THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, October 1, 1995 TAG: 9510010034
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JACK DORSEY, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PORTSMOUTH LENGTH: Long : 157 lines
The crew of the Icelandic motor vessel Skogafoss peered at the still shiny fuselage of the B-17 Flying Fortress in the cargo hold, but knew only bits of its history.
``They say it was flying to Europe during the war and . . . bad weather got them lost,'' said First Mate Gudni Sigurmundsson.
``They turned around but ran out of fuel and landed on a glacier in Greenland.
``Usually, we never know what's in our containers,'' said Sigurmundsson. ``But this was hard not to see.''
For 53 years, the B-17E, known as My Gal Sal, remained on a Greenland ice cap until it was recovered in August by a three-man team that plans to have it flying again in perhaps 18 months.
If so, it will be the oldest of about a dozen B-17s that are still capable of flying. There were 12,726 of them built, 6,981 by Boeing, which built the My Gal Sal.
Today, the aircraft rests on a steel rack at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal, back in the United States for the first time since the dark, early days of World War II.
It was unloaded Friday from the cargo hold of the Skogafoss and is being repacked in containers bound for Oregon and a face lift.
Even after a half-century of being frozen, its metal is as shiny as when it was built. The blue and white star, insignia of a U.S. military aircraft, remains visible on the right side of its fuselage. The silhouette of a witch's face between two bombs stands out on one side of the fuselage.
It is, say its salvagers, possibly the best-preserved B-17 ever discovered.
The bomber was one of four B-17s assigned to the 92nd Bomb Group making their way to England in 1942. They had taken off from Goose Bay, Labrador, heading for a refueling stop in Greenland.
``But it was closed out with bad weather,'' said Gary Larkins, director of recoveries for the Institute of Aeronautical Archaeological Research, based in Sacramento, Calif. ``They tried several times to get up there.''
A Coast Guard ship was in the area and heard their radio calls ``begging for a course'' said Larkins, but it was under strict orders not to answer, even though it knew these were B-17s.
One of the B-17s, called the Sooner, ditched in a fjord. Another, called the Alabama Exterminator, belly-landed near an Eskimo village. The residents have since turned its metal into bracelets, earrings, and pots and pans.
The whereabouts of the fourth plane is unknown. But when Larkins and his crew reached My Gal Sal in August, they were both excited and sad.
Hurricane-force winds had flipped it over and broken its back years earlier, possibly back in the 1980s. In the '60s, when it was first discovered, the plane had been in near flying condition, said Larkins.
``What happened was that the ice melted away all around it,'' he said. ``Soon, it was on a pedestal 30 feet tall, as if mounted on somebody's desk in the air because the sun couldn't melt the ice under its wings.''
During one winter, winds of 150 mph ``just picked it up and flipped it on it back and broke it,'' Larkins said.
But it was perfectly preserved in the dry, cold air. Its tires still held air. Hoses were pliable. The engines turned. There is no rust or corrosion.
There are only 224 flying hours on the aircraft.
``The wings (sections) are beautiful,'' Larkins said. ``The upper gun turret (valued at $40,000 alone) is in brand new condition. The guns and gun mounts are there, all the kinds of stuff you can't find now.
``It's like brand new. It's not as bad as it looks.''
When it crashed, all 10 crew members survived. Four are believed to be alive today. The pilot died just last year.
To keep their radios operating, the crew used a hack saw to cut off the blades of one propeller so they could run the engine and keep the batteries charged. They were dropped survival gear frequently and finally made it out 13 days later.
Their rescuer was Bernt Balchen, a famous Norwegian pilot, credited with rescuing dozens of downed American fliers above the Arctic Circle.
Balchen landed in a lake 12 miles from the downed plane and hiked to them.
When he arrived, he removed his clothes and rolled naked in the snow, saying something like: ``The Arctic is not such a bad place.''
When Larkins' crew arrived this summer, they found the region anything but nice.
Working in minus 15-degree weather, in hurricane-force winds, rain and 3-foot snowfalls, the three men removed wings, engines and fuel tanks to lighten the load for the 20 helicopter trips that were needed to get the plane to a barge 60 miles away.
They spent 3 1/2 weeks living in a small tent, being resupplied by aircraft almost daily.
``It was about three weeks too long,'' said Larkins.
Among their most precious finds was the crew's suitcases, or B-4 bags as they were called then.
``We found all of their uniforms, neatly folded; pictures of their families, wives and girlfriends; shaving kits with the straight razors,'' Larkins said.
``These guys brought everything because they thought they were going to England forever.''
Unfortunately, Larkins discovered the suitcases missing when he opened the containers Friday. Somewhere between Greenland and Portsmouth, someone had broken the padlock and taken them.
``It's just a shame, because whoever took that stuff will keep it around a couple of years as a novelty and eventually it will end up in a garage sale,'' he said.
The institute plans to offer a reward for the items in Greenland and here. The FBI also has joined in the search, since the theft was considered an international crime.
Larkins, along with George Carter and Rafid Tuma, both of Baltimore, Md., are veteran divers, pilots, riggers and salvagers who have searched the world to recover such aviation relics.
This is the 57th plane the non-profit institute has recovered since 1975, turning most over to military museums across the country.
My Gal Sal, after a half-million-dollar restoration, will find its way, it is hoped, to the 8th Air Force Museum in Savannah, Ga.
``It will be the oldest flying B-17 in the world,'' promised Larkins.
``We can have it standing on its (landing) gear and looking like a B-17 should in two weeks,'' he said.
The institute's finds also include the discovery in 1992 of the missing Japanese midget submarine, found five miles from the entrance to Pearl Harbor. The craft was resting in 1,300 feet of water, sunk by the first shot fired by the United States.
Larkins and crew have been to New Guinea to pluck a P-38 Lightning plane from the jungles; drilled 265 feet below the ice in Greenland to recover another P-38, one of six from the Lost Squadron of World War II; and in 1993, led a recovery expedition to the northern tip of Greenland to raise the B-29 Kee Bird from its belly to its landing gear, then started and ran its Number One engine.
Their chores in Portsmouth this week are mundane compared to past adventures. But readying My Gal Sal for the last leg of its journey to the West Coast is still exciting, they say.
Parts of the aircraft are badly smashed, particularly its belly, on which the 20-ton plane slid during its last, wheels-up landing. Its wings and main fuselage appear largely intact.
My Gal Sal will not be the last cold-weather find for the group. Larkins has permits from the Norwegian government to inspect six more wrecks.
``There are probably 60 planes still up there,'' he said. ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
VICKI CRONIS/Staff
For 53 years, the B-17E, known as My Gal Sal, remained on a
Greenland ice cap until the wreck was recovered in August. Over
time, the ice melted from around the buried aircraft, leaving it on
a pedestal 30 feet tall.
Hurricane-force winds flipped the plane over and broke its back,
possibly in the 1980s. In the 1960s, when the WWII plane was
discovered, it had been in near-flying condition.
Sections of the aircraft were unloaded Friday from an Icelandic
cargo ship at the Portsmouth Marine Terminal. The pieces will be
repacked in containers and shipped to Oregon for a
half-million-dollar restoration.
Drawing
B-17 Flying Fortress
KEYWORDS: WORLD WAR II AIRPLANES by CNB