Mission to Albuquerque ( Z-8 ), flown by Major Fitzgerald, was rammed
and
crashed near Mount Futatabi, Kobe, on 17 March 1945.
Nine of the crew died. Lt Robert Nelson and SSgt Algy Augunas were
the sole survivors.
Within these two pages are:
1. Four Battle Casualty Reports ( BCR )
2. Two pages of a report from the Hyogo- Ken POW Camp
located very close to crash site
3. A newspaper clipping from October 1945
Headline:
Augunas Liberated from Jap PW Camp
4. A document titled
Finding of Death
5. A Report of Death
The first and last Battle Casualty Reports make sense to me.
The second and third do not.
The first BCR, issued 5 April 1945,
states that SSgt Augunas is Missing in Action.
A telegram was sent to his parents.
The fourth BCR was issued 27 September 1946 with his status
Killed in Action in Japan
A telegram was sent to his parents on 18 October 1946
The second BCR dated 11 October 1945 has me
thoroughly confused.
SSgt Augunas' status is listed as
Returned to Military Control
SSgt Augunas was executed 18 July 1945 and
his remains recovered 26 February 1946.
Definition of Return to Military
Control found online
10 February 2023 :
The status of a person whose casualty status of
"duty status - whereabouts unknown"
or
"missing"
has been changed
due to the person's return or recovery by US military authority.
In the bottom half of this second BCR are the words :
INFO TAKEN FROM A REPORT MADE BY COMMITTEE
AT HYOGO-KEN INTERNMENT CAMP, FUTATABI KOBE JAPAN
FOUND ALIVE
This report from the Mansell Pacific POW web site
follows the second BCR
The last document in this page is
a newspaper article dated 13 October 1945 with the headline
AUGUNAS LIBERATED FROM
JAP PW CAMP
Within this article is a sentence concerning a Navy Lieutenant
who saw the crash and the two crew members who escaped the wreckage.
Not stated is if this Lieutenant was from the United States or one
of the other
Allied Armed forces who were imprisoned at this Camp.
In another sentence are the words :
" reported alive and back in American Military Hospital "
