Possible new G4M "Betty Bomber" crash site. Assistance needed!
 

Hi all,

I work for the Australian government and I am currently working on the island of Malaita in the Solomon Islands. I have been referred to your forum by the Australian War Memorial (AWM). From photos sent to the AWM it has been confirmed as a G4M.


Background
On the 30th of August 2011 I was tasked to evaluate the report of a piece of unexploded ordinance.

Whilst the local land owner showed me to the area of the UXO he also showed me two large aircraft engines and also described the following story.

Following is a combination of stories from a number of locals and have been passed down through generations.
During WWII they observed a large aircraft being followed by a smaller aircraft and the large aircraft had a large amount of smoke emitting from its body. They have observed the plane to crash and on its way down one wing has hit a very large tree. Upon investigating the crash in the jungle some locals have seen one male standing on the remaining section of wing underneath the large tree.

It is also told that there were three occupants in total, two males and one female.

Locals have been too scared to approach the foreigners and let them be.

The locals did not bury any dead or have ever moved any dead from the site.

In the mid 1990’s only one other “white man” has been to the site and he only destroyed UXO’s and it is said that he took no interest in the aircraft.

It is near the following coordinates Lat/Long S 09 02.696
E 160 49.382

Due to terrain and the jungle canopy a accurate GPS fix of the location could not be obtained. The above coordinates are approximately 500m from the site.

The trunk of the “big tree” that has been told in local stories is still intact and could possibly be the final resting place of the crew.

Does anyone have any records of this site near the above Lat/Long.

Your help would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Possible new G4M "Betty Bomber" crash site. Assistance needed!
 

Hello Rams46,

iTouchMap.com puts your coordinates somewhere mid channel between the islands of Malaita and Nggele Sule; roughly along a line from Tulagi to Bina Harbour. Is there a small error in your coordinates? Or perhaps there is a small islet, near mid channel, that was the crash site, but too small to get mapped?

Do the locals have a record of that G4M crash date? Activity by the G4M type in the general area was not uncommon from mid August, 1942 onwards.

Regards,
Ken Glass

Re: Possible new G4M "Betty Bomber" crash site. Assistance needed!
 

Thanks for the reply,

I have tried using web based lat/long plotters and they have given me some strange locations too. One site put me 500km North of where I was. Saying that I plotted the coords by using our choppers Nav System and it put me on the mark.

The locals havent got any records of dates or years. All the elders have passed away and its just stories passed down now.

Thanks

Bryan

Re: Possible new G4M "Betty Bomber" crash site. Assistance needed!
 

Hi,

if it helps the decimal lat/long is:

-9.044933° S
160.823043° E

This is roughly 4.60 km N.N.W. of Fulo on the island of Malaita.

If plotted, there is a building around 80 mtres N.W. of the lat/long, and a river around 65 mtres east of the lat/long.

From a limited search of the web, the book, "Air War Pacific. America's Air War Against Japan in East Asia and the Pacific 1941-1945. Chronology", by Eric Hammel (Pacifica Press 1998, ISBN 978-0935553260), has the following information:

"June 10, 1943. Solomon Islands: G4Ms attack a large Allied convoy off Malaita. An 18th Fighter Group P-38 pilot downs a G4M and VMF-124 F4U pilots down two G4Ms, all over Malaita Island at 1148 hours."

I understand that on 26 August 1942, some three G4Ms were shot down while withdrawling from an attack on Guadalcanal (out of 13 claimed by USMC pilots), with at least one coming down in the sea off Malaita. I don't know if any of the other two crashed on the Island itself.

Cheers

Rod

Re: Possible new G4M "Betty Bomber" crash site. Assistance needed!
 

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/provinc...s_malaita.html

pLEASE CONTACT ABOVE TO REPORT POSSIBLE LOSS HERE

Re: Possible new G4M "Betty Bomber" crash site. Assistance needed!