Post by dmether on Nov 10, 2013 17:50:22 GMT 8
Something a friend and I are working on. Sergeant John Percy William Bandy, was serving on-board a Catalina PBY that disappeared 6 May 1942 during the Battle of the Coral Sea. We became interested in him because an unknown file (X-file) mentions him. His remains were recovered from a missionary station in Papua New Guinea and subsequently buried in the American Military Cemetery there as an Unknown.
We got the personnel file for the Australian, John Percy William Bandy, born 20 December 1918. He was a "window dresser" before he joined the Australian AF. My friend Bob knows a female historian who lives and works in Australia. She was able to get the file in a day. If he was an American and I ordered his file from the Archives it would have taken up to 6 months.
Seems Bandy was single, 21 when he joined in 1940 but seems he was married when he died during the Battle of the Coral Sea, so it is possible his widow (Joyce Jane Bandy) is still alive. His file lists his hometown so the Aussie historian is going to do some looking to see if any of his relatives are still alive.
Looks like Sgt Bandy got in a little trouble, he went AWOL for one day, was docked a days pay.
He was flying on 1 of 2 Catalina that Australia lost during the battle that day. A Japanese diary that was recovered after the war from a crewman on a ship that picked up the survivors of one of the crews. However Bandy's crew disappeared. I'm thinking they were trying to make it back to Australia but the aircraft was damaged and everyone bailed not too far from Port Morseby. Bandy was the only one of the crew who was ever found, he lived a day. Unfortunately the Aussie missionary, Reverend Henry Holland, who buried him was himself executed by the Japs a short time later.
His file also has his photo, which is pretty rare to find a picture of these guys. He weighted "11 stone 5lbs".
We got the personnel file for the Australian, John Percy William Bandy, born 20 December 1918. He was a "window dresser" before he joined the Australian AF. My friend Bob knows a female historian who lives and works in Australia. She was able to get the file in a day. If he was an American and I ordered his file from the Archives it would have taken up to 6 months.
Seems Bandy was single, 21 when he joined in 1940 but seems he was married when he died during the Battle of the Coral Sea, so it is possible his widow (Joyce Jane Bandy) is still alive. His file lists his hometown so the Aussie historian is going to do some looking to see if any of his relatives are still alive.
Looks like Sgt Bandy got in a little trouble, he went AWOL for one day, was docked a days pay.
He was flying on 1 of 2 Catalina that Australia lost during the battle that day. A Japanese diary that was recovered after the war from a crewman on a ship that picked up the survivors of one of the crews. However Bandy's crew disappeared. I'm thinking they were trying to make it back to Australia but the aircraft was damaged and everyone bailed not too far from Port Morseby. Bandy was the only one of the crew who was ever found, he lived a day. Unfortunately the Aussie missionary, Reverend Henry Holland, who buried him was himself executed by the Japs a short time later.
His file also has his photo, which is pretty rare to find a picture of these guys. He weighted "11 stone 5lbs".