Greenland B17s

CoastieJohn · **Joined:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:37 pm **Posts:** 1380

Rocket88 wrote:

I would love to see more B17s flying. I would also like to see more B29s flying (we should have 2 soon, and could've had 3 had it not been for that mishap in Greenland). I would love to see at least 1 B26 flying, and more B24s flying. I've read the depressing stories about the race to disarm, the rows of B17s for miles, alot of them brand new, cut up for scrap 1 at a time. We are lucky to have what we have

With that thought......kinda wonder how many of those planes you list are laying in the lakes, woods or mountainside somewhere in Europe? We often hear of them in the Pacific or SE Asia but not too much conversation of them in Europe somewhere.

Rocket88 · **Joined:** Wed Mar 13, 2013 6:54 pm **Posts:** 23

I've often wondered that very thing. There are lots of wrecks in the water in the Pacific, several B17s in the water that are known and probably recoverable, 2 P38s in shallow water around Indonesia, My own grandfather ditched a Corsair within swimming distance of one of the Pacific Islands, etc and so on. If there is a relatively intact B29 laying at the bottom of one of our man made lakes, you know there's lakes and rivers around Europe that hold alot of our downed planes...and unfortunately, our boys

John, I read the duck hunt blog. While progress is slow it looks promising. It would be great if they found the C53 as well. All those planes that went down looking for them, those 2 that fell into deep cracks...what an awful way to die.

CoastieJohn · **Joined:** Fri Feb 11, 2011 5:37 pm **Posts:** 1380

One would think some of the bigger fresh water bodies of water over are holding some airframes. Maybe some airframes in the Alps??

The C-53 with it's 5 MIA's will be another case. I hope the team can set a GPS sat tracker at the search box for it. I'm (we're) hoping to hear something from the team soon about any things of interest for the Duck. We'll see......

groundpounder · **Posted:** Thu Sep 12, 2013 5:46 pm

I am surprised that so few of the posters here have read the book "Frozen in time". It's a good read and tells the full story to date.

PinecastleAAF · **Joined:** Fri May 25, 2007 4:50 pm **Posts:** 1027

I hope some resources can be put into a seach for the missing C-54 with 40+ passengers one of these days.

daviemax · **Posted:** Sat Sep 28, 2013 9:08 am

daviemax wrote:

The SB-17G that became lodged on the ice cap in an attempt to rescue the C-47 crew was 44-83724. Available records indicate it may have been salvaged and scrapped but this is not confirmed. See photo below, haunting arctic shadows render the scene ghostly and lonely.

Now have the accident report in hand. On 13 December 48 aircraft landed at site of downed C-47 (62-deg 45-min North; 46-deg 55-min West, which is north-northwest of Bluie West One) in a carefully planned rescue attempt (note - serial number of C-47 not included in this report). B-17 was stripped of all non-essential equipment, given minimal fuel for the operation, and flown by a crew of two only (pilot and flight engineer in RH seat). Two other aircraft (a ski-wheel C-47 and another SB-17) flew as an escort. Unfortunately, the accident aircraft ran into deep snow upon landing on the icecap and in the accident sequence the LH gear hit a hidden obstacle (ice block was assumed) and collapsed, pitching the aircraft on its nose with the resultant damage to the no. 2 nacelle and nose. There is no reference in the report material as to the final disposition of either aircraft that were down on the ice cap.

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Greenland B17s

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