Here are some photos of aircraft dumps of the RNZAF. These were taken by Mr Norm Todd of Cambridge while he served with No. 3 Squadron, RNZAF at Guadalcanal as a Flight Mechanic.
Sorry for the poor quality, they’re from very old faded box-brownie type snaps. In his album Norm said these aircraft had been bombed in a raid, and he told me that himself. But I don’t thiink all were. Some of the Hudsons appear to have been stripped for spares, others have crashed rather than been bombed I think – especially the one next to the Liberator which I believe to be NZ2037 which crashed into a parked Lib on landing.
I’m not sure if this is a Hudson or a crashed Japanese plane – or other :confused:
By: Merlin3945 - 13th February 2005 at 16:03
The third picture looks like it could have been bombed on account that the props a still quite straight and they have not been bent by a bad landing or crash damage.
And few of the other look to be in similar circumstances. Unless you find someone else that was there it would be impossible to confirm the story or indeed to rubbish it.
I suggest we take the guys word for it as he was actually there. We were not.
By: agent86 - 13th February 2005 at 11:23
WOW! Just look at all of that aluminum scrap!think of how many beer cans that could be turned into! Also,I agree that the last Photo looks alot like some pics that I have seen of Yamamoto’s wrecksite.Isnt the Yamamoto Betty located in New Guinea? Bouganville?If he was there then it could bethe same one.
By: Dave Homewood - 13th February 2005 at 10:12
I don’t know, but I’d be keen to see the other picture you mentioned. Perhaps it is. Where did it crash, and when was it shot down. I might be able to correlate it to Norm’s service in the islands. It’s quite a large tyre on the right of photo by the looks.
By: skypilot62 - 13th February 2005 at 00:25
Isn’t the last one a picture of Yamamoto’s shot down a/c (Betty?)? IIRC there’s a similar picture in an edition of After The Battle.
By: Moggy C - 9th February 2005 at 16:57
A great find.
Moggy
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February 9, 2005 at 9:41 am