World War II

Hello everyone! It’s your errant WWII blogger emerging from the holiday mists. I really didn’t intend for our Thanksgiving break to be quite this long, but sometimes circumstances have a way of jumping in the driver’s seat and taking control. So, as a friend said, we’re three-quarters of the way through the Hallothankmas holiday season and trying to keep our heads above the ho-ho-ho waters until 2008 rolls in and we can breathe again.

The last time we talked I shared a story about a P-38 uncovered by beach eroision in Wales. Now I have a report of a Douglas-C47 that has turned up in Bosnia near Sarajevo. It last flew 13 years ago during the Bosnian war for independence when bullets riddled the fuselage. But this is one tough plane. It’s been around since 1944 and flew as an unarmed cargo plane during the Normandy invasion when it dropped paratroopers behind enemy lines to sabotage German batteries preparatory to the landings.

The plane will be taken to Merville, Normandy, restored, and displayed in the local museum. The radio operator on the craft, Joseph “Buck” Buckner died in 2003 but his son said he could recite the plane’s tail number without hesitation. The plane was so heavily damaged at Normandy with holes in the wings and fuselage it couldn’t take off again after its final drop. Engineers patched it up and it went in again for Operation Market Garden, the mission in the Netherlands immortalized in A Bridge Too Far. Ditto for a mission to Belgium. And it appears the C-47 continued to get shot up right through 1994.

This baby deserves to rest quietly in a museum and have its story told. (Click here to read the Houston Chronicle’s article on this story.)

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WWII, World War II, Normandy, C-47

Really, it was the photo that got me. The image I’ve used here is a screen shot from the original story posted at ABC News. (Click here to read.) What you’re seeing is an American P-38 fighter plane that made an emergency landing in 1942 on the Welsh coast. It’s been buried under sand and water for 65 years until erosion of the beach revealed the wreckage in July. Do I even need to say, “How danged cool is that?”

But wait, it gets better. Using the serial number to track the plane, it may well be the oldest of its kind in existence and the oldest plane that flew with the 8th Air Force to have survived. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery has surveyed the site and will collaborate with museum experts in Britain to recover the craft which, though fragile, is largely intact. A number of museums have expressed interest in the find.

The exact location of the plan is being guarded since the archaeologists need to stay ahead of potential looting to protect their find. When the tides expose the plane, it is being guarded, however for the time being the craft is once again safely encased in sand. The U.S. Air Force regards planes lost prior to 1961 to be “formally abandoned” and would only get involved if human remains are found, which won’t be the case with this plane.

The pilot of this plane was 2nd Lt. Robert F. “Fred” Elliott of Rich Square, N.C. He was forced to make a belly landing when he ran out of gas on a training mission on Sept. 27, 1942. Elliott, who was just 24 at the time, was shot down three months later on a combat mission over Tunisia. Neither he nor his plane was ever recovered.

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WWII, World War II, P-38, historic aircraft

Some of you may have seen the story about the V1 missile found in London last week near the Canary Wharf financial district. (Here’s the link to the CNN write-up.)

There are some impressive statistics to consider about this World War II era relic:

It’s been there since 1944 or 1945.

The .9 ton warhead was still intact.

The V1 was 25 feet long, weighed 2.1 tons, and had a wingspan of 18 feet.

It had a range of a little better than 155 miles (250 kilometers).

It flew at a speed of 391 mph (630 kph).

The V1 was powered by a jet engine and flew at an altitude of between 2,000 and 3,000 feet.

(You can read about the full history of the V1 here at Wikipedia.)

My point is that for supposedly old technology, the V1 that was unearthed in London is still an impressive piece of armament and was treated as such by bomb disposal experts.

Many years ago I remember running my fingers over damaged sections of the the wall around the British Museum and later the same week visiting the ruined shell of Canterbury Cathedral. Experts say that there are hundreds of unexploded bombs buried throughout England, silent reminders of the great Battle of Britain and capable of bringing the war back to life in a heartbeat.

V1, WWII, unexploded ordinance, London, Battle of Britain

After the Pearl Harbor bombing in 1941, the Naval Ammunition Depot at Mare Island, California went to full capacity producing ammunition. When the facility couldn’t keep up with demand, operations were expanded to the Port Chicago Naval Magazine in San Franciso.

Construction began on the new installation in 1942 and by 1944 African-American navy personnel could load two ships simultaneously at the site. Although the men worked around the clock under the supervision of white officers, the troops had received training in cargo handling only — not munitions work.

Late in the day on July 17, 1944 the SS Quinault Victory and the SS E.A. Bryan were receiving about 4,606 tons of incendiary and high explosive bombs, ammunition, and depth charges. On the pier, sixteen rail cars held another 429 tons of highly explosive material. At 10:18 p.m., it all blew.

When the smoke cleared, the port was crippled and 320 men, most of them African-American sailors, were dead. It was the largest disaster on the homefront during the entire war. No clear reason for the explosion was ever determined.

Yesterday ceremonies were held at the site to commemorate the 63rd aniversary of the blast and if advocates have their way, Port Chicago will become part of the National Park System. An important reminder that lives were lost on the homefront as well as on the battlefield and that the contribution of segregated troops to the war effort was heroic, patriotic and substantial.

For more on the ceremones see this story from the International Herald Tribune. For more on the disaster and work to preserve the site and the memory of the men who died there, click here. For a list of those who died, click here.

Naval Ammunition Depot, Mare Island, Port Chicago, San Francisco, WWII

Today Wired is running a story about the world’s first operational jet fighter, which took flight 65 years ago — today. The Messerschmitt 262 flew that July 18th in the Bavarian skies with World War II raging across Europe. (Couldn’t find a photo that wasn’t copyrighted, but click over to Wired and you can see the plane.)

Although the plane didn’t get into combat until 1944, giving Allied fighters, including the British Gloster Meteor, a run for their money, it helped to usher in the era of jet-powered fighters. As I was poking around looking for details on the plane I ran across the ME 262 Project over at stormbirds.com. They’re getting five examples of the vintage craft in airworthy condition.

I love to find this kind of endeavor to preserve vintage machinery of any kind. It’s a dream of mine to some day have a chance to go up in a B-25 and experience, in the most visceral way I can, what flying that plane was like for my Dad during the war. Keeping these old warbirds up and running is a real part of preserving the history of the war so let’s take our hats off today to the Messerschmitt 262. Even if, from an American perspective, it’s an “enemy” plane, she’s still a beauty.

vintage aircraft, jets, Messerschmitt, Gloster Meteor