From Our Correspondent
AGARTALA: The Assam Rifles has scripted a major success when it recovered relics of a US aircraft which was crashed during the World War II from a remote village of Dhalai district.
Though the Assam Rifles troops achieved the success at Birmonipara in Dhalai district on December 16, it was officially declared on Friday night.
The crash site of US C-47B which crashed during World War II was discovered by a team of 34 Assam Rifles recently, according to a official release. The discovery was made on December 16, added the official in a communiqué.
During World War II, the allied forces had lost hundreds of aircraft in the China-Burma India (CBI) theatre of operations. Most of allied aircraft crashes were caused by inhospitable weather, mechanical failure or navigational errors. The American Joint Prisoners of War and Missing in Action Accounting Commmand (JPAC) had identified 16 such crash sites in the entire periphery of Northeastern India where allied forces aircraft had crashed during the World War II.
According to the release, On 17 May 1946, the ill-fated C-47B aircraft crashed in Tripura due to heavy storm along with 11 of its crew members. The aircraft was known to be carrying the remains of allied POW (Prisoners of War) from Rangoon to Calcutta.
The crash of US aircraft in and around the Longtarai Valley hill was mentioned in a noble- From Karachi to Longtarai penned by Former Health Minister Bimal Sinha. According to it, the allied force aircraft had started it journey from Karachi and the pilot wanted to land at Kailashar airport but the authority exhorted the do the same at Kamalpur and on way to Kamalpur, the US aircraft crashed into the deep jungle of Longtari Valley due to hostile condition. At last, the tell-tale story based noble appeared true though the author is no longer with us.