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    Numundo West New Britain Province Papua New Guinea (PNG)

Location
Lat 5° 31' 0S Long 150° 4' 60E  Numundo is located on the southeastern side of the Willaumez Peninsula south of Talasea, and west of Kimbe.

Prewar
During the 1920s, Numundo Plantation was planted with coconut palms harvesting copra.

Wartime History
During the middle of March 1944, the United States Marine Corps (USMC) 5th Marines patrolled this area.

Ki-46-II Dinah 2604
Force landed at this location, largely scrapped circa 2000

Today
Numundo Plantation is still in use. Since the late 1960s, planted with oil palm and cattle graze the area.

References
The Numundo Patrol & Tanga Na Wo (Place of War) by Cecilie Benjamin
Island of the Damned, page 88
"We had those little spotter planes - we called them grasshoppers - to help us off and on. One afternoon, I saw a Japanese Zero get after one of those plane. The grasshopper was flying along the edge of the ocean about fifty miles an hour or so. When the Zero showed up, the spotter plane dipped down to tree top level and started weaving back and forth. The Zero must have been going more than a hundred and he couldn't adjust. He made a pass at that little plane moving in slow motion and overshot his his target and went flying by. Then he came around and made another pass - he missed again. As we watched he made pass after pass firing at the grasshopper, which kept zigzagging frantically. Finally I guess the Zero ran out of ammunition and flew off. Never did hit him. We were cheering that little plane until he flew out of sight."

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Last Updated
October 23, 2019

 

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