As this seems to be the place for daft questions about this, I have a couple to add:
1. I saw the photo of the turret here
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b ... eview.html
Are all these Bendix turrets that sleek, close-to-fuselage shape? Or has it been crushed in the impact? I have never seen one before, so don't know what they're meant to look like. I mean the belly turrets on most B-17s seem much deeper where someone can sit in it. Was this a different style, perhaps lying prone above it?
2. Are any of the crew who crashed in this aircraft still alive today?
This whole escapade would make a very good documentary if handled right. I hope someone's filming all this.
Just an aside, I met a very interesting young English chap in April who used to be in the Royal Marine Commandoes, but left last year and he moved to Guadalcanal where he spent five months. He actually spoke a bit of pidgin and was living with the locals all that time. His job was diving, and he had an interest also in old aircraft. He was saying how difficult the locals are in the region to get to know, but he managed to make some good friends there at the time and said that just before he was to leave to come to NZ a few of them felt enough of a bond with him to tell him they knew of several aircraft wrecks he hadn't seen. They told him they have some they show the tourists, and others are only known about by themselves, the villagers. They consider them very special and important, and do not what anyone from outside touching them or taking them. He said he wasn't sure if he believed it but in the end a coule of them took him, sworn to secrecy, into the jungle and showed him a Zero sitting there which they said no-one knew about at all. he reckoned it was in really good condition too. He said he swore on his life he'd never tell anyone where it was, and i believe him. They told him they knew of loads more really good wrecks sitting in the jungle which they wouldn't show him. I have no reason to doubt this, why would they lie?
And I doubt he was lying as his twin brother was sitting there with us, who'd not been in the islands but backed up a lot of his story.
Anyway, all i was thinking is it goes to show there could be a lot more really good quality wrecks out there which we'll never know about and nor will the scrappers or souvenir hunters. I kind of like that, the villagers respect what the planes stood for, and are their custodians, like their own private jungle museum.
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