Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842 - 1954), Wednesday 17 June 1942, page 8
FOUR DAYS ON RUBBER RAFT
Airmen's Voyage
OUR WAR OORRJESPONDENT.,
WILLIAM MUNDAY.
CALCUTTA, «lune 16.-The crew of a U.S. Army heavy bomber which came down in the sea after hems damaged by «Tapanese fire at Akyab, Southern Burma, sailed io a rubber raft for four days up the Bay of Bengal to an Indian village, from which they were rescued by a !
transport plane. I
They returned fco their base on j
Friday after they had been missing
for five days. j
Machine-gun bursts struck the portside engine as the bomber s-wooptïd
to within 30ft. of a Akyab airfield.
The pilot, i-irst-Lleulenant Clarke Johnston (Dallasl, flew seaward, but
was forced to come down, the air- j
craft, sinking in 15 minutes. I
Before this, however, the survivors, j
who included an R.A.'F. sergeant- I
gunner, pushed off in rubber boats, | with emergency rattons and water, j
On an uninhabited island, fioodless and waterless, they bound the boats
together to make a raft, hoisted an |
improvised sail, and set out over the leaden sea under a burning sun towards India.
On Thursday night last they reached land through surf, which capsized the raft, leaving them to scramble ashore over jagged rocks in a monsoon»! storm.
In the morning they woke wet and . hungry and surrounded by friendly I Indian villagers. I
Notified by telegraph. Lieutenant-, Colonel Conrad Necrason (Coopers- ¡ lown, New York,, arranged for «ni American. Charles Sharpe, a veteran ! pilot, to pick them up. He took all ' safely on board in a. heavy transport and landed on a sandy beach between squalls.
Other survivors were Co-Pilot Second-Lieutenant Thomas Murphy (Shreveport, Louisiana 1. Navigator
First-Lieutenant Harry McCool fOklo- . norna City», .Bombardier Second-1 Lieutenant Troy Drew í Atlanta),1
Gunner P.F.C. Joseph Ayoub tEl j Pasoi. and Radioman Corporal Hiram I
Cowen Thorp (Washington!. j
(World coprriibi rt«erre<l.)