Mungkin ramai antara kita, khususnya orang Negeri Sembilan tidak mengetahui sejarah bahawa sebuah pesawat pengebom Amerika Syarikat jenis B-29 telah terhempas di Kg. Astana Raja, Rembau pada 11 Januari 1945 selepas melakukan misi pengeboman ke atas pangkalan laut tentera Jepun di Singapura. Beberapa tentera Amerika telah terselamat apabila terjun menggunakan payung terjun dari pesawat tersebut.
Orang-orang kampung antaranya Ujang bin Mat Seh, Ibrahim bin Wahab, Talif bin Ali, Sudin bin Sidek, Karim serta dibantu oleh orang Cina dan India dari sekitar Astana Raja, Semerbok, Kendong dan Kota telah menyelamatkan tentera Amerika dari buruan tentera Jepun dengan menyerahkan tentera Amerika ini kepada gerila komunis pada ketika itu yang berada di sekitar Rembau.
Bagaimana pun, dua orang tentera Amerika telah berjaya ditangkap oleh tentera Jepun hasil maklumat dari seorang anggota polis berbangsa Melayu.
Menarik bukan sejarah di Rembau ini, kita harapkan pihak kerajaan negeri khususnya pihak Lembaga Muzium Negeri Sembilan dapat menjejak kembali tapak pesawat ini terhempas serta keturunan mereka yang telah menyelamatkan tentera Amerika ini samada terdiri dari orang kampung mahu pun gerila komunis.
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In 1998, an American visited Malaysia with his father diary and he contacted one of our team members Mr Sager Ahmad and told that his father bailed out from a B-29 bomber in Negeri Sembilan during World War 2. Mr. Sager met the son of the aircrew from the famous B-29 bomber 'Postville Express' which crashed in Rembau and they visited the crash site together. Mr.Shaharom later took some pictures to put it in our website, Malaya Historical Group
B-29 42-24704 which was the third aircraft in the formation, managed to avoid the flaming wreckages to carry out their mission. The Japanese subsequently salvaged and developed the film from a camera taken from a B-29's wreckage and one of the photos developed showed "Postville Express" flying alongside the doomed B-29. The US Army Air Corp lost 14 B-29 bombers in that mission.
On the fateful day of 11 January 1945, the 'Postville Express' (the aircraft was named "Postville Express" after the pilot's hometown of Postville, Iowa) was overhead their target –The Singapore Naval Dry Dock facilities at 8:54 am. After dropped their bombs, accurate and heavy anti-aircraft shells from the ground and a floating anti-aircraft platform (the badly damaged Japanese cruiser Myoko) filled the sky. The Japanese fighters which included Zero, Frank, Oscar, Tony and others flew in like swarm of angry hornets from their nest, pumping bullets and cannon shells into the B-29 bombers, some even dropped aerial bombs on the B-29 formation. While the pilot Major Humprey tried to help Col Billing, suddenly the wing gave away and snapped, flipped the B-29 on its right side and tossing them about in the nose cabin. Maj Humprey cannot recall how he managed to get out from the spinning wreckage but he landed safely on Rembau, after opened his parachute at about 4000 feet.
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