Posted on 04/20/2009 5:02:02 AM PDT by wolfcreek
On July 15, 1942, a flight of six P-38s and two B-17 bombers, with a total of 25 crew members on board, took off from Presque Isle Air Base in Maine headed for the U.K. What followed was a harrowing and life-threatening landing of the entire squadron on a remote ice cap in Greenland. (See photo of downed P-38 from the "Lost Squadron.") Miraculously, none of the crew was lost and they were all rescued and returned safely home after spending several days on the desolate ice.
(Excerpt) Read more at p38assn.org ...
"Fifty years later a small group of aviation enthusiasts decided to locate that squadron, who had come to be known as "The Lost Squadron," and to recover one of the lost P-38s. It turned out to be no easy task, as the planes had been buried under 25 stories of ice and drifted over a mile from their original location."
Turns out it snows 50+ ft. every winter and all but about 7 ft. melts in the summer. 268 ft. accumulated since WWII.
Paging ALGORE!
Ping!
That was on the history channel first thing this morning.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll catch it when it gets out to the Pacific Time Zone this AM.
Are those the three girls that were used to melt the ice around the plane?
Ya gotta admire those classic chassis lines...
Nawwww. They’re too hot. One would have done the job just fine.
Actually kind of an interesting story. There were several planes that ended up on the ice and the pilots and crews made a bit of a vacation out of it.
They couldn’t be directly rescued so supplies were dropped to them. Finally a dog sled team reached them and they all walked out together.
First Flight and landing of the Glacier Girl. Glad they did not need that fire truck :-)
Y'all have a great day out there
Regards
alfa6 ;>}
Sure was. LOL!
Had to slap ol’ Al in the face with that one.
Those gals would of cause some stir back in the ‘40s.
Where’s the plane in the picture?
Ping!
Three P-38 fighter groups were operational in the Pacific, where Lightnings were accredited with the destruction of more Japanese aircraft than any other fighter in USSAF service. They are well recorded in the air force's history for a string of memorable actions, including the interception and destruction, some 550 miles (885 km) from their base, at Guadalcanal, of the Mitsubishi G4M carrying Japan's Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, a skilful action carried out by aircraft from the 70th, 112th and 339th Fighter Squadrons. And, of course, the USAAF's 'ace of aces' of World War II, Major Richard I. Bong, scored all of his 40 confirmed victories while flying P-38s in the Pacific theatre. In Europe P-38s served mainly with the 9th Air Force, used extensively on long-range fighter escort duties in support of 8th Air Force daylight bombing missions against German targets.
It was the return bomber escort trips of those Lightnings the Germans didn't care for at all.
ping
Tomorrow is the most important thing in life. It comes into us at midnight very clean. It’s perfect when it arrives and it puts itself in our hands. It hopes we’ve learned something from yesterday. - John Wayne
Ditto!!!
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