WWII U.S. Army Field Funeral in New Guinea, 1944

This photo was taken by a U.S. Army Signal Corps photographer 7 April 1944 near Wab, Saidor, New Guinea. In the photo, the U.S. flag flies at half-mast during a field funeral for victims of a Japanese bombing raid on the previous night in the area of the 114th Engineer Bn. The Signal Corps photo ID is on the lower right.

Saidor (located on the coast of Papua New Guinea, on the Huon Peninsula) was the site of an invasion by Gen. MacArthur's U.S. Army forces, backed by heavy U.S. Navy and air support, starting on 2 January 1944. This was part of the strategy to subdue New Guinea so MacArthur could push northward to the Philippines. The Saidor air field, codenamed DAYFLY, was the site of the 5th Air Force's infamous 16 April 1944 Black Sunday Mission. Bad weather and accidents closed all available fields as a line of thunderstorms blocked access to landing sites. By the time it was over, 37 aircraft were destroyed or missing and another 9 seriously damaged due to navigational errors and the weather. Wrecks of the A-20Gs and B-25Ds are still strewn along the north coast of the island.

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