Corporal Author H. Gill was riding as an aerial weather observer on a B-24 bomber (serial number 42-40251, Big Chief Cockeye) performing weather reconnaissance in the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) during WWII. The aircraft was a single ship formation flying near the island of Ceram when the crew spotted enemy ships in the bay. The crew attacked the ships but failed to clear a mountain after the bomb run. The B-24 hit a partially cleared area on the mountain top and broke up. Four or five crewmen survived the crash, most likely the men in the rear of the aircraft. Corporal Gill was one of the survivors. The men were taken prisoner by the island natives and turned over to the Japanese military on Ceram Island. The men were taken by boat to Ambonia Island and imprisoned in Galala prison. Corporal Gill was separated from his fellow crewmen and taken to Celebes Island, then to the Philippines, then Formosa (Taiwan), and finally to Japan. Corporal Gill’s fellow weather reconnaissance crewmembers taken prisoner were executed at Galala Prison on 29 August 1944. Corporal Gill ended up in Omori Headquarters Camp near Tokyo, Japan where he was brutally beaten with baseball bats by his guards. Corporal Gill sustained internal injuries and was unable to ingest food and died of starvation.
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NARA records list this soldiers Home of Record as Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania...Died Non-Battle...Re-interred on 08/09/1949.
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NARA records list this soldiers Home of Record as Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania...Died Non-Battle...Re-interred on 08/09/1949.
Corporal Author H. Gill was riding as an aerial weather observer on a B-24 bomber (serial number 42-40251, Big Chief Cockeye) performing weather reconnaissance in the Dutch East Indies (today’s Indonesia) during WWII. The aircraft was a single ship formation flying near the island of Ceram when the crew spotted enemy ships in the bay. The crew attacked the ships but failed to clear a mountain after the bomb run. The B-24 hit a partially cleared area on the mountain top and broke up. Four or five crewmen survived the crash, most likely the men in the rear of the aircraft. Corporal Gill was one of the survivors. The men were taken prisoner by the island natives and turned over to the Japanese military on Ceram Island. The men were taken by boat to Ambonia Island and imprisoned in Galala prison. Corporal Gill was separated from his fellow crewmen and taken to Celebes Island, then to the Philippines, then Formosa (Taiwan), and finally to Japan. Corporal Gill’s fellow weather reconnaissance crewmembers taken prisoner were executed at Galala Prison on 29 August 1944. Corporal Gill ended up in Omori Headquarters Camp near Tokyo, Japan where he was brutally beaten with baseball bats by his guards. Corporal Gill sustained internal injuries and was unable to ingest food and died of starvation.
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NARA records list this soldiers Home of Record as Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania...Died Non-Battle...Re-interred on 08/09/1949.
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NARA records list this soldiers Home of Record as Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania...Died Non-Battle...Re-interred on 08/09/1949.
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