Shifting sands reveal World War Two fighter plane lost for 65 years

Daily Mail ^ | 15th November 2007 | Daily Mail staff

[PotatoHeadMick]

For 65 years, this Second World War fighter had lain hidden under the surface of a beach where it crash-landed.

Just a short distance above it, holidaying families have built sandcastles, strolled and swum, all unaware of its existence.

But now the P-38 Lightning has re-emerged after freak weather conditions caused the sands to shift and expose its rusting frame.

The U.S. aircraft - with its distinctive "twinboom" design - was discovered on the North Wales coast, but the location is being kept secret in case it is targeted by looters.

Its remains were spotted by a family in July, but it was thought to be an unmanned drone used for aerial target practice from the 1950s.

However, a local aviation enthusiast recognised it from a newspaper photo and contacted a group of U.S. aircraft historians.

The Lightning has been identified using its serial number and other records. It was built in 1941 and reached Britain in 1942 before flying combat missions along the Dutch-Belgian coast.

It was flown by Second Lieutenant Robert F. "Fred" Elliott, 24, from North Carolina.

During a gunnery practice mission on September 27, 1942, a fuel supply problem forced him to make an emergency landing on the nearest suitable place - the Welsh beach.

His belly landing in shallow water sheared off a wingtip, but he escaped unhurt.

Unfortunately, less than three months later, the veteran of more than ten combat missions was shot down over Tunisia. His plane and body were never found.

His nephew, Robert Elliott, 64, of Blountville, Tennessee, has spent nearly 30 years trying to learn more about his uncle's career.

"This is just a monumental discovery and a very emotional thing," said Mr Elliott, who hopes to be present for the recovery. Ric Gillespie, who heads the International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, is leading the mission to recover the P-38.

"American officers had the guns removed, and the records say the aircraft was salvaged, but it wasn't," he said.

"It was gradually covered with sand, and there it sat for 65 years. With censorship in force and British beaches closed to the public during the war, nobody knew it was there.

"It's sort of like Brigadoon, the mythical Scottish village that appears and disappears. The fighter is arguably the oldest P-38 in existence. In that respect it's a major find."

The twin-engine P-38 was conceived by Lockheed design genius Clarence "Kelly" Johnson in the late 1930s. Some 10,000 were built, and about 32 complete or partial airframes are believed to still exist.

The recovery group plans to collaborate with British museum experts in recovering the nearly intact but fragile aircraft next spring.

The Imperial War Museum Duxford and the Royal Air Force Museum are among the institutions expressing interest in it.

[iowamark]

Basic html could not be simpler.

See:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/757944/posts

[tlb]

don’t give me a P-38
the props, they counter-rotate
they’re scattered & sittin’
from Burma to Britain
don’t give me a P-38
NO

give me operations
way out on some lonely atoll
for I am too young to die
I just wanna grow old

[P.O.E.]

Reminds me of one of my favorite Twilight Zones.

[Viking2002]

For Free Republic, use this template - replace the brackets with < and >:

[P][IMG SRC=" insert the URL of your pic here "][/IMG][/P]

[DAC22]

Speak of the Devil(s) Chino, May 2007
By whou2, shot with Canon PowerShot A510 at 2007-11-14

[RinaseaofDs]

Not the funnest plane to bail out of, I have read. The tail bar caught ejecting pilots, apparently.

[Calvin Locke]

From one show on the P-38, the pilots were told to crawl out on the wing, and fall off on the other side on an engine to avoid the that particular problem.

The former Lightning pilot relating that tidbit said he was fortunate in never having to perform that method of egress in flight.

[SW6906]

Ping!

[hinckley buzzard]

And of course it was a team of P-38 fighters that took out Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, just our way of saying “sayonara Isoroku, and thanks.”

"Pop goes the weasel."

[GOP_Party_Animal]

Sign up at http://photobucket.com/ That’s the easiest way.

[bajabaja]

Just . . . WOW.

[mkjessup]

And of course it was a team of P-38 fighters that took out Japanese Admiral Yamamoto, just our way of saying “sayonara Isoroku, and thanks.”
"Pop goes the weasel."

You got it. What a shame that our national leadership in this current day and age lacks the stones to do the same thing when it comes to rogue scumbags like Iran's Ahmadinejad, Venezuela's lil fat Castro aka Hugo Chavez, etc.

They've been up there in the wild blue yonder, all we needed was the go-ahead from our compassionate conservative President.

[A.A. Cunningham]

I believe it was a U-2 that provided the U.S. with proof of Soviet missiles in Cuba in ‘62.

The high altitude U-2 photos lacked the detail to definitively prove that the Soviets were installing missiles in Cuba. The definitive proof was provided by Marine Corps and Navy pilots flying low level missions in RF-8s. The Cubans also shot down a U-2 killing Rudolph Anderson

[sargunner]

Also RF-101s

[Live free or die]

And don't give me a P-39
with the engine crammed way back behind
it will bump
it will roll
it will dig a big hole
don't give me a P-39

[MarkL]

Kelly Johnson went on to design the famous U-2 reconnisance plane, which provided the U.S. with the capability to overfly the Soviet Union in the late 1950’s with near impunity (although the late Francis Gary Powers might take issue with that claim), and I believe it was a U-2 that provided the U.S. with proof of Soviet missiles in Cuba in ‘62.

Don't forget that it was also Kelly Johnson and "The Skunk Works" that also designed the SR-71, and many other "black ops" aircraft, most of which we've never heard of.

My uncle (an aeronautical engineer with McDonnell/Douglass and later Boeing knew Kelly Johnson, and he was in awe of the man.

Mark

[Drawsing]

Was this not the plane depicted in the movie and book “The Flight of the Phoenix?” In this movie, travelers crashed their P-38 in the desert and finally made it out by building a new plane out of one of the “booms”.

[al baby]

How does one post pictures?

One has to be logged in first

[DMZFrank]

I think that was a cargo plane the Fairchild C-82 Packet, a twin-engined high-wing, twin boom, twin-tailed tactical freighter and troop transport. Total of 220 built.

[Tommyjo]

It will most likely end up at Duxford in the UK.