The Airmen and the Headhunters

After looking at the Auster updates it triggered a memory of Austers being used to rescue downed US Airmen from Borneo in the later stages of WW2.

The book

The Airmen and the Headhunters: A True Story of Lost Soldiers, Heroic Tribesmen and the Unlikeliest Rescue of World War II by Judith M. Heimann tells the story of the recovering the survivors of two B-24 crews that were shot down over Borneo in late 1944 and early 1945.

The Australian connection

The rescue mission was flown by RAAF 16 Air Observation Flight

One of the pilots involved was Flt. Lt. Fred Chaney.

Fred was awarded an Air Force Cross for his services in New Guinea And Borneo

August 1945 News Report

https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/57480191

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Chaney_Sr.

Fred Chaney (later Sir Fred) was appointed Minister for the Navy in Robert Menzies' 1963 government. At that time there was no “Minister of Defence” a Minister responsible for each arm of the service. Fred also oversaw the inquiry into the loss of the HMAS Voyager.

In 2009 PBS produced a documentary on The Airmen and the Headhunters which shows how the runway (for the Austers) was built from bamboo mats and the rescue was accomplished.

Towards the end of the documentary there is a still picture of A11-14 on the bamboo runway.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBelKK7Q-yk

I recommend both book and documentary.

Hopefully this little part of RAAF history won’t be forgotten to time.

This post has been edited by GregHyde on Feb 8 2020, 04:35 PM