WWII plane wreckage found on coast

KATU ^ | 03/26/10 | Anita Kissée

[DFG]

WHEELER, Ore. - In a heavily wooded area somewhere near this small coastal town, a piece of World War II history was found scattered in dozens of pieces - hidden for more than 60 years - and unknown until last week.

According to local officials and the U.S. Navy, the find is a Curtiss SB2C Helldiver, the Navy’s primary attack and bombing plane during World War II. Even more intriguing, is that it may also contain remains of the two crew members.

[Touch Not the Cat]

.
Sacred site.

[Puppage]

[Tallguy]

The SB2C had a lot of problems - structural failure of the tail chief among them. Not the kind of thing that you like to see in an aircraft, particularly a divebomber. The Douglas SBD “Dauntless” was supposed to be replaced by the Helldiver, but the SBD ended up serving until the end of the War, IIRC. Part of that may have been due to landing speeds on the smaller carriers.

[Red Badger]

Colts fan?............

[Joe 6-pack]

It really outperformed the Douglas Dauntless it was designed to replace, but I still think the Dauntless was a prettier airplane...

[Mr. K]

That remimds me of an old joke...

“But dem fokkers vas flying mezzerchmits”

[crazyhorse691]

In a heavily wooded area somewhere near this small coastal town, a piece of World War II history was found scattered in dozens of pieces - hidden for more than 60 years

---

Wheeler is a nice small coastal town(they even have a stop sign)on hwy 101 less than a hours drive north of Tillamook...the mts. are steep and covered with 2nd growth timber and undergrowth worthy of a jungle. There are places there that you go only if you are a logger or an elk hunter trying to haul out a kill(unwritten rule in the coast range is that a dead elk always looks for the steepest ridge to fall down after shot).

[ozzymandus]

That tasteless comment is going to haunt you. Most people don’t find dead service people very funny, except maybe Bill Maher.

[oldsalt]

The SB2C was also known as the “Sonuvabitch 2nd Class”...and for good reasons.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Fokker was a Dutch aircraft company that supplied Germany most of their combat aircraft for WWI. Messerschmitt built the Bf 109 for the Germany Luftwaffe in WWII.

The punch line of the joke uses the Americanized homonym for Fokker to make a dirty line sound clean in context.

I don't think the joke has anything to do with dead service people, but since I had to explain it, maybe it does to you.

[ozzymandus]

You didn’t have to “explain” anything to me. I just don’t think ancient jokes about dead US servicemen are funny. Apparently you do.

BTW, Fokker didn’t move his company to Holland until after WW1, when Germany was prohibited from building aircraft. Maybe you shouldn’t attempt “jokes” when you’re so ignorant of your subject.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

Where is the dead servicemen in the joke? And Fokker was Dutch. He built his first factory in Germany, but he was Dutch.

[higgmeister]

I got the Revell model of that aircraft for Christmas in the early Sixties.

At the time I imagined that I had almost won WWII all by myself with that wonderful plane.

The flight records should identify the Pilot and Gunner to give loved ones and us another chance to reflect on their sacrifice.

[LongElegantLegs]

I hope they find any bodies that may be out there.

[VOA]

bump

[GreyFriar]

One of my uncles helped build the Helldivers at the Curtiss-Wright Plant in Columbus, Ohio during WWII.

[Rannug]

The remains of a second cousin of mine was found inside his P-47 in Zuider Zee. I think this was about 1990. They found his Zippo and his dog tides. Quite a service they held for him.

[AEMILIUS PAULUS]

Perhaps the pilot and crew successfully bailed out? One would think there are records.

[BluH2o]

Interesting ... the plane went down in a secondary growth forest area. The area had been previously logged and the tree growth around the site of the crash appears to be planted trees, that are now mature and ready for cutting.
Judging by the trees I would guess their age 65-70. Which means when the aircraft went down the area was pretty much cut over, meaning the pilot may have tried to crash land the Curtis SB2C Helldiver.