P-MAN VI Final Report Attachment 2 Finding, mapping and identifying one new WWII U. S. B-24 Liberator found 26 JAN 04 west of Babeldaob in 70 feet of water and characterized with multiple dives, 26 JAN - 20 FEB 04. In 1994, with the help of the 307th BG(H) Reunion Group's historian, Mr. Jim Kendall, I obtained a mission report for a B-24 lost between Babeldaob and Koror - a map (below) indicated the crash site for B-24 '453 and its crew of eleven.
At the time, to me it seemed straightforward enough to find this B-24 so I started looking. After one decade of searching, on 26 JAN 04 the BentProp Project found an as-yet-unidentified B-24 in 70 feet of water to the northeast of that site. Behind this simple summary lies the story of perseverance of multiple BentProp teams who dedicated incredible effort into this search for this B-24. Key team members who have searched for this B-24 over the past ten years include:
Every eyewitness I have interviewed (in Palau, Japan and in the United States) who saw this B-24 go down said the big bomber had to be in the waters around Koror. A single "mini-map" (above) from that day's mission report indicated it fell into Toachel Mid - 2 square miles of high current, low visibility water in an ocean channel (which also serves as a shark breeding area) between Koror and Babeldaob. In brief, the years from 1994 - 2003 can be described as the years we looked in the wrong places - mostly around and under Toachel Mid. All our many dives, our flyovers using infrared photographic techniques and our use of high tech magnetometry instrumentation in that channel did not find so much as a rivet. As noted in detail below, our NARA archival discoveries in December 2003 led the P-MAN VI team to a new area (and away from where we had spent a decade looking) that turned out to be correct - but ultimately our connection with the Palauan people --in this case, Joe Maldangesang and a spear fisherman -- led to our discovery. To give a sense of how we finally got into the right place, please allow me to describe our winding path. By 2003, I had all but given up on finding '453 and its crew - we had exhausted all our leads. We had several Palauan witnesses who accurately described that day - but they were all hiding in the jungles and could not offer any but the vaguest of splash-down points, certainly not any better than what we already had from American eyewitnesses and that day's mission report. Our Japanese contacts offered no additional clues. I had found one other vague reference: the post-WWII American Graves Registration effort may have evaluated this site. In their 14 MAY 47 report summarizing their search for MIAs in Palau, the team stated on page 3:
NOTE: '596 was a 5th BG(H)/13th AAF B-24 piloted by 1LT Grant Rea. The available record is confusing as to where this B-24 crashed. But with only this reference (and a nearby propeller - see below), at best the wreckage might be somewhere within a different square mile of water. And it might not even be the '453 B-24. We needed better clues or we might be searching for another ten years. One outside hope for finding something new theoretically existed if we could locate bomb mission photography, frequently mentioned in after action reports - but our efforts to locate such film over the years had been unsuccessful. Then, BentProp team member, Flip Colmer decided to use his fighter pilot mentality, finely tuned during his Navy years flying F18s. He contacted the folks at NARA and, one day, called me saying we needed to travel to College Park, MD. Flip, working with Mr. Darryl Bottoms at NARA, had located a treasure trove of bomb mission photographs, stored in a NARA warehouse near Valley Forge, PA. After selecting the desired mission reels from a platte map, we waited for the overnight transfer and delivery to the College Park facility. The next day, the NARA staff delivered a cart loaded with black cans containing reels of 10x12 and 12X12 negatives.
Putting on our mandatory cotton gloves, we started reviewing film reels that probably had not seen the light of day since 1944. As we got toward the end of that day's bomb run, we found a small series of negatives taken at an altitude of 17,000 feet north and west of Koror (and 1-2 miles west of where we had spent our years of searching), which contained irregular splashes in shallow waters (Photos 2-3/2-4: red circles in sequential frames). While we could not make much of these splashes, this, at least, was a new lead upon we could act. We also noted, but only later did we realize, the significance of the sequential bright specks (Photos below: yellow ovals).
The fact that we found several photos with splashes in two areas north and west of the bomb mission (only one area shown in this report; "Time Frame 2" is the last photo in that bomb run photo series) made us wonder why the camera man would have taken such post-target photos. We hypothesized that perhaps he was attempting to document Arnett's B-24 crash - which made the splash areas worthy of additional searches. However correct (or not) our logic, these photos (with the knowledge of the American Graves Registration report in the background) gave us the incentive to move our searches into a new area substantially west of our prior efforts - and it worked. After arrival in Palau, the initial team (Pat, Reid, Jennifer, Peter and Joe) began GPS mapping of the coral heads of interest from the boat to assist with our later underwater grid searches. We also re-interviewed Mr. Speis, a Palauan elder ( see further details in ATTACHMENT 7) we had spoken with during P-MAN IV. This elder had seen a plane go down off SW Babeldaob in 1944 and he kindly consented to show us the general area where he saw it hit the water, which was a few hundred feet to the north of our "splash" photos above. The area this elder identified was also a few hundred feet from a Hamilton-Standard propeller embedded into a coral head that my wife, Susan, and I had found in 1993 and which the P-MAN IV team revisited. For years, based on the measurements, I had suspected the prop might have belonged to a B-24.
After mapping several key coral heads, we started grid dives, guided by the photos of the splash areas, as well as in the area shown us by Mr. Speis. Many dives later, we once again had found "not so much as a rivet" in any of these locations. We did have one interesting dive episode where all our underwater compasses went haywire for a few hundred feet but we could not find a source or explanation. At that point, although champing at the bit to proceed, the initial P-MAN VI team concluded we needed more divers and we looked forward to the arrival of the rest of the team to expand our search capacity. Then Joe Maldangesang, our Master Guide, changed everything. Mr. Speis had mentioned a spearfisherman, whom Joe knew, as also having information. Joe spoke with him privately and the fisherman said he had seen something on the west side of a small coral head, one of hundreds in this area, at a depth of 40 feet (during a free dive). On 26 JAN 04, two BentProp dive teams dove into the water: Reid with Jennifer and Pat with Joe. Peter Galli stayed on the boat. Although the two teams were supposed to stay near each other, within minutes, Reid and Jennifer were nowhere to be seen so Joe and I surfaced. We heard Peter yelling that Reid had surfaced, grabbed his camera and gone back down. We followed the bubbles down and found Jennifer at 40 feet hugging an upright Hamilton Standard propeller..
We dove further and found a second propeller - which meant this was not a fighter site - and at 70 feet we found the almost intact outer section of a Davis wing. We had found a Liberator. Our numerous attempts to thank this observant fisherman went unfulfilled, as he remained elusive throughout this mission - speaking only to Joe when we were not present. Nonetheless, I am taking this opportunity to thank him for guiding us to that coral head - a coral head which had eluded us for a long time. We surfaced and immediately gathered together on our dive boat to hold a long overdue ceremony for the unidentified crew some of whom undoubtedly remained in the waters below us. In recognition for all the help the Palauan people had given us over the years, I included a Palauan flag along with our American flag.
The ceremony became emotional as we once again read the words from Lawrence Binyon's poem, now the custom of the BentProp Project teams at every new site. Peter Galli videotaped the ceremony (courtesy of PostStar productions).
The timing of our ceremony had even greater significance for us because we knew that, simultaneously with our finding this B-24, the JPAC team was initiating excavation on a hillside in Ngatpang State, a few miles to the northeast of this crash site. In addition to the B-24 crew members who may lie at rest below our dive boat, records indicate for both the '453 and the '596 crews that airmen had parachuted only to be captured. War Crimes Tribunal testimony from Japanese on Palau after WWII indicate that the '453 POWs were executed by IJA Kempeitai (military police), at their headquarters in Ngatpang . The fate of the '596 POWs is still under investigation by the BentProp Project. JPAC was now searching for remains on that Ngatpang hillside belonging to these three executed airmen who might have parachuted from this B-24. Accordingly, we included all crew members in our remembrance ceremony. After the ceremony, we made an additional survey dive before heading home - but by the end of the first day, we knew that the tail section of this B-24 was not part of this immediate debris field. On 30 JAN 04, after presenting our findings to the JPAC team, the P-MAN VI team took the JPAC anthropologist, Dr. William Belcher, to dive on the site for his initial survey. While we were doing that, Joe Maldangesang did an exploratory dive on the east side of the coral head and came hurrying back - he had found more airplane. Bill Belcher and I immediately dove on this new site and recognized that this was the tail section, complete with the right oval vertical stabilizer and horizontal stabilizer assemblies, with the associated rudder and elevator attached. We now had found almost an entire B-24, minus the port wing (the third prop a few hundred feet away is probably from that port wing). Fortunately for our scuba divers, it appeared that this B-24 had completed its bomb run and no bombs were seen within this crash site - this simplified our dive plans but we remained on the lookout for unexploded ordnance throughout our dives. We documented our findings over a total of nine dive days a) through underwater photography by Reid Joyce (still photos over nine dive days - thank you, Reid) and Bert Yates (video and stills over two dive days - courtesy of PostStar Productions); b) by floating bottles over key debris fields around the coral head for GPS readings (a method taught to us by Dr. Belcher during P-MAN IV); and c) underwater surveys headed by Bill Belcher and the JPAC team (3 dive days). On 10 FEB 04 (seventh dive day on site), the additional P-MAN VI team members, Dan O'Brien and Flip Colmer, joined up on site with the initial P-MAN VI team (and Jennifer went home). We then conducted line abreast dives around the coral head to search for additional debris fields - with only minor findings outside the two key areas on the east and west sides. The composite of our many dives from which we cataloged these two large debris fields, indicates that this B-24 likely has not been previously visited or salvaged. Using the Debris Field Map below, starting on the northwest side of the coral head and moving counterclockwise from the center of the coral head, the starboard Davis wing (right) lies in 60-70 feet of water with wing tip pointing toward the coral head. Control surfaces, originally covered with fabric, show exposed aluminum internal ribs.
The two engines are detached from the wing and lie nearby to the south. Also nearby are two separate Hamilton-Standard propellers. The one closer to the wing lies flat and covered with round coral at ~ 60 feet with an engine nearby while the second propeller stands embedded in the side of the coral head with one blade projecting vertically upward in ~45 feet of water. Continuing counterclockwise around the coral head, a large piece of the ball turret is also at ~45 feet [NOTE: if this position was manned (which was likely according to my interviews with members of the 307th BG(H) Reunion Group) the airman would most probably not have had a chance to escape. Thus his remains may lie in close proximity of this ball turret remnant].
Near this turret lies a large jumble of debris spreading southward from the ball turret down to the sandy ocean floor at 70 feet. I believe this is the forward aspect of the fuselage (eg, nose turret, bombardier area, cockpit) and lies with the nose pointing down hill and outward from the coral head down to the ocean floor. In this immediate area, we found many "scavengable" artifacts including such things as oxygen bottles, aileron trim wheel, throttle quadrant, and unexploded .50 cal rounds.
We believe we found what was left of the nose .50 cal machine guns imbedded in coral at the base of the coral head. Although one side of the ball turret lies right behind the cockpit area (normally, underneath and aft of the wings and bomb bays, we did not find its machine guns.
The cockpit area is in total disarray and appears to have taken the brunt of the crash. It is virtually unidentifiable except for the cockpit artifacts (e. g., trim wheel, throttle quadrant) and the large amount of electrical cabling and other tubing present only in this immediate area. As noted below, late in our searches, I believe I sighted a long bone lying vertically below the cockpit area in an inaccessible location. Continuing southward past the cockpit area, the fuselage side of the port wing root can be recognized by the large remnants of the port wing root fuel bladder, lying in folds at ~50-60 feet. Continuing southward around the coral head, we found small pieces of debris sporadically both on the coral head and ocean floor. At the southernmost edge of the coral head, on the sandy ocean floor, we found ~4 feet of curved aluminum frame (possibly part of a rudder or elevator assembly). We found nothing from there to the east side, where the rear aspect of the fuselage lies. This tail section, on the east side of the coral head, consists of approximately 20 feet of fuselage, with the starboard waist gunner window and small window (present only on the starboard side) just forward of tail turret, both facing toward the surface. The tail assembly (Photo 2-16, right vertical stabilizer/rudder connected by horizontal stabilizer/elevator) is almost intact and appears to have twisted toward the port side, around the long axis of the fuselage.
The tail turret is not readily visible. As with the wing, the cloth-covered control surfaces (rudder and elevator) now show exposed aluminum framing. A large tear exists on the north (dorsal) side of the fuselage and extends and widens for several feet rearward. Although this tear provides access into the fuselage, minimal motion over the accumulated coral silt reduces visibility to zero.
Close inspection uncovered numerous artifacts in the tail section, including: one clear round camera lens and one grey round camera lens filter (approximately 4 inch diameter, lying on the ocean bottom a few feet north of the waist window), more oxygen bottles, tubing and wiring, along with piles of .50 cal ammunition forward of (toward coral head) and underneath the waist window.
I found a set of parachute shroud lines on the ocean floor inside the fuselage toward the rear of the tail. The shroud lines were attached to a deployed parachute that was accessible through the small window ~4 feet above the tear. The canopy was singed in a number of areas. We were not able to find the harness associated with the lines and canopy.
On 20 FEB 04, the JPAC EOD specialist, at the request of the P-MAN VI team, headed the collection and surfacing of many pounds of unexploded .50 cal ammunition, which was later disposed of according to his SOPs. Although
the B-24's aluminum skin was generally in good shape, we could find no painted
surfaces (in part due to coral growth) anywhere throughout the sites. We did not
find conclusive data (eg, data plates, painted identification numbers) which would
absolutely identify this B-24 as '453. The possibility exists that closer examination
of the cockpit area may reveal the identification tag. |
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| Page last modified 20 August 2005 | |
