Death & Diamonds in the Sand

It’s incredible hot, me and Michael have already hiked 3 hours or so along one of the remotest shorelines of the Dampier Peninsula. The sun, unrelenting in its energy sapping strength looks down on us without pity or the slightest remorse.

 

Almost 75 years ago two Japanese Zero fighters, with a ferocity matched only by the intense glare of the sun they exploited, mounted a deadly attack on a lone Dakota DC3 flown by the ace Russian pilot Captain Ivan Smirnoff. Onboard were 11 other passengers and more remarkably over 6000 uncut diamonds. The initial ruthless staffing of the 20mm Cannons bursting through the light aluminum frame of the unarmed DC3 hitting many of the occupants including Smirnoff who by sheer determination and expertise crash landed the plane on the same sands me and Michael are walking today. Remote, extremely challenging to reach with only a handful knowing the crash site we search for the remnants of the plane. Some years ago, Mario and some of the indigenous family members were quested to erect a memorial using the original hand etched steel plate made by the survivors of the crash.

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Following hours of searching we came across the weather beaten memorial high up on the beach above the tide-line. Four innocent people died that day. Years of sun, storms and ocean mist has aged the timeless memorial. I think about my grandfather who fought at Anzio and all those who lost their lives in the Great War. I look at the sun and imagine the fear and alarm for Smirnoff as the two Zeros pierced the suns rays with only one lethal intention.

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The story of the DC3, the diamonds, the survivors and the reason for their flight, is one of the greatest little-known stories of that era. The diamonds becoming almost folklore, most of the 6000 diamonds, now would be worth in the millions, vanished.

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Some of the older Burrguk indigenous members who gave us our home recalled seeing some of the diamonds, then shinny trinkets exchanged for flour, food and liquor. Evelyn told the story of her mother, then just a young aboriginal girl played with several diamonds, rolling them like glassy marbles on the hot pindan sand. Panic and fear as a police team arrived tasked with recovering the diamonds leading to many of the diamonds to be hidden or thrown down the Beagle Bay and Burrguk freshwater natural springs. Look for a tree with a chain wrapped around the trunk, there we hid some, Gumbal an elder told us.

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Perhaps somewhere within our reach lies a fortune, to us our journey and quest has a greater value. But wouldn’t it be fortuitous if just a few of those diamonds surfaced again.