Last Flight of Swamp Ghost

  • Swamp Ghost took off on the night of Feb. 22, 1942 from Garbutt Airfield in Australia.
  • The aircraft was struck by enemy fire while bombing in Rabaul, a township in East New Britain.
  • Damaged by enemy gunfire and losing fuel, the pilot crash-landed the plane in a swamp on the north coast of Papua New Guinea.
  • The plane’s nine-member crew survived the ordeal and returned to combat after a harrowing six-week trek to safety. However, Swamp Ghost slept beneath water and tall grass for the next 64 years.
  • Swamp Ghost was salvaged in May 2006, an effort initiated in the mid-1980s by David Tallichet, and carried on by his family and aircraft recovery enthusiast Alfred Hagen.

Air Crew Members (all deceased)

  • Capt. Fred Eaton, pilot
 
  • Capt. Henry “Hotfoot” Harlow, copilot
  • 1st Lt. George Munroe, navigator
  • Sgt. Richard “Dick” Oliver, bombardier
  • Sgt. Clarence Lemieux, flight engineer
  • Sgt. Howard Sorenson, radioman/gunner
  • Sgt. William Schwartz, waist gunner
  • Sgt. John Hall, rear gunner
  • Sgt. Russell Crawford, waist gunner