Rickenbacker's B-17

[Left Seat]

There are some pretty deep places around the Philippines.

You can see the Philippine Trench just to the east of Mindanao.

The Emden Deep at the bottom of the Philippine Trench is the second deepest place on earth at 34,440 feet (6 1/2 miles).
The Challenger Deep in the Mariana Trench is the deepest at 35,814 feet.



If you are looking for 40-3086, then I REALLY would hope that it would be ditched just off the south-west coast of Zamboanga, Mindanaoin in "shallow" 2-400 foot water!

Zamboanga is the peninsula that looks like the elephant's trunk.

Last edited by Left Seat on Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:26 am, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris Brame]

Page 53 of Edward Jablonski's book Flying Fortress makes reference to the action on December 10, 1941. The plane flown by Lieutenant G. R. Montgomery, though not mentioned by serial, sounds like the right one:

Armed with twenty 100-pound bombs, he took off again to follow Schaetzel and Kelly to Aparri. He saw neither of their Fortresses and proceeded to bomb the beach and left, certain that one ship was afire in the bay. Back over Clark, Montgomery was ordered to continue on to Del Monte. Night was falling by this time and the B-17 ran into rough weather. Before long it was obvious that they had missed Del Monte and their fuel supply was low. Montgomery ditched the plane in a heavy downpour four miles offshore; though the Fortress sank all crew members safely got to shore.

There you go. So how deep is it four miles offshore?

[Left Seat]

Chris you may be onto something.
4 miles offshore? ...judging by the bathymetric map of the Philippines on the preceding page... probably less than 200 feet.

http://www.whoa.org/publications/stories/barbedwire/

From: James H. Cowan, May 1, 1972:

December 8, 1941 I was a young Air Force soldier stationed at Clark Field in the Philippine Islands.

It was lucky that part of our B-17s were at Del Monte Field on Mindanao. Our remaining B-17s were ordered to attack.
On December 10, five planes, led by Capt. Cecil B. Combs, made the first air raid attack in World War II. One of the crews flying that day was commanded by a young West Pointer named Colin P. Kelly. He and two other pilots, Lieutenants G. R. Montgomery and George E. Schaetzel, had managed to get their planes into the air with only short bomb loads because the crews that had been loading their planes at Clark had been interrupted by a red alert. Montgomery had 1 bomb and Schaetzel carried a full load of eight. Montgomery flew north and dropped his lone bomb on the transports and headed back to Clark for more bombs. He took on a load of 20 100 pounders and took off to follow the others to Aparri. He was unable to locate the other B-17s, so he dropped his bombs near the beach, certain he had damaged a troop ship. He put in again at Clark and was ordered back to Del Monte, but never made it.

He ran into a storm and was forced down in the surf off the island.

Clark Field is located North-West of Manilla on Luzon

Last edited by Left Seat on Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:34 am, edited 2 times in total.

[Left Seat]

Memorial at the former Del Monte Field.
The airfields were returned to the Del Monte Pineapple Corporation and are now rice paddies and a cornfield.


Japanese Oscar Downed by USAAC at Clark Field (Philippines) circa 1946.

Last edited by Left Seat on Thu Jul 17, 2014 5:54 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Chris Brame]

Japanese Zero Downed by USAAC at Clark Field (Philippines) circa 1946.

Oscar, actually, that was scrapped around 1960.

[Left Seat]

You’re right.
I shouldn’t be posting in the middle of the night when I’m half asleep…
or is that posting when I'm half awake?