Wednesday, October 31, 2012

the Coral Princess


Part of a wing off the "Coral Princess".   a USArmy B25, she took off from Makin Airfield  at 8:15am on June 29th 1944, piloted by 1st Lt Karl James. 

Around lunchtime she was hit by a Japanese 127mm anti aircraft shell and exploded over Nauru.  The crew all died in the crash.  Bits of the aircraft still litter the middle of the island.   

Someone had put the crews details in a small memorial book and left it at the crash site:

Pilot  1st Lt. Karl R. James, 
Co-Pilot  Alexander Cheropovich 
Navigator  John Keeling 
Radio  Frank Kapla, 
Engineer  Harry Stockton 
Gunner  Benedict Jasper






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