of a ridge, near a stream. The Serial Number was confirmed from the stencil on the left side of the cockpit. There was a lot of cooked off 30 caliber ammunition in the wreckage, no 50 caliber or 37mm rounds were found. The tail was separated and located on another ridge, 875m away in a straight line. Likely the tail separated before the crash. We did not locate the engine, which likely fell down the slope into the stream. Along the stream bed, we found other pieces of smaller wreckage that had been swept down by erosion into the stream. In December, I visited with Harvey Rehrer and his wife to learn the rest of the story from him."

References
Thanks to John Douglas, Edward Rogers and Keith Hopper.
SSgt Donald Thomas of the 39th FS diary, June 16, 1942 via John Stanaway.

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Last Updated
October 1, 2009

P-39

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