USAAF
13th AF
18th FG
44th FS
M Claringbould 1979
Force Landed December 20, 1942
Aircraft History
This aircraft was a Merlin engine powered Warhawk.
Mission History
Four P-40's were flying from Bauerfield on Efate on a training mission. They encountered severe weather and force landed in a
clearing on Mt. Santop, Erromango in Vanuatu.
All the pilots were uninjured from the landing.
Wreckage
During the war, American forces
cleared a path to the wrecks and stripped them for parts.
Wreckage
One of two P-40's recovered in 1989
by Robert Greinert and Ian Whitney, the other being P-40F "Bone Crusher"
41-14112 (along with parts from two others) from Erromango, Vanuatu
in 1989, and taken to Australia.
Restoration
The aircraft was acquired by the RNZAF
Museum at Wigram from Graham
Hosking of Victoria, Australia. in exchange for a F4U-5N. It arrived
in
New
Zealand in 1996
and
is under restoration. This rare, merlin powered aircraft
is to have an engine change and be rebuilt as a P-40E to represent
a RNZAF
machine.
P-40
