Search for Richard Bong's Plane-- Part 3

Richard Bong's Medal of Honor reads: "For conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life above and beyond the call of duty in action in the Southwest Pacific area from October 10 to November 15, 1944.

"Though assigned to duty as gunnery instructor and neither required nor expected to perform combat duty, Major Bong voluntarily and at his own urgent request engaged in repeated combat missions, including unusually hazardous sorties over Balikpapan, Borneo, and the Leyte area of the Philippines.

"His aggressiveness and daring resulted in his shooting down enemy airplanes totaling eight during this period."

Bong also earned the Distinguished Service Cross, two Silver Stars, seven Distinguished Flying Crosses and 15 Air Medals.

--GreGen

LST-325 Visits Dubuque-- Part 2: LST-806 Operations

Roger Klauer said that one of the invasions his LST-806 was involved in was the one of  Palawan in the Philippines in early 1945.  "Palawan was of extreme importance because the enemy was holding out prisoners there."

His LST also made landings at Brunei Bay on Borneo and on the tip of the Philippines.

"We would hit the shores at low tides.  We would open the doors, and equipment, tents, food and everything would come out."

He toured the LST-325 on Monday, August 27, the same day I was on the ship.  He had his family with him who lived all over the country.

--GreGen

LST-325 Visits Dubuque, Iowa-- Part 1: LST Veteran Visits

From the August 28, 2018, Dubuque (Iowa) Telegraph-Herald  "Veteran revisits tour of duty aboard restored WW II ship" by Eric Hogstrom.

Roger F. Klaure, 94, toured the restored LST-325 in Dubuque, 74 years after he first stepped aboard  a LST (Landing Ship Tank), the USS LST-806, in the Pacific Theater of action during World War II.

His own LST transported troops and equipment during invasions around Borneo and the Philippines in 1945.

"We did make three landings, after the shores had been bombarded by cruisers, destroyers, rockets, planes and everything," he said.

--GreGen

Dutch World War II Submarine Found Off Borneo

From the October 26, 2011, Borneo Post.  This was originally posted in the Cooter's History Thing blog on October 26, 2011, but I will reprint it here as next I intend to write about the Dutch Navy in World War II, something I had never heard of before.

Sport divers found the wreck of the Dutch World War II submarine HR.MS. KXVI off the northern coast of Borneo.  It had been missing since 1941 with its 36 crew members.  The divers had received a tip from local fishermen.

The 1,000 ton sub was part of an Allied fleet fighting the Japanese invasion of the Dutch East Indies.

It had torpedoed the Japanese submarine hunter Sagiri on Christmas Eve 1941 and was sunk itself the next day by a Japanese submarine.

This brings to six the number of Dutch submarines sunk during World War II that have been found.  This leaves just one submarine, the wreck of the HR.MS. O 13, still not accounted for somewhere in the North Sea.

And, i Never Knew They Had a Navy.  --GreGen