34 | FLIGHTPATH
dows could be wound down, they were not opened in
flight due to severe resultant buffeting of the tail.
This made the cockpit hot for New Guinea operations,
so pilots usually flew in light clothing, their footwear
often no more than tennis shoes. These factors, com-
bined with limited storage space in the gondola cock-
pit, meant that Bartlett was neither clothed nor
equipped for extended survival in the jungle.
He bellied his Lockheed, flaps down, parallel to the
tree line of a large swamp, carving through its thick
reeds, but barely scratching the six tonne fighter.
From his approach he would have known in which di-
rection the coast lay and how close it was. He made his
way through the swamp to get there and was soon
greeted by friendly locals from Tarobi village. They
sheltered him for several weeks until late December- Although New Britain remained in Japanese
strategic purview, there was no major Japanese en-
clave in the immediate vicinity, although they had
established a permanent post at nearby Talasea in
April 1942. Thus, with no method of communicating
his whereabouts to friendly forces without risking re-
vealing his presence to the enemy, Bartlett lay low at
the village doing little more than taking the occasion-
al swim and fitting in with village life. There was in
fact a similar case of a B-26 Marauder crew that sur-
vived an extended period on New Britain under simi-
lar circumstances. Their bomber ditched on 24 May
1942 offshore Wide Bay and, nine months later, three
of the crew were eventually rescued by a 11 Squadron
RAAF Catalina. Meanwhile, Allied aerial reconnais-
sance located the intact Lightning in the swamp, but
had not identified it despite suspecting it was Bart-
lett’s. A decision was made to send in a ground party
to investigate once the area was secure. That, how-
ever, would take at least another six months.
Unfortunately Bartlett did not have that long. Post-
war investigations conducted with the Tarobi villag-
ers outlined how the German missionary resident in
the village, who had known of Bartlett’s presence
from the outset, decided to report him to a passing
Japanese patrol. After his arrest, the Japanese treat-
ed him well for the brief period they detained him at
the village, before sending him to Rabaul by launch.
After the Allies had occupied the southern part of
New Britain in mid-1944, Bartlett’s brother, CaptainABOVE: Lightning ‘140’
at Dobodura around
September 1943.
ABOVE RIGHT: This photo-
reconnaissance image was
taken of Bartlett’s downed
Lightning nearly six weeks
after he put it down in the
New Britain swamp.
TOP: A Model 21 ‘Zero’ of the
253rd Naval Air Group departs
Rabaul in October 1943. The
unit had just arrived at the
Japanese stronghold. The
month prior, the unit changed
its tail preix from ‘Z2’ to ‘53’
as seen here.