John “Skip” Bailey

13.0
Presumption of Death of Skip Bailey and Charles William Vincent

A Department of Air Minute Paper dated 13th February 1947 presumed the deaths of W/O Skip Bailey and Flying Officer Charles William Vincent.

The minute stated that Flying Officer A. M. Brown had been informed that Skip and F/O C.W. Bailey were taken from the camp with twelve American prisoners in late November or early December 1943. He was further told by Japanese guards that they had been taken away by ship. No evidence of this was ever found.

An undated statement made by Father Lamarre he remembered an Australian Beaufort bomber being shot down over the St. Georges Channel and he remembered the following names of the crew:

Father Lamarre told investigators he last saw, eleven Americans and one Australian, at 0900 hours on 25th November 1943. He and others were sent from the camp to cut coconut logs but on their return they were told the prisoners they had seen earlier in the day had been taken to another camp.

Apparently, a Harry Badger, from the Australian Survey Department, a cook in the camp, also saw the men lined up with their wrists bound with rope. They were then blindfolded and taken away in a lorry in the afternoon.

After about two weeks, Father Lamarre recalls being sent to cut coconut logs again, and a party of Indian prisoners working nearby told him of a Japanese Officer from Rabaul who had told them that the twelve airmen had beeg beheaded.

With all the available evidence at hand, I believe this was the party which included Skip Bailey, him being the only Australian.