Forgotten WW2 Plane Found on Beach

Special thanks to the following groups and individuals:

A great many thanks to Joseph Mearman, Heritage Together, School of Computer Science and Electronic Engineering, Bangor University, for kind permission to reproduce his aerial photographs of the wreck.

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Disclaimer: All opinions and comments expressed in the 'Comments' section do not reflect the opinions of Mark Felton Productions. All opinions and comments should contribute to the dialogue. Mark Felton Productions does not condone written attacks, insults, racism, sexism, extremism, violence or otherwise questionable comments or material in the 'Comments' section, and reserves the right to delete any comment violating this rule or to block any poster from the channel.

Credits: US National Archives; Library of Congress; Malvern Archaeological Diving Unit; Joseph Mearman; Chris Woo
Thumbnail: Joseph Mearman

[possumpopper]

My sister in law has a grandfather who flew P38’s in the war. Shot down in September of 1944 over Holland he was a POW for about 9 months until his camp, Stalog Luft 1 was liberated by the Red army. An amateur historian in Holland has located and been digging up pieces of his crashed airplane in a farm in Holland. The pilot celebrates his one hundredth birthday this coming Sunday.

[squint]

Thank you Professor!! My Grandpa built P 38's at Lockheed's Burbank plant in Southern Calif. There's a good chance that he had a hand in that plane's production! He was always proud of the Lightning and that he built them! And we were proud of him!

[gregoryemmanuel]

“Sleeping in the shallows…” What a beautiful turn of phrase, it describes me perfectly this morning. Thank you Mark for another wonderful story!

[John-isAround]

Every so often there are U.S. Navy fighters found in Lake Michigan in America. A lot of pilots trained how to take off and land there during WW2 on a modified ship of some sort that was not a real Navy Aircraft Carrier. Some have been removed from the lake over the years but there haven't been any lately.

[Mr_M_History]

People can find these planes and I can't even find my own passwords...

[lioninwinter]

"His squadron was less than pleased..." I bet! Thank you for that wonderful understatement and for this video in general.

[jonny]

When you mentioned the pilot was towing a target, it reminded me of a story my father told me about during WWII in the Royal Navy he too was firing at a target being towed by an American pilot.
The American pilot radioed down saying “Remind those Limeys I’m pulling this target not pushing it”

[keving]

The guy who identified the aircraft from a picture of the wing tip reminds me of a brake shop experience I had as a teenager ( now 60). I took in my rotors and told him "I need these turned, and also brake pads for a ---" he interrupted with "1970 Caprice, I can tell from the rotors." I'm still impressed in the knowledge and expertise of that man. Since that day, when I need brake service, I've never even stepped foot in a different shop.

[kevelliott]

There's a Lancaster in Pegwell Bay, just out from the Royal St. George Golf Club at Sandwich, Kent. I believe the aircraft was shot up over Germany and didn't quite make it back into Manston. In the early 60s it was exposed at low tide and an RAF Westland Whirlwind was photographed in the local paper dropping a man onto the wing.

[brenwoodard]

Years ago a kid was digging in the sand at the beach I lived at (Ocean Isle, NC) and found a P-47 that had set down after running out of gas on anti submarine patrol. I went to see them haul it out of the sand, the paint was largely intact and you could still see the star and bars insignia. I remember a man standing next to me saying "man, look at that thing, I wonder if they'll ever even know what it was?" I looked down and there was a big yellow cylinder. Painted on it was "bottle, cockpit oxygen" with about a paragraph of manufacturer and part number info. I just kinda looked over at the guy.

[mattjohnson]

What a fantastic video! My grandfather was a soldier with Patton's 3rd Army in Europe during the war. He grew up fascinated by planes and originally tried to enlist in the Army Air Corps, but was found to be color blind and ended up in a Chemical Mortar Battalion. He liked to tell the story of being in combat one day and seeing the unmistakable outline of a P38 engaged in a dogfight at low altitude with another plane overhead. Gunfire on the ground seemed to stop momentarily as soldiers looked up from their fox holes to watch the fight as those two dueled it out.
Coincidentally, today would have been his 97th birthday. I miss him dearly and cherish those WWII stories he told and love it, Mark, when one of your videos mentions something he was connected to in some way.

[finncarlbomholtsrensen]

During an after war display, outside the coast of Copenhagen, a Blohm and Voss, German flying boat was shot at by English planes and sunk. And during the planning and built of the new tunnel and bridge to Sweden the wreck was re-found and a group of specially educated divers took it up and it is now being rebuilt at The Danish Technical Museum in Elsinore/Helsingør: Sadly, we had several of those German planes left when the war ended, but none is saved today.

[kevinmccolgan]

Years ago I visited the village of Mars in Papua where my father landed in 1944. Two miles away was a small island used as an airstrip by the army. On the airstrip were two P-38s stripped of their engines and guns. The locals used to go over and race the planes by pushing them down the runway.

[mitchmatthews]

A great way to wake up this morning! Thank you, Mark!

[AtheistOrphan]

A B-25 with full bomb load crashed into a hill near me and exploded. I found a piece of it’s fuselage underneath a hedge in the late 70’s. It’s displayed in a cabinet in my living room.

[breth]

As a descendant of one of the ground floor Lockheed aircraft design group it's just amazes me how resilient that airframe really is . Amazing pride in workmanship at that Burbank factory! when made in America meant ending tyranny ...

[irishtino]

My next door neighbor was in the south Pacific during WWII as a radio operator. His only older brother was in the Pacific too and was a P-38 pilot. The older brother went out on a night mission and disappeared, no trace was ever found. The few times my neighbor talked about this tragedy it was obvious it was a crushing loss.

[damianousley]

It's just like the Airacobras that landed on tidal beach flats in far northern Qld. A group of aircraft got lost on a mission or training and ran low on fuel and landed where they could. The aircraft were unrecoverable and decayed in the marine salt air on the tidal flats. The pilot crews were lucky to survive in such a remote location and were rescued. Better than being an impromptu meal for a salt water crocodile or a shark, or slowly staving to death with no local knowledge of local foods or bushcrafts.

[snappycattimesten]

RIP Robert Elliott. We will remember them.

[steven]

Your poetical turn of phrase and masterful storytelling make any topic you cover riveting. Well done.