BRAVE AIRMAN'S FATE

Lake Wakatip Mail, Issue 3969, 7 October 1930, Page 7

BRAVE AIRMAN'S FATE

FINDING OF MR HOOK'S SODY 9 SEARCHERS’ HARDSHIPS PRIVATIONS IN THE JUNGLE. A graphic account of the finding ot the body of Hr Eric L. Hook, the airman who crashed in the jungle with Mr J. Matthews, was given by the Pangoon correspondent of the ‘ Daily Mail, which organised an expedition to undertake the search. Special couriers, after many forced marches, arrived at Rangoon from the expedition on July JO, and announced that Mr Hook's body had been found. They reported that it was being taken into Prome, MOO miles north-east oi Rangoon, where it would be interred. Mr Matthews left Mr Hook on the bank of a mountain river, winch subsequently rose and washed his body away. Mr Hook by that time was undoubtedly dead, according to opinions expressed by medical men here after hearing Mr Matthews’s description of Mr Hook’s condition. The body, when found, was little more than a skeleton, hut there was no doubt about its identity. The airmen had discarded their shirts and stockings, and Mr Hook’s shorts had been utilised as a tree signal. identification by hair. The body was found naked, hearing all the signs of having been terribly mauled by a leopard or tiger. One sure mark of identity was the airman’s hair. Photographs were taken from all angles. The expedition sacrificed its ground-sheets, in which the body was wrapped for conveyance to Prome. The couriers took only five days to reach Rangoon, less than half the time taken by the expedition on the outward journey. The expedition, more than forty strong, had a gruelling time, spending the greater part of each day nearly waist-deep—and occasionally chest deep—in water. The body had evidently been left high and dry by the receding mountain cor rent. In the course of the search the expedition successfully forded nm-e than thirty rivers and covered approximately thirty-five to forty miles of river banks, all of which were searched from the stream. It is an odd coincidence that -Mr Hook’s body was found only a furlong away from the spot where Mr Matthews first encountered villagers. Moreover, the body was first seen by Sbwe Zan, one of the two cultivators who found Mr Matthews. The expedition rewarded Mr Matthews’s rescuers with a substantial money gift. The expedition was favoured through out with good weather, only two c\ clonic storms being encountered. The members are all satisfied now that the jungle has given up its secret. “IN HUMANITY’S CAUSE.” The ‘ Rangoon Gazette ’ plays a tribute to the members of the expedition, who “ volunteered in humanity’s cause to brave the awful monsoon and the jungle privations.” The newspaper savs it was unfortunate that the official search parties—which preceded the ‘ Daily Mail ’ expedition—were allowed to go' out without adequate European supervision, ill equipped and badly organised. One party had only one cartridge for one of the two guns carried. The journal continues: —“ It would however, be wrong to presume that eve 1 with European supervision Mr HooK could have been found alive, for med - cal opinion on Mr Matthews’s statement declares that .Mr Hook could not have survived another day.” TERRIFIED BY LEECHES. Mr Matthews and Mr Hook after their crash were terrified by leeches which they had never before encoun tered. Curiously enough, the expedition, which was equipped to face any thing that the jungle could produce, encountered nothing more formidable than domesticated water buffalo The greatest dangers which members had to face were the frequent river crossings. Sometimes a human chain was utilised. On several occasions dugouts were used on the rivers, and once the party had a narrow escape when the canoe almost crashed over a waterfall. . .. Happily, the expedition was well organised medically, and all the Enrop eans returned to Prome without having suffered anv apparent ill effects apart from fatigue, consequent on forcer marching. On two occasions sections ol the ex pedition were lost, and each time tno jungle guide picked up the tracks of the remainder of the party. All the members are full of praise for the powers of endurance of Mr Mat thews, who for over a week struggled in an ever-weakening state against terrible conditions ATTACKED AFTER DEATH. Mr T. B. Fry, an expert attached L* the Mammal Department of the Na tural History Museum, in London, said: — , ~ , .. , “ I should say that Mr Hook died either of exposure or exhaustion, and that iiis body was washed down by the swollen stream and then attacked, when left high and dry. by some kind of car rion-fceding animal. “Even had he been alive, tigers or panthers would not have attacked him, particularly as. in his exhausted state, he would have been lying almost motionless.” Mrs Hook, the dead airman s twenty-two-year-old wife, and her two little girls, had been anxiously awaiting news for nearly a month at their home at West Wickham. Kent. Up to the last moment Mrs Hook refused to believe that her husband would not be rescued.