UPDATE:  Added a few photos from this event at the bottom of this post.

I’ve had a quite a number of international visitors to the site in the past month.  Normally, most visitors are looking for photos or details of family  members.    In this case, a visitor from the Netherlands is looking for information on the  418th Squadron B-25H plane  that crash landed in Dutch New Guinea on 27 July 1944.   The plane number was 43-4422.

Here are more details:

“I am writing the story of a crash landing of a B-25H of 418NFS on the Vogelkop of DNG on 27 July 1944. Ira M. Barnett and his crew (Thomas Wright, Pete Whipland and Harold Tantaquidgeon) landed in a huge sago swamp some 60 miles from the coast. An extensive rescue operation by the 5th AF including elements of the 2 ERS (Emergency Rescue Squadron), 41st Infantry Division, 5th AF HQ rescue section, Australian Army Jungle Training School, 25 PRS (Photographic Reconnaissance Squadron) and Dutch NICA (Netherlands Indies Civil Administration) together formed a rescue team that went into the jungle and swamp to bring the crew of B-25H 43-4422 back to safety.
The report of the rescue reads like the script of a Hollywood movie.”

If any of our readers has information related to this rescue or the individuals involved:  2ERS: Harold Manser, Donald C Brickner, Leslie A Lange; 418NFS Norbert J deBoer, Albert R Sorbo, Caroll “Snuffy” Smith, Kerstetter and Barnett and his crew; 25PRS Charlie D Crow; Australian Army William Gillespie, Thomas William Scott, Donald Stanley Riordan, Alexander Sidney Goddard; 41st ID Victor J Krause; NICA Louis B.J. Rapmund, Silas Papare),  then please get in touch via the comments section to this post or drop me an email via the Contact  page.

Caption: B-25 Crew plus rescue team

Caption: Saturday 19 August 1944 around 1330pm the rescued crew flew back to the base: