Navy Patrol Bombing Squadrons 102/14 Association

Morotai is about 40 miles long, north to south, and about 3 or 4 miles wide. The Aussies and the Dutch together had an airstrip at the south end of the islandd the US Coast Guard had a small base on the north end, near a native village.

A mountain in the middle of the island, between 3000 and 5000 feet elevation, was high enough to interfere with radio communications between the south end and the north end of the island. Radio communications were only achieved by first sending signals from Morotai to Peleliu, and then relaying these signals from Peleliu back to the opposite end of Morotai. I think these were probably in Morse Code.

Sometime around May or June 1946, Peleliu radio received a message that there was a medical life threatening emergency at the Aussie strip on Morotai. The patient required medical attention not available on Morotai, but which the sickbay on Peleliu could possibly provide.

A native boy had fallen out of a tree somewhere near the native village at the north end of the island and had suffered compound bone fractures.There being neither roads nor other available transportation, the native boy and his brother had walked the 40 or 50 miles to the Aussie strip through the steaming jungle. The trip took several days. By the time they got to the strip, the boy's open wounds had became gangrenous. The boy was in a bad way. The Aussies were unable to provide the needed medical aid. We were asked to help.

We agreed to send a plane down to the Aussie strip to bring the native boy and his brother to Peleliu. It could have been one of our 3 Peleliu based PB4Y-2's, or it could have been the PBY-5A based on Peleliu. (I am confused about the PBY ownership. I do not remember whose plane it was.) No recollections of what plane was used or who made the trip. Anyhow, a VPB-lO2 crew flew down to the Aussie strip on Morotai and picked up the boy and brought him and his brother to Peleliu.

The boy was treated, but after several days died of his injuries. His brother went ballistic!! -The native beliefs required that the boy be buried with his ancesters, or else his soul would be lost-. This required a return flight, ferrying the dead boy and his brother back to Morotai, and additionally to his inaccessible native village on the north end.

This required the use of the PBY which could land on the bay near the Coast Guard station, also near the village. It was decided to make the trip. A lot of people, VPB-lO2 crewmen and a USMC Captain from the Peleliu MP detachment went along for the ride. It was to be the second mercy mission and a lot of the men wanted to participate. As I recall, there were 10 or more on board, plus the two natives. What followed next on this trip I learned second hand.

The flight to Morotai was uneventful. The coast guard had provided weather data, as well as the sea conditions in the bay. Landing on the bay, however, proved to be a problem. The water was glassy, i.e. no wind. This made altitude determination for landing very, very difficult. It was also reported that large ground swells had been observed on the water. This compounded the difficulty, and the landing was misjudged.

The PBY hit the water very hard, stove in the bow, popped rivets in the hull, drowned out one engine and the aircraft was takng on water. The pilot applied full power to the remaining engine, and succeeded in beaching the aircraft. It was later surveyed and destroyed.

We, on Peleliu, had been waiting for the normal “in report”. But instead we got a message from Morotai coast guard that the plane had crashed. No word of survivors. etc. (This probably also was in Morse. I do not believe we had voice capability at those distances. This tended to make the transmissions cryptic, with the barest minimum of information being transmitted.)

We decided to take a PB4Y-2 and land at the Aussie Strip. The Dutch had agreed to make available their PBY to take us to the north end and bring back our people. I was assigned to navigate the PB4Y-2 flight to Morotai.

We landed at the Aussie strip in the early evening and learned that we would have to wait until the next morning for the Dutch to fly their PBY to the north end. What to do???

The Aussies were most hospitable!! We, the PB4Y-2 crew, with our Australian hosts, sampled several Australian and New Zealand ales. A number of imperial quarts were consumed. (The alcohol content of Australian and New Zealand ales approach that of wine.) It was pretty strong stuff.

The next day, the Dutch took a couple of our guys up to the north end. The rest of us waited at the south end --very worried. Again, no comunications.

When the Dutch PBY returned later that day with everyone, imagine the joy when we found out that no one had been seriously hurt. The USMC captain had been the only casualty, and he twisted his ankle as he was standing when the plane impacted the water. (It might have been broken, I do not remember.)

The other surprise was that our guys had been treated to a luau in the native village as a thank you for returning the boy and his brother to their native soil.

We loaded up the PB4Y-2 for the return trip to Peleliu. We must have had 20 or more souls on board with our crew plus the PBY passengers. It was crowded. The flight was a night flight. The weather was spectacular. Clear skies, 100 mile visibility, lots of stars. As navigator on this return trip, I was delighted that the Loran worked to perfection. That night I could have navigated the plane to the center stripe of the runway.--if there had been a center stripe. (I might add that this was the only time the Loran worked so well.--but that is another tale.) It was great, but we really did not need Loran that night.