US Silver Star awarded to Aussie airman

Seventy-one years ago, an American bomber was shot down over northern Papua New Guinea, killing all aboard including its Australian co-pilot, Flying Officer Edward Mobsby.

The US military decided all five aboard the B-25 Mitchell should posthumously receive the Silver Star for bravery, with the four Americans duly awarded the medal in 1942 and 1943.

But in an administrative oversight not unsurprising for that desperate time, Flying Officer Mobsby's medal was never presented to his widow Erica.

That oversight has now been corrected, with the commander of US Pacific Air Forces General Herbert Carlisle presenting the medal to Flying Officer Mobsby's twin daughters, Jennifer Read and Rae Rayner in a ceremony at the Australian War Memorial.

The Silver Star Medal is United States' third highest award for gallantry.

The US Embassy in Canberra said the US Air Force - with some prodding from the family - had reviewed its records and decided to award the medal.

Flying Officer Mobsby, 31, was one of a significant number of Australian, New Zealand and Dutch airmen who served with US air crews during the war.

On July 26, 1942, Flying Officer Mobsby's Mitchell and four others took off from Port Moresby to attack Japanese flying boats at Gasmata, New Britain. They never made it that far.

Japanese forces were ascendant at that stage of the war. Fighting on the Kokoda Track had just started and the Battle of Milne Bay was a month away.

Over northern New Guinea, the flight was jumped by a force of some 15 Japanese fighters. Two bombers were shot down, with Flying Officer Mobsby's aircraft last seen burning fiercely from nose to tail.

His remains were interred at Port Moresby's Bomana War Cemetery.