ASTONISHING ESCAPE
AMERICAN BOMBER PILOT IN NEW GUINEA. PLANE EXPLODES IN MID-AIR. (Special Australian Correspondent.) SYDNEY, August 19. An American bomber pilot, Captain Frank Bender, is alive because hi§ machine exploded in mid-air during fighting over New Guinea. When his plane was attacked by Zeros the controls were shot away and he himself was hit in an ankle. He signalled to his crew to bale out, but found that the emergency hatch was jammed and that they were trapped in the machine, which was out of control. The enemy got in another burst and .Bender’s machine exploded. He was thrown into the air and was knocked momentarily unconscious, but he managed to get his parachute open. He injured his back and knee in landing. However, he found the wreckage of his plane and he buried three members of his crew. Then his position might have been hopeless, but luck brought him. to Dr. H. F. Butmead, a medical officer who had been taken prisoner when the Japanese landed at Buna, but who later escaped. Dr. Butmead organised a native carrying party, and after a 16-day trek brought the injured airman to an Australian camp, where he was operated on.”
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Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1942, Page 2
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199ASTONISHING ESCAPE Wairarapa Times-Age, 20 August 1942, Page 2
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