In September, 1979, Madang-based dive operators stumbled upon the wreck of a B-25D-1 Mitchell medium bomber that was shot down during a raid over Madang on August 4, 1943. At the time that I dived in Madang I didn't know that date but, from reading flight-activity documents, I'd suspected that it was around that date and I ended up doing two dives on the wreck on the 54th anniversary of its downing. The bomber's crew named their ride Green Dragon, though any nose art that might have once been apparent is no longer visible. The bomber, surprisingly intact and still bearing live ammunition, rests on a patch reef close to beautiful Wongat Island. The Mitchell's port wingtip, shallowest portion of the wreck, is usually the first thing that I saw as a I approached the wreck. Laden with soft corals and other sessile invertebrates that offer concealment to a tremendous diversity of damselfishes and other small fishes, the wing's very tip is home to a delicately-perched barrel sponge. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
Once upon a time, as the story goes, a particularly incompetent diver — the blowhard type whose actual ability and capacity vastly receded in the face of his stupendous ego and various ego-driven behavioral disorders — tried to be cool by throwing his tank and BC (buoyancy compensator jacket) into the sea ahead of him. Said tank was, unfortunately, attached to a BC that was not inflated and fell victim to that old technicality of gravity that dictates that, in this case, the tank-BC unit hurtle none-too-graciously toward the ocean floor. The reason that I bring this up is that this steel-and-nylon projectile came frighteningly close to wiping out this distinctive barrel sponge, impacting (on rubble, luckily) very close to the bomber's wingtip. The moral of this story is at least fourfold (a) if you dive, learn buoyancy control before you hit the reef, (b) don't ever hit the reef, especially with unmanned dive gear, (c) think before you do something like throw all of your expensive dive gear into the sea, and (d) don't be an arrogant, obnoxious jerk (and, if you are, please stay away from places like PNG and people like me). The reason that I know how close the doofus' dive gear came to clipping the wing and annihilating the sponge was that my research assistant and I did our dive on this wreck soon after this event and sent his BC hurtling surfaceward with a good charge of compressed air in its inflatable bladder (I'd always wanted to do that, actually). We really would have been doing the sea, the universe, and everything a favor if we'd had just left his gear down there rather than facilitating his diving again. As if to prove that very point, we saw the same person appear to be doing his best to detach one of the wreck's machineguns from its mount later in our dive — it's rare to share the water with other divers in PNG and this was one time too many. Diving has previously had a good dose of machismo associated with it but the truth is that diving, and the underwater world, is no place for the arrogant, egotistical, insecure, or ill-prepared, though more than a few divers that I've met have managed to combine all of these traits and more.
P.S.: in case you're wondering, he was even more unpleasant on land than underwater. At least underwater he had his ill-concealed abject fear to temper his excesses somewhat, though not by much. Unfortunately, he's a well-moneyed sucker so can easily afford the globetrotting that he does, spreading his own special brand of 'goodwill' for the United States wherever he goes. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
The barrel sponge on the port wingtip seen from the front of the bomber. Those black fish swimming around it are fairly large specimens of threespot dascyllus (Dascyllus trimaculatus). I've heard several conflicting stories regarding this wreck but the one that I heard most often while in Madang included the basic elements that one crew member died during or before the crash and that the remainder were executed by Japanese troops after swimming ashore to Wongat Island. More recently I heard a more detailed and convincing account, supposedly related by the son of the wreck's sole survivor, that held that all but that man (who was an Intelligence officer) swam ashore to Wongat and were summarily executed and that the Intelligence officer somehow made the long swim to the mainland and was hiden by local villagers as he made his way south along the coast. He apparently surrendered to Japanese forces only after hearing about their reprisals against locals — executing villagers and stating their intention to do so until the American was given up — and so became a POW and survived the war. A still more convincing account that I found on the Web recently is written by a veteran Australian diver, Walt Deas, who is researching the topic for a film project — you can read about it here. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
Looking upslope, from about 25 meters' depth, along the Mitchell's wing toward the engine nacelle (propellor tip visible here) and front of the main fuselage. There's quite a depth range across this wreck as it lies on the slope where a patch reef melds into a silty lagoon bottom. By chance I took this photograph, the one above, and many that follow on August 4, 1997 — 54 years, to the day, after the bomber was shot down. It was a beautiful day, as it most likely was on that day in 1943 and (I had a vague suspicion that August 5 might have been the anniversary date) I remember a particularly strong feeling that day, as we headed out ot the site and moored, of how unbelievable it was that such a tranquil lagoon scene would have been shattered by huge explosions, staccato antiaircraft fire, and rolling clouds of burning fuel a half century earlier. I also remember thinking that most of the crew would almost certianly have been much younger than I already was, and that any survivors would by then already be at least in their 70s. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
The intact starboard engine that powered the bomber long enough for the pilot, Major Cox (the sole survivor of captivity by the Japanese) to lay it down as smoothly as possible on the Lagoon's surface, just short of Wongat Island. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
A small magnificent anemone (Heteractis magnifica), home to a group of clown anemonefish (Amphiprion percula) on the starboard wing, close to the bomber's cockpit. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
This Mitchell bomber was modified to carry a powerful cannon — probably intended to work against Japanese shipping — and the cannon's shells are still visible in this ammunition feeder just inside the fuselage from the starboard-mounted gun. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
View of the cockpit's seats from the starboard side. Much of the fuselage surfaces and the seats is covered by encrusting sponges. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
Looking in through the cockpit's side window from the starboard wing. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
Inside the cockpit of the Mitchell, viewed from the rear right of where the canopy would be. Although the details are obscured by the cloud of small fishes that these days seek refuge here, the control columns and throttle assembly are visible. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
The view rearward from above the cockpit. The main part of the canopy is missing but all but one pane of the front section of the bomber's 'windshield' is intact. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
Looking forward from behind the bomber's cockpit. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
A head-on view of the bomber — the rounded metal structure in the foreground is part of the forward machinegun assembly. The port wing is visible, angled up the reef's slope, in the background. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
This bomber was well-armed, packing quadruple .50-caliber machineguns up front. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
The Mitchell's ball turret includes twin .50 caliber machineguns. That part of the turret's metal appears to have been cut away suggests to me that perhaps the crew member (a gunner) who died in the crash or before was the ball-turret gunner, and that the cut was made to remove his body some time after the wreck was discovered. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
A head-on view of the ball turret's guns. This turret was home to a fairly pugnacious little damselfish that always used to make me smile — the idea of one of these ill-tempered little fishes packing 'twin 50s' could be pretty terrifying. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
The aircraft's guns — and most of the rest of its structure — remain in pretty good shape. Still, seeing these weapons of war overgrown by the sea's abundant life can be a powerful reminder of how Nature, ultimately, endures our species' most heroic, senseless, and profound acts. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
A tiny fish now lives inside one of the .50-caliber machineguns of the ball turret. I can't tell what species it is — from the shape of its mouth, that is about all that's visible, it looks like it could be a very small juvenile parrotfish — but it reminds me somewhat of the famous Vietnam-era scenes of protesters placing flowers in the barrels of National Guardsmen's rifles. This little fellow was hiding out here during my night dive on the wreck. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
Beware the armed damselfish! This heat-packing specimen is a threespot dascyllus (Dascyllus trimaculatus) — the characteristic white spot near the middle of the dorsal fin is much more muted in this adult than in the juveniles (juveniles also have an extra white spot on their head that disappears with age). (B-25 wreck, Madang)
The ball turret from above. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
The port tail stabilizer fin, now home to soft corals, sponges, and plenty of fishes. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
Looking along the port wing from the top of the bomber's fuselage. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
Plexaurid soft corals, red whip coral (Elisella sp.) and an anemone-like Sarcophyton soft coral share space with sponges and other sessile invertebrates on the port wing's dorsal surface. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
The trailing edge of the port wing, now home to colorful soft corals and sponges. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
Plexaurid soft coral and a tropical oyster (Lopha folium?) on the port wing's upper surface. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
A trumpetfish wends its way through sea fans that bedeck the wreck's port wing. It is very hard to picture the sound and sight of war in today's tranquil Madang Lagoon... (B-25 wreck, Madang)
Life is similarly profuse below the port wing. Here a coral cod (Cephalopholis miniata) — a medium-sized grouper — conceals itself in the midst of a swarm of larval and other small fishes and an invertebrate 'jungle' where the port engine used to be. (B-25 wreck, Madang)
A longfinned batfish (Platax orbicularis) beneath the leading edge of the port wing, right where the engine nacelle used to be. (B-25 Mitchell wreck)
A red firefish (Petrois volitans) crosses the deck of a sunken tugboat, not far from the B-25 bomber. This strikingly-patterned scorpionfish is one of the most beautiful found on and around coral reefs, but its feathery fin rays pack a real wallop — they're equipped with a nasty venom. This small wreck was sunk in 1979, not long before the Mitchell bomber was discovered close by. A great dive at any time, and always home to several red firefish, the wreck provides an excellent night dive. Among my other photos on the Web from this wreck are some that show part of its colorful gardens of soft corals and masses of feathery crinoids. (Henry Leith, Madang).