‘Most violent day’ in Hong Kong’s history: expert team ready to dig up wreckage of US warplane shot down in WWII
- Amateur historian Craig Mitchell campaigned 10 years for funds, expert help to make dig happen
- Aircraft believed to be one of two US planes that collided, crashed under Japanese fire in 1945
An international team of archaeologists and forensic experts will start excavating a site at Tai Tam Country Park later this month to unearth wreckage believed to be of a United States warplane shot down during the second world war.
Local amateur historian Craig Mitchell first stumbled on the site at the southern end of Hong Kong Island in 2011, hidden under vegetation on a steep hill. He has spent the past decade campaigning for funds and support to make the dig happen.
He believes it is the crash site of one of the two US TBM Avenger warplanes that collided in mid-air over Tai Tam Valley while under heavy anti-aircraft fire from the Japanese on January 16, 1945, just months before the end of the war. Five of the six airmen died.
Mitchell found some aircraft parts, including an arrester hook to slow down navy planes landing on an aircraft carrier. Part of the cockpit, a 24-hour clock, an airman’s headpiece and an oxygen diluter also turned up.