6. Salvation Falls From the Heavens
Things improved somewhat for the Anahatan castaways in January, 1945, when a B-29 bomber, returning from a raid on Japan, crashed on Anatahan. Scavenging the wreckage, the castaways fashioned the plane’s metal into crude instruments and useful items, such as knives, pots, and roofs for their huts.
Parachutes were turned into clothing; oxygen tanks were used for storing water; springs from machine guns were fashioned into fishing hooks; nylon cords were used as fishing lines, and some pistols were also recovered. Conditions remained difficult, but the timely crash of the bomber had saved the castaways. They had been facing slow starvation, until seemingly divine aid fell from the sky and gave them a fighting chance at survival.