Black Sunday – April 16, 1944

On April 16, 1944 over three hundred bombers and fighters of the 5th Air Army took off on a mission to bomb and strafe the Japanese airfields located at Hollandia, Dutch New Guinea.
The mission was successful and no aircraft was lost to enemy action, however their safe return was blocked by a massive weather front. 37 aircraft were destroyed or went missing because of the bad weather.This event known as Black Sunday and marked the biggest operational loss due to weather in WWII.

                 Mission to Hollandia. Nil interception. Nil ack-ack. On return met a solid front near Bogadjim. Turned toward coast and found a hole  on coast. Dropped down to 100′ to 500′ flying along coast line.  Controls were shifted between me and Jack.  He could see the coast to follow.  I dodged airplanes. Blast through windshield plate opening was terrific.  Found Saidor with about half hour’s fuel left.  Made a perfect landing on wet metal strip.  Saw three B-25s on side of ship, one wrecked, two with flat tires. Others, flat tires.  Later, Harvey came in and ran off the end of the runway – crumpled gears, brakes okay.  Ham came in, blew tire and cut off half way.  Ten minutes later a P-38 and a B-25 landed in opposite
directions.  Blast of flame shot 500′ high.  A-20s still kept landing alongside.  One clipped wing top off on P-38.  One ran into burning B-25.  Pilot okay.  As we were leaving the strip, a P-38, wheels up, landed in front of an A-20 and cracked up.  Maturi crash-landed at Yamai. Shuck had a flat tire at Gloucester.  Nelson okay at Gloucester. 47 out of 125 planes lost. I took a sleeping pill at the hospital that nite. 

Ed Poltrack, Pilot