In 1944, Ira Barnet took off from an airfield in New Guinea. Flying a B-25 Mitchell, from the 48th Tactical Fight Squadron, Ira and the crew were on a regular mission to harry any Japanese shipping they came across. Attacking a barge the Japanese managed to get some luck shots on Ira’s plane. Attempting to nurse the Mitchell back to base it became obvious the plane wasn't going to make it. Ira was forced to make an emergency landing in a jungle swamp, miles behind enemy lines.
In this episode we’re looking at the ordeal the crew went through and the rescue mission that was launched in an attempt to bring the boys back home.
I’m joined by Bas Krueger.
Bas is an aviation historian and author of Kais, which recounts the story and Bas’s own attempts to locate the B-25 over 70 years later...
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49 - Castle of Eagles
48 - Fallen Giants: The Russian T-35 Tank
47 - Flying to Victory: The Western Desert Campaign 1940-41
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46 - Fighting Through From Dunkirk to Hamburg
45 - The Jersey Brothers
44 - The Winter War: The British Reaction to the Invasion of Finland
43 - The Red Cross: Humanitarians at War
42 - The Battle of the Coral Sea
41 - Amphibious Operations in WWII
40 - Homefront to Battlefront
39 - Allen Dulles and the German Resistance
38 - The Race for the Rhine
37 - 82nd Airborne at Operation Husky
36 - Volunteers and Pressed Men
35 - Air Campaigns on the Eastern Front
34 - Surviving the Nazis, Gulags and Soviet Communism
33 - The American St Nick
32 - Operation Sea Lion - The invasion of Britain
31 - Shadow Warriors: Daring Missions of WWII by Women of the OSS and SOE
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