Date:	Sunday 12 September 1943
Time:
Type:	Consolidated B-24E Liberator
Owner/operator:	530th BSqn /380th BGp USAAF
Registration:	42-40524
MSN:	1601
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 11 / Occupants: 11
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Macassar, Celebes -   Indonesia
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAAF Fenton, Australia
Destination airport:

Narrative:
In the evening of 11 September, 12 B-24s of 380th BG USAAF took off from Fenton Airfield, Australia, for a night raid against Makassar, Celebes. They met intense AA fire. 27 tons of bombs plus incendiaries were dropped and larges fires among fuel tanks, warehouses and barracks were reported by the returning crew.

Some American crews attacked at low altitude for better results but one was lost doing so. The B-24D-65-CO "The Red Ass" (serial Number 42-40524) of 530th BS was reported to have been destroyed by a huge explosion. Nobody knew if it has been hit in the bomb bay by anti-aircraft fire or caught in the explosion of a ship or an ammunition magazine.

Actually, Australian prisoners of war then held in Makassar reported after the war that this bomber did not blow up but crashed in the port. Four of the eleven crew survived the crash and were captured. The Japanese, furious after the raid, paraded them through the town the next day, then subjected them to a long and violent questioning behore beheading them.

Crew (all killed or executed the same day):
Captain David A. Lippincott (pilot)
1st Lt. Loyd E. Swan (co-pilot)
1st Lt. Hal I. Grace (bombardier)
1st Lt. Wayne H. Moore (navigator)
TSgt William J. Pratscher (engineer)
1st Lt. Farid Simaika (photographer)
SSgt Robert M. Chapman (assistant engineer)
SSgt Wilson E. Page (assistant radio)
TSgt Elmer T. Hallam (radio/gunner)
SSgt David J. Canning (armourer/gunner)
SSgt David J. Witt (assistant armourer/gunner)

Swan was not the usual co-pilot of Capt Lippincott, but was replacing 2nd Lt Joe Vick that was on a training session to become pilot and aircraft commander. Grace was a usual crew of the B-24D fyrtle Myrtle and joined also this mission to complete the crew.
Farid Simaika was born on June 12, 1907, in Egypt. He competed for Egypt at the 1928 Summer Olympics Simaika won the silver medal at platform high diving and the bronze medal at the 3-meter springboard. Simaika married Mabel C Vanden Akker on February 13, 1929, in Los Angeles, California. He then married Betty Jane Wilson and they had one child together. In March 1942 Simaika received American citizenship, and on August 3, 1942 enlisted in the U.S. Army.

The whole crew is commemorated on the Wall of Missing of the Manila War Cemetery. In the MACR, Canning is listed as being KIA, and his official death date is 12 September 1943. All other were declared dead on 19 December 1945. According to the book “Soleil Levant sur l'Australie“, Hal Grace was one of the survivors who were executed by the Japanese.

https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-24/42-40524.html
http://380th.org/HISTORY/PARTV/PDF/TheRedAss.pdf
MACR 673 (https://www.fold3.com/image/28601368)
"Soleil Levant sur l'Australie", by Bernard Baeza. ISBN 2-914017-43-X, pages 369-370
"World War II A Chronology September 1943", by Military Intelligence Division, War Department, page 33
https://worldwartwoveterans.org/simaika-farid-o-573371/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Makassar
http://wikimapia.org/#lang=en&lat=-5.133056&lon=119.413611&z=15&m=w

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
13-Oct-2021 09:21	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Registration, Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Country, Departure airport, Source, Narrative, Category]
13-Oct-2021 16:10	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Narrative]
10-Dec-2021 12:30	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Other fatalities, Departure airport, Operator]