Forced Down on Mornington Island

 

On January 19, 1944, after becoming hopelessly lost and running low on fuel on a flight from Townsville to Horn Island, Lt. Eliot Young of the 312th Bomb Group, whose A-20 can be seen in the far right background, decided to make a belly landing on Mornington Island (450 miles south of Horn Island), unsure if the sand would support a wheels-down landing. His element leader, Lt. John Huber, made a successful wheels-down landing on the beach. Their ten-day struggle for survival included traveling by raft to Bountiful Island, where on January 28th, the crew of a RAAF PBY Catalina Flying Boat rescued the stranded Americans.

This photo can be found in Rampage of the Roarin’ 20’s.