Possible WWII Airman's Remains found hanging in a tree...

[Warbirdnerd]

An old story, but I dont remember it being posted here...

By Nick Squires
5:12PM BST 28 Aug 2008
The remarkable discovery, which has yet to be confirmed by military authorities, was made by astonished trekkers walking the Kokoda Trail, a tortuous mountain path which witnessed intense fighting between Japanese and Australian forces in 1942.

"I couldn't make it out at first. It wasn't until the wind blew that you could really see (that) it is in a harness. There are goggles and it appears to be caught up in cables, so presumably it is an airman," said trekking guide David Collins.

The moss-covered remains, barely visible in the dense jungle foliage, were initially spotted by an Australian police officer who was on a trek led by Mr Collins.

He was using a telephoto lens to photograph exotic plants in the tree tops when he saw a jumble of cords and bits of parachute harness surrounded by creepers and palm leaves.

"We had a few police officers on the 19-man trek. One was taking photos with a large lens of the trees and flowers," said Mr Collins, a firefighter who works part-time as a trekking guide for Melbourne-based adventure company No Roads Expeditions. "He then discovered what looks like the remains of a body." Photographs taken by the trekking party show a dark object hanging about 45ft above the ground.

The trekkers marked the tree from which the object dangled so that it can be easily found again.

If confirmed as a human body it is likely to be the remains of an Australian, American or Japanese airman, left undisturbed in the forest for more than 60 years.

Papua New Guinea witnessed intense air and land battles during the Second World War as the Allies finally halted Japan's southwards advance and began a massive counter-attack across the South Pacific.

The Australian military is preparing to send representatives to Papua New Guinea to investigate the highly unusual discovery and US and Japanese authorities are checking their records of missing airmen.

A spokesman for the Australian Defence Force said the location of the find, about half-way along the 60 mile-long Kokoda Track, is close to a flight path regularly used by Allied aircraft and that several aircraft went missing in the region.

The track crosses the precipitous Owen Stanley Range of mountains, which forms the spine of Papua New Guinea.

In 1942 poorly trained Australian militia troops were deployed to halt 6,000 advancing Japanese soldiers who intended to take the strategic town and colonial capital of Port Moresby, regarded as a springboard for the invasion of Australia.

Months of fighting along the treacherous jungle trail were marked by hand-to-hand combat, night time ambushes, illness and even cannibalism, as starving Japanese soldiers ate the flesh of dead Australians.

In what has been described by one historian as "a knife fight out of the Stone Age", the Australian "diggers" eventually repelled the Japanese and drove them out of New Guinea.

The track has become popular with Australian hikers, trekking firms and even corporate incentive groups.

Found it here:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2639383 ... -tree.html

[tom d. friedman]

whoa!!! i'm definetly going to follow this story!!

[shrike]

It's a six year old story, surely there is some follow up by now

[p51]

Thankfully, it wasn't a body at all:
http://www.theage.com.au/world/defence-says-no-kokoda-track-airman-just-a-mossy-branch-20080904-49vc.html

[JFS61]

False alarm:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/7599398.stm

[JohnB]

In the late 70s, a WSOs body was found in the mountains west of here.
He ejected from a F-94 back in the 50s...and his chute didn't open. His pilot was rescued.
The USAF Survival School displayed his survival gear, it was in remarkably good shape after 25+ years.
Based on the photos I've seen of the as-found remains (I was on staff at the school) I doubt if the fabric in the chute or clothes would be that intact after 70 years.

His family asked that the Forest Ranger who actually found the body attend the interment. It was nice they got some closure.

I'm sure there are plenty of remains still out there.
Hopefully more will be accounted for.

[Pathfinder]

The initial articles referenced four "identifiable" elements...

So the "body" turned out to be moss covered branches...

The "cables" turned out to be vines.....

The very clear "harness" turned out to be what?

And what of the "goggles"....?

In forensics you have to address every element, particularly when you are eliminating them from consideration.

[eze240]

I remember seeing this one a few years back, It may have been linked from Pacific wrecks....don't remember for sure. I had also heard it turned out to be a branch.
A couple points that I would make are;
1: I would not expect remains and the materials of WW2 to last so long exposed to the weather, etc.... in the jungle, especially hanging in a tree.
2: Were they sure they had arrived back at the same exact place? Even with them "marking" the tree, Jungles and various other types of Forests change from season to season, trails change, etc, etc.....they didn't mention how they managed to get back to the same exact spot, obviously a GPS would get you within a few feet, but in a dense jungle, a few feet might as well be miles.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

You have to be pretty naive to think that human remains can survive in such condition for nearly 70 years in a humid jungle.

[Hemiman]

If the circumstances are right......

http://www.warrelics.eu/forum/armour-we ... ussia-514/

[tom d. friedman]

can't believe those casualties are perpetually frozen, & near 70 + years ago. most of civilized Russia does have / spring summer of sorts, & where is the snow?? Russia is not all ice / snow year around. as to the longevity of parachute silk, etc, I've seen long submerged salvage chutes that looked fabulous. same goes in any climate, above water as well. I've seen well preserved examples on the net many times.

[eze240]

On the Russian website mentioned by Hemiman, it states the aircraft crashed in a bog, what you see there is an example of the kind of preservation that would be seen in a peat bog, with its unique environment.

Because of the materials used in WW2, I would not expect that human remains and equipment and materials, like clothing, straps, etc... would survive for more than a short time in a humid, tropical jungle.

I also question the statements made in the article, because they mention several specific items, such as "goggles", "harness", etc....
I suspect this was a case of excited people "seeing" what they wanted to see, rather than what was actually there.

I do try to keep an open mind though, I have seen some pretty extreme examples of preservation....The wreck of the Central America comes to mind, with luggage cases and well preserved clothing at a site 5000 feet deep for more than 150 years.