US P-47 found in Germany

Stevin · #1 (**permalink**) September 13th, 2005, 07:56 AM

http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/com...5E1702,00.html

The_Historian · #2 (**permalink**) September 13th, 2005, 09:36 AM

Nice story, Stevin. Good to see someone using a bit of initiative there.

bigiceman · #3 (**permalink**) September 13th, 2005, 02:40 PM

That makes two P-47 planes that have been exhumed this summer. There was a post a few months ago about one pulled out of a German lake.

Stevin · #4 (**permalink**) September 13th, 2005, 04:24 PM

Indeed bigice, that was in Austria, though.

In fact, the Dutch AIr Force is salvaging a 78 Sqn Halifax right now which was the object of my very first in depth research project 20 years ago. The nephew of the tail gunner and I researched this crew and mission in depth and found out that 5 of the crew were still with the plane while oficially they are buried in Jonkerbos Cemetery in Nijmegen (Their gravestones are there!). After 20 years local residents finally got the municipality so far that they would allow the salvage (which was always denied on ground of "They were recovered" and later "it is too expensive"). The salvage shows us right as human remains were found in the first week of the operation....

Just to be sure; I am not responsible for this salvage. The determination of local citizins is to thank for that. I got nowhere with my requests and had to give up. A few years later a local pressure group was founded with some powerful locals that made the salvage happen, but needless to say I have quite some feeling involved with this salvage.

TA152 · #5 (**permalink**) September 13th, 2005, 08:08 PM

Glad to hear about the P-47 but I am even more glad to hear about the Halifax!! Keep us posted about the Halifax please. [img]graemlins/salute.gif[/img]

Stevin · #6 (**permalink**) September 14th, 2005, 02:55 PM

Will do. Here is a Dutch site about the crash, crew and salvage:

WWW.Hank.nl/halifax1944

The_Historian · #7 (**permalink**) September 14th, 2005, 02:57 PM

Good work, Stevin.

Stevin · #8 (**permalink**) September 30th, 2005, 09:32 PM

Visited the salvage of the LV905 last week....

This was the bomb sight. The copper thingie said BOMB AIMING COMPUTER. Unfortunatley that was stole within an hour.

One of the props. They had two on display. Check the way it is bend!

One of the landing gears.

One of the engines. What impressed me when looking at the debri was the force that the plane must have come down with (considering that the Halifax came in shallow), a lot of the equipment, like the engines and heavy parts were completely unhinged, etc. It was obvious that the impact was huge.

the radio???

This is the part just behind the prop. Like other bits and pieces it lookind like in prestine shaope. Some parts looked like they had been put in the day before. This also shows signs of the huge impact. This prop was actually dripping oil!!

TA152 · #9 (**permalink**) October 1st, 2005, 09:44 AM

Really nice pictures Stevin. I was trying to figure out how the prop got bent forward.
The radio has tubes after all these years!

I hope nothing else gets stolen off of the plane.

bigiceman · #10 (**permalink**) October 1st, 2005, 01:08 PM

Stevin, those are great pictures. It is a shame that the bomb sight parts got stolen. [img]graemlins/no.gif[/img] I hope that they get a bent as that prop.

Speaking of the prop. This plane must have spent some time going backwards when it hit the ground. I have seen a lot of pictures of planes that crash landed and they were always bent opposite the direction of travel.

I read what I could of the foundation website. I really must learn to read a few more languages. Was there more information about the actual crash? Any accounts from the people of Hank that would explain the orientation of the plane as it crashed?