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1 September 1999
Report to the Explorers Club
By: Patrick J. Scannon, MD, PhD, FN ‘96
Expedition members: Patrick
Scannon, Chip Lambert, Pam Lambert, Dan Bailey
Executive Summary:
The purpose of the Project P-MAN was t o search for and
document crash sites of US airplanes shot down by Japanese military forces
over Palau during WWII. The team found, both on land and in the ocean,
4 planes (2 F4U Corsairs (US Marines), 1 TBF Avenger (US Navy) and 1 Japanese
Jake seaplane). While scuba diving, we incidentally found two sunken Japanese
boats from that era as well. To date one of the F4U Corsairs has been
identified; the other two US aircraft are in progress of being identified.
While the team was not successful in finding other wrecks that were included
in the original plan, through a combination of physical exploration and
interviewing of Palauan locals during this expedition, we are closer on
finding those as well.
Brief Historical Background of Air War over Palau:
During 1944-45, US forces (Navy, Army Air Corps and Marines)
made repeated air raids over the Palau Islands (approximately 500 miles
north of the equator and 600 miles south and east of the Philippines).
The first series of attacks occurred in the spring of 1944 in the form
of aircraft carrier task force strikes (Operation DESECRATE ONE) to prevent
the Japanese Army and Navy in Palau from providing flanking air support
against MacArthur's invasion of Hollandia/northern New Guinea. During
the summer of 1944, the second series occurred in the form of both carrier
task force strikes (operation SNAPSHOT, in which former President George
Bush participated) and Army Air Corps B-24 raids (13th AAF and 5th AAF).
The purpose of these raids were twofold: a) to prevent Japanese aircraft
from flanking MacArthur's invasions of northern New Guinea and the Philippines
and b) to soften up Peleliu (an island with a large Japanese air field
in southern Palau), scheduled for invasion by 1st Marine Division on September
15, 1944 (Operation STALEMATE). Although the rest of Palau was bypassed
after the Peleliu invasion as the war proceeded toward the homeland of
Japan, the requirement for ongoing US air coverage over Palau was essential
to prevent further aggression from the remaining 25,000 Japanese troops
stationed throughout the northern Palau islands. As a result, a third
series of air actions occurred during and after the invasion of Peleliu,
by both the US Marines Corsair fighters (VMF 114, 122, 121 from the captured
Peleliu airfield) and the Army Air Corps B-24 bombers (7th AAF from a
new airfield on nearby Angaur built to support the Philippines invasion).
Each provided independent air support/suppression against Japanese ground
forces throughout Palau until the war ended. In the face of the war moving
elsewhere, the daily air battles fought over Palau were unaccountably
fierce, on the part of both sides, turning into a struggle of attrition
with both sides sustaining lethal casualties up to the last day of the
war.
Palau, because of its strategic location (between the Mariana
Islands and the Philippines) and because of its deep-water harbors, was
the regional headquarters for the occupying Japanese military. Accordingly,
it was heavily defended, both in numbers of troops (~35,000), airfields
(3) and antiaircraft sites (many). In the face of some of the heaviest
Japanese antiaircraft fire anywhere in the entire Pacific war and with
the large number of US air strikes, it was inevitable that American planes
would be shot down and they were. Because the Palaus have a barrier reef
around the islands, many of the planes fell onto the islands or into waters
approachable by conventional scuba diving techniques; however, a substantial
portion of these planes and their crews, were never found, in spite of
an intense efforts by US Army Graves Registration Units after the war
ended.
Even though the invasion of Peleliu turned out to be the
third bloodiest battle fought in the Pacific, the several naval, ground
and air campaigns involving Palau are generally treated as a historical
footnote of little interest, compared to more well-recognized Pacific
battles such as Guadalcanal, Iwo Jima and Okinowa. But the numbers of
Americans (with their planes) that were lost in the Palau area are not
insignificant. At least two books have been published, describing the
Japanese ships sunk by US Navy air actions in the Palaus. However, beyond
the attempts by the American Graves Registration Service to locate remains
of American military after end the of the war, no one has systematically
looked for these missing aircraft, which were written off, with their
crews, one year and one day after they were lost.
In 1993,following participation in a successful expedition
in northern Palau to find the Japanese trawler sunk by Navy aviator Ensign
George Bush in July 1944, I began investigating that air war after being
shown a 65 foot wing, which at that time had been sitting, with identity
unknown, in shallow waters just south of Koror in Palau for almost fifty
years.
Project P-MAN Goals:
Prior to arriving in Palau, investigation of US Marine,
Army Air Corps and Navy archival records, in combination with interviews
with surviving pilots, airmen and Palauans, suggested that up to seven
sites might be worth field searches for missing US aircraft during this
trip. As has occurred on previous expeditions, the plan included updating
such archival information with additional interviews with Palauans upon
arrival there. Further, such interviews in the past have resulted in finding
of new crash sites, which might merit investigation
Introduction to the Findings of Project P-MAN:
Recent wars offer many archeological advantages in attempting
to understand the actual fighting. High on the list of such advantages
are included the still decipherable fields of combat with remaining debris,
the existence of often extensive archival records and, importantly, surviving
combatants and witnesses. All of these factors have been important to
gaining an insight into the air campaign fought over the islands of Palau
from spring 1944 to the war’s end in August 1945.
In addition, over the past decade, the people of Palau have
becoming increasingly vocal in their interest in the history of their
recently independent country. Along with the stunning tropical beauty
lies the history of Palauans who have lived on these islands for many
centuries. However, for the past 300 years up until its independence in
1994, Palau has been sequentially under the influences of Spanish, German,
Japanese (from 1914 through 1945) and finally American (from 1945 to 1994)
governments. Scattered throughout Palau are the remains of wreckage of
World War II. On land and in surrounding waters can be found many battle
scars of the Palau campaign, still remembered by those who survived those
bloody times. Later generation Palauans continue to uncover new or already
forgotten sites, sometimes with warriors still in place where they died.
The Palauan people remain a critical primary and interested source for
finding and understanding these historical locations.
Surprisingly to some, archival records do not tell the whole
story from the American side, either. While after-action reports of those
times generally describe events in considerable detail, it is an understandable
consequence of the heat of battle that all too often these reports provide
few, if any, useful clues for finding the actual crash site locations.
For example, one US mine sweeper, sunk near the end of the war near one
of the southern islands in Palau, has yet to be found, despite intensive
searches using what appear to be excellent documentation of the sinking
ship’s final coordinates. In short, one must also look elsewhere and there
is no substitute for speaking with someone who participated in or witnessed
the action. For many of the surviving American WWII veterans, a bond,
not often understood or appreciated by later generations, was created
among those who fought together which manifests itself today through reunions.
These reunions, which continue to reinforce the ties created more than
fifty years ago, are also living and concentrated sources of that history.
If one is to understand what happened on and over Palau
during an 18-month period starting in 1944, using available resources
is essential. True, memories may not always remain accurate over a half-century
- on the other hand, archival records written in close proximity to events
may also be next to worthless. But sometimes one little piece of the puzzle
is all one needs. Sometimes one gets much more.
Project P-MAN Findings:
From the time the team landed in Palau, everyone was aware
that time was a critical factor. With only ten effective days for exploration,
the wreck sites had been prioritized before arriving, leaving open the
possibility for targets of opportunity. In the true spirit of adventure,
despite a considerable effort, little of this expedition went the way
things were planned. The success of this trip turned out to be in its
targets of opportunity.
The primary prioritized focus of the trip was to attempt
to find a particular B-24, shot down 1 September 1944 on a bombing mission
over Koror, Palau, which was then the headquarters for Lt. General Inoue
Sadae, commander of all Japanese forces in that region of the Pacific.
This bomber’s course, after its left wing broke away from the fuselage
as a result of two antiaircraft hits, was subsequently well-documented
in after-action reports and eyewitness accounts, describing the impact
site in the waters between the islands of Koror and Babelthuap. Up to
three parachutes were seen (depending on which eye witness) and Japanese
documents found after the war indicate that at least two of the 11 crew
members were captured and placed on different Japanese vessels later that
month – these immediate survivors were never heard of again. The remainder
of the crew is presumed to have gone down with the plane. The B-24, aircraft
(A/C) # 473453 (‘453), a member of the 307th Bomb Group (Heavy)
of the 13th AAF, was one of 15 bombers on the
mission that day. Flying almost 700 miles from Wakde Island off the coast
of northern New Guinea, the mission was a long one. The antiaircraft fire
was reported to be both heavy and accurate, striking not only the wing
root of ‘453, but also causing many shrapnel hits to the bombers that
made it back home. Three planes reported circling around Babelthuap back
to the crash site to determine the fate of the plane and its crew and
reported seeing a small (Japanese) boat headed toward the site to pick
up at least one survivor. A small map, attached to the after-action report
filed for that day, marks a spot where the plane reportedly impacted.
During a recent reunion of this bomb group, a surviving bombardier in
an adjacent plane vividly recalled the event and could place on a photo
just where at least two pieces of the plane hit the water.
The field search for ‘453 began in 1995 when I strapped
myself into the open doorway of a rented Cessna and flew over the channel,
called Toachel Mid, where the bomber is reported to have crashed, photographing
the entire area. In 1996, I returned with several people including Chip
and Pam Lambert, also members of this expedition. A preliminary survey,
utilizing a depth finder and repeated scuba dives revealed the water was
deeper (90-120 feet) than indicated on the charts. The bottom of the channel
was mostly flat and sandy, interspersed with coral heads of varying sizes.
Currents of at least two knots flowed through Toachel Mid most of the
day with a midday tidal reversal associated with high flow of silt into
the channel from nearby mangrove swamps; resultant visibility was estimated
at 10-15 feet maximum. The effective search area was determined to be
approximately one square mile. These factors made the search more difficult
than expected and may explain why this bomber’s actual location has never
been found. To add a little spice, one Palauan guide told us that this
area is a known breeding ground for sharks, although we have never even
seen a single shark in this channel.
Attempts to obtain access to a high-resolution side-scanning
sonar for Project P-MAN, prior to leaving for Palau, proved unsuccessful.
However, the team did obtain a low-resolution scanner and a drop underwater
video camera for investigating potential targets of interest (to save
on dive time).
To sum up the search for this missing B-24, the P-MAN team,
using a dive boat with our assigned and highly talented guide, named Joe,
from nearby Neco Marine, spent a total of six days on, and an estimated
45 hours under, Toachel Mid without finding one speck of evidence confirming
the presence of ‘453 or its remaining crew. Key factors that became important
in this search were that 1) our low resolution side scanning sonar had
considerable sensitivity (ie, could detect small objects on the ocean
floor) but, by definition, with little discrimination, 2) the drop video,
as configured, was unstable in the channel’s current which made it worthless
for investigating potential targets. The combination of 1) and 2) meant
that the only solution, in spite of relatively low visibility and changing
currents, was 3) conducting underwater grid searches with the team members
spread out in a parallel line, as far as visibility permitted. Although
a substantial portion of the estimated one square mile was covered using
this method (as mapped by GPS from the boat), the team did agree upon
completion that, even so, a considerable area remains to be searched.
Further, relatively small debris fields could have been missed as a result
of the poor visibility. We are currently reviewing the data in detail
and attempting to come up with more effective strategies for the next
trip.
The search for ‘453 was only one of several targets for
the P-MAN expedition. Two other potential sites were eliminated early
on, in between dives for ‘453. A quick sweep of Malakal Harbor, where
a TBF Avenger, piloted by Lt. Richard Houle, was shot down 26 July 1944
(George Bush’s wing man) revealed the harbor to be too deep and the area
too vast when combined with the vague after-action description of the
actual impact site to undertake without more advanced surface search equipment.
We also conducted an initial search for a second plane, a Corsair piloted
by the squadron commander of VMF 122, Major Quintus Nelson, which crashed
nearby the Houle site over Aurapushakaru on 16 April 1945. Although the
after-action report states that the plane crashed on that island, our
interviews with local Palauans revealed that no such plane had ever been
found on Aurupushukaru. As this island is in the middle of Palau’s most
highly populated area, independent searching on our part was discouraged.
There was a suggestion made of a possible wreck in Malakal Harbor adjacent
to the island, but a concerted scuba diving effort by the team failed
to uncover a debris field.
Search for a fourth plane on our list initially looked more
promising, as a result of encouraging interviews with local Palauans.
This plane, also a Marine Corsair, was shot down over Battery Hill on
Koror on 4 March 1945. Major "Cowboy" Stout, who was then the
squadron commander of VMF 114, piloted this Corsair. Unlike any of the
previous aircraft, the remains of Major Stout were recovered from a mangrove
swamp after the war, when his plane was discovered by two Palauan women
hunting for crabs on the northern edge of Koror. As Major Stout was the
only "ace" (six Japanese planes to his credit) killed in Palau,
his Corsair remains of considerable historical value, at least for documentation.
However, the whereabouts in the swamp of his fighter, which was not salvaged,
have been forgotten. With our guide, Joe, as a translator, we went to
the village nearest to the presumed crash site. Since hunting for rock
crab in the swamp is common, we wanted to interview members from the village
who might have seen or heard of such wreckage. Joe introduced us to Basilius
who instructed a village member to take us to a wreck site they knew about
in the mangrove swamp. This villager took us deep into the swamp, sometimes
chest high in black muck. Although we conducted sweeps in three areas
of that mangrove swamp where he was certain the plane was, we were not
able to find Stout’s Corsair. We were told later that the rumors of man-eating
crocodiles in that area were really exaggerated (although a crocodile
farm is no more than one mile from our search area).
At face value with the first four of four planes on our
prospective list not found, one would begin to wonder about the value
of this trip. The best we could say for locating these planes, so far,
was where they were not. However, the expedition did find four
additional aircraft (and two sunken Japanese boats). These were discovered
under the heading of unplanned for "targets of opportunity"
and once again revealed the importance of teaming up with the locals.
Three of them were discovered all on one day after one of
the team members (Dan Bailey) recalled that a certain Palauan, named Abby,
who ran a Koror restaurant, might know about some wreck sites. Since we
needed to eat anyway, it made sense that we eat at Abby’s place. We arrived
hungry for both food and information. Following a couple of beers, I was
elected to discuss the matter with Abby. Abby and I hit it off, in spite
of a somewhat rocky start, and, by evening’s end, Abby agreed to arrange
for a special guide, named Lazarus (now that’s an appropriate name for
the P-MAN project, on more than one count), to show us three possible
crash sites, all on or around the big island of Babelthuap. Although Abby
knew where these planes were, he knew nothing about them.
The next day, our regular guide Joe
took us in a boat north up the western side of Babelthuap, a stunningly
beautiful tropical boat ride, to Ngermetengel pier, where we picked up
Lazarus. He took us to further north up the coast to an area about one
mile from the shore and about 200 yards inside of the outer barrier reef,
which encompasses the western side of Palau. There lying in less than
3 feet of water (at low tide) was the remains of an F4U Corsair. This
aircraft was lying, wheels up, in a southerly direction. The tail section
of the plane, from the rear of the cockpit back, was completely missing
but the forward elements of the cockpit, e. g., the wings, engine and
propeller, were present as a unit with the exception that the propeller,
a three-bladed Hamilton Standard, had been ripped away from the engine,
probably on contact. Both wings were intact and right over where each
of the three 0.50 caliber machine guns should be, on each wing, grew bright
orange corals (due to ingestion of iron oxide from the guns?). The canopy
was missing and the cockpit area was heavily encrusted with coral. Attempts
to find an identification plate were unsuccessful due to the dense coral.
Amazingly, despite over fifty years of pounding surf, the control stick
and the rudder pedals remained intact. The control stick was fixed in
a rearward position, suggesting that the aviator may have flared just
before landing to make a wheels-up landing. Because of the proximity of
the Corsair to the outer barrier reef and its southerly heading (in the
direction of the US airfield on Peleliu), the aviator appears have been
hit by antiaircraft fire possibly with loss of hydraulics or power. However,
the shape of the forward half of the plane suggests he have had sufficient
time/altitude to get the plane out near the barrier reef for a relatively
gentle wheels-up landing. On the outer edge of this reef, US Navy amphibian
aircraft (called "Dumbos") could and did routinely land in the
nearby deep water (even under continued enemy fire) to pick up aviators
shot down over Babelthuap. We found out, once we got there that this Corsair
had been photographed previously (by Dan Bailey, on an earlier trip, no
less!) but it has not yet been identified. My review of all after-action
reports of Corsairs shot down over the Palaus during World War II limits
the number of possibilities to seven candidates. I am currently
interviewing surviving Marine aviators to determine if the list can be
further narrowed. Chip Lambert at the crash site saw a white band around
the forward edge of the cowling, which would identify the plane as belonging
to VMF 114. Only two VMF114 Corsairs fit this profile. Work remains in
progress. But Lazarus was eager to get us to the next crash site, which
involved a trip yet, further north
We next pulled into an area next to Ucherael dock. This
time the plane was under water. After donning our dive gear and jumping
in, we found about 30 feet down a Japanese seaplane, known as a Jake (American
designation). This single engine fighter was reasonably intact, although
lying upside down with the pontoons broken off and on top of the fuselage.
The plane appears to have been sunk in place as tie-down cables to nearby
concrete blocks were still in place. Lazarus said that some years ago,
this Jake had been lying upright on the ocean floor but a severe typhoon
flipped it over and caused much of the present damage. After Chip and
Dan took some photos of the Jake and we fixed the location by GPS, Lazarus
took us to the third crash site.
For this one, we turned back south, to the mouth of Karamadoo
Bay. This plane had crashed on land nearby, so at a small pier
inside the Bay, Lazarus transferred us to a small fishing boat with a
shallow draft. We headed north to the nearby mangrove swamps and proceeded
up the creek until the boat could go no further. As we went further on
foot through the swamp, we began to see evidence of a widely dispersed
debris field, visually limited by the dense jungle vegetation. Near the
base of the waterfall which fed into the mangroves, Lazarus pointed up
a steep hill and said the wreck was up on top. Chip and I immediately
assaulted the hill and pretty soon through the thick overgrowth, we could
make out the faded blue color of the tail section of a Corsair. This nearly
intact empennage lay precariously nestled between a giant tree root and
the face of this steep hill. Rotated 90 degrees around the fuselage axis,
the top of the vertical stabilizer faced outward (approximately west)
from the hillside. As the tail section was one of the locations for aircraft
identification numbers, I crawled out on the vertical stabilizer (now
horizontal), swept away the jungle debris but did not see any numbers
immediately, although "NAVY" remained visible (note: the Marine
Corsairs were originally assigned from the US Navy). Disappointed, I took
several pictures of all aspects of the empennage anyway. Further yet up
the hill, Lazarus had brought Dan and Pam up an easier route and the debris
field became more clear: all the debris seemed to lie in a 40 yard radius,
facing up the hill (roughly eastward) from the base of the empennage.
To the left and up the hill from this point lay 1) part of the cockpit
firewall with a tube, with a valve on which was printed "Fresh Air",
2) the outward tip of the starboard elevator, and 3) the starboard wing
heavily overgrown by jungle. To the right, Lazarus discovered the Pratt&Whitney
R2800 engine, lying impacted in the hillside with one of the Hamiliton
Standard propeller blades bent back around the engine. Just below the
engine, we found small pieces of the plastic canopy and parts of both
landing gear assemblies. There was no evidence of human remains found.
We photographed the site until we ran out of film and then headed back.
Analysis of the debris field seems to indicate that the
aviator was flying in a north to northeasterly direction and impacted
into the hillside at high speed, not far from Sisngebang Mountain. If
there was an explosion (and there must have been), it appears to have
been snuffed out almost immediately as there was no evidence of fire damage
anywhere. The fuselage (including the tail section) appears to have been
thrown further to the north after initial impact up the hill with small
pieces of debris being blown down the hill (south and west) for almost
a hundred yards of impact. This would explain why we saw debris as we
approached the base of the hill from the south.
After returning to the States and developing my slides,
I discovered that there was in fact a Bureau Number of the vertical stabilizer
that I had missed in the filtered jungle light. This Corsair’s number
was "14241" and was flown by First Lieutenant Kenneth A. Wallace,
USMCR of VMF 114 and Saginaw, Michigan. He died in action in this plane
on 3 March 1945 (the day before Major Stout, his squadron commander was
killed). Reviewing the official after-action report from that mission,
Lt. Wallace had requested permission to strafe some camouflaged boats
near the shore of Karamadoo Bay. His flight leader, Major Oelrich, after
giving the go ahead, saw Lt. Wallace’s plane make a low strafing run and
then "crash into the ground about 100 yards north of the target (note:
this appears to be bout where Lazarus pulled up his small fishing boat
for us to get out) and cut a path through the undergrowth".
According to a later report, on 20 April 1947, Mr. Ngiringas,
who was then Captain of the Koror Police, reported this crash site to
US military authorities occupying Peleliu. On 25 April, a Search and Recovery
Team found at this site approximately 90 bones (sufficient for identification)
which were then interred, after notifying the family in a military cemetery
near Manila in the Philippines. Interestingly, the team did not find the
Corsair’s Bureau Number as part of the identification process. In his
recent book describing his experiences as a Marine aviator in VMF114 (Friends,
Dear Friends, and Heroes, Freebooter Press, Springfield, MO, 1997), Bill
Cantrell recounts that day, remembering Lt. Wallace as a "shy Scot
with little to say, a ready smile and brave heart". Lt. Wallace had
been noted on previous missions to return with tree leaves in his gun
ports, "irrefutable evidence that he was flying too low." Concerned
that Lt. Wallace might have a problem with "target fixation,"
several squadron members had cautioned him about this. Whether or not
that problem took him to his grave will never be known, but Bill noted
that "He wiped out the gun position in the process".
In between searching for some planes and finding others,
we made a couple of minor nautical discoveries, as well. The first of
these came at the recommendation of our guide, Joe. He felt that the B-24
(‘453) might have come down in a nearby lagoon on the other side of the
hills on the northeast side of Koror. While we were searching a section
the lagoon’s shoreline remote from any human habitation, Chip Lambert
thought he saw some wreckage in the water. Once in the water, he rapidly
identified it as a Daihatsu landing craft. These had been plentiful during
the Japanese occupation but became targets for the skillful US Marine
aviators who worked to deny the enemy any access to Peleliu by water.
Any such wrecks which would have been known would have had any key parts
salvaged years ago. The remains of this approximately 80 foot boat lay
in about 10 to 25 feet of water on a steeply sloping shore line and still
had its engine, ballast, admiralty-type anchor, brass propeller (highly
prized by salvagers) and one intact rice bowl. The wood (and the rice
bowl) were heavily charred, suggesting this boat had been sunk on fire.
Palauans we later spoke to were not aware of this wreck. I found the second
boat was discovered just off a coral head in Toachel Mid while snorkeling
with Chip for ‘453. This all-metal boat was about 40 feet long, encrusted
with coral and lying nose up on the coral head’s steep slope. Although
this may be a post war wreck, there were a number of similarly-shaped
holes dispersed along the top of the wreck, which suggests this boat was
subjected to strafing fire from overflying fighters. Within a half mile
of this wreck is the remains of a pier used by the occupying Japanese
(from which, incidentally, a small Japanese boat was observed by a B-24
crew to leave and pick up ‘453’s immediate survivors). Although beyond
the primary goal of this expedition, these boats are part of Palau’s history
as well.
Since the last day we were in Palau was a mandatory "non-dive"
day, prior to getting on the plane, the team decided to return to Peleliu.
The local expert on Peleliu’s battle sites is Tangie Hesus, who has guided
us around the island on several previous trips. When we got to Peleliu
and told Tangie about our mission in the northern islands, he said that
he knew of some mangrove fisherman who had found a plane in the mangroves
in the mid-eastern part of Peleliu. After talking with the fishermen who
were willing to take us there, Tangie stated that we were the first outsiders
to see the wreck. The fishermen brought up an even smaller boat than Lazarus
used for our trip. We traveled from the northern dock on Peleliu, south
along the eastern coast for about 40 minutes along an open water way through
the swamp and, with the eastern face of Bloody Nose Ridge (the site of
one of the most devastating portions of the battle) nearby and to our
right, we suddenly turned into the mangroves. Hopping out of the boat,
we could see a relatively intact aircraft, lying with landing gear up
in a northerly direction in about three feet of water. As we approached,
it became immediately apparent it was a TBF Avenger, an American three-man
torpedo bomber from World War II. There appeared to be shrapnel hits all
over the plane and there was no canopy. The Hamilton Standard propeller,
though bent, was present, along with all other major components of the
plane, although the port wing was sheared off and to the rear of the plane.
The cockpit was missing all its instruments and there was no evidence
of human remains. The "star and bar" emblem on the starboard
fuselage was still present. No machine guns were seen. The landing gear
was in a wheels-up orientation and the starboard tire was in remarkably
preserved condition. The vertical stabilizer did have an identifiable
Bureau Number on it: 45___ on the port side and 4_966 was on the starboard
side. Aircraft # 45966 has not yet been identified but an ongoing effort
with the US Navy Historical Research Center is in progress.
Overall, this Avenger appears to have sustained antiaircraft
hits and appears to have crashed at a relatively low speed, given the
remarkably good shape in which this aircraft remains. The absence of the
canopy suggests that the crew may have bailed out prior to the crash.
The absence of any instruments might be the result of subsequent efforts
by either Japanese (while they still controlled the island), the US military
at some later time or locals. Alternatively, it is conceivable that this
aircraft was an operational loss and not due to enemy fire: it is oriented
in roughly the same direction as the north-south runway of the Peleliu
airfield to the immediate south of this crash site. The exact cause of
this aircraft’s demise should, hopefully, be determined soon.
On the 21 of June 1999, we took off from Palau early in
the morning. It had been an exciting and successful expedition, if not
due to good planning at least to good luck. There remain more undiscovered
aircraft wrecks throughout Palau. Even more important than finding such
wreck sites is recalling and honoring the histories of the warriors who
died in these planes. Not all Americans died in the well-known battlefields
of WWII but they died just as valiantly and for the same cause. This expedition
will help to fill in a few small additions to the historical record of
that time.
© Scannon, 1999
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