lost,abandoned crashed planes ww2

[Guest brentc]

Those Lord Howe pics above look somewhat familiar!

 

Mine are from different angles.

 

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[Guest brentc]

and a couple more from a Vanuatu trip, not quite so old.

 

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[Guest flying high]

g,day mate looks like you have had some experience in looking for wrecks so tell us your storys of were you have been and what do you know? im interested in looking for military planes and like all of us dreaming of large amounts of loot! ha ha anyway the photos look good

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

My research and searches in the nth Queensland area were nipped in the bud just as i thought i was getting somewhere. In late 02 my mother fell ill and i had to return to Sydney. her doctor said several months max but she fought on until late last year. i forgot about it all until the subject was brought up here. As for going out and searching for wrecks that was still a way off. But i intended to concentrate on the areas nth of Cooktown. intention was to trailer my 21ft Cat to Pt Douglas then sail to Charlotte Bay and then work north until the winds swung around and head back. 3 month trip. extremly disapointed that it did not happen.

 

Some local crash sites i 'refound' around the Whitsundays were the remains of a gryocopter hanging in a tree in a deadend valley behind Cannonvale. the pilot found he could not do a 180 and instead did a controled landing into the top of a tall tree. he then climbed down walked away unscathed. he returned later and retrived the usable components. left frame and rotors were wrapped around the branches.

 

A few miles south of The Whitsunday Coast Airport at Proserpine was the war time strip it is under cane now but with a bit of reseach you can find it at harvest time it is the flatest area in the vicinity. (west side of highway) it lined up with the prevailing sth easters. about a klm off the end of the strip (coast side) is a long gouge in the ground where a mitchell had a power failure and went in. One of the oleos from the main gear is now part of a hydralic press at the harvester repairers in town. (they also build power stuff for hang gliders.) interesting as to where you find your leads. helps if you are a bit of a stickybeak too. more recent accident was a buccaneer that went missing whilst returning from hayman to shute (80's) only the pilot on board never found. cloudy weather pilot was known for rolling this aircraft when bored. investigation concentrated heavily on the pilot. local rumor that this flight carried haymans cash. more like the corroded main spar let go. Bowen is a lot of fun just to learn about the Blackcats. there may be a couple of locals who flew on them still living. A few places scattered around the area but go find em yourself. local media and police reports play a big part in research. now the internet is in full swing most of the research can be easily done. you can probably start close to home the majority of country strips like Temora Narromine Mangalore where some sort of training facility find the aerial photograph taken when it was active and start going over it with a lge mag glass. find all the good places like the dump workshop repair areas most things were disposed of in a trench.

 

My treasure, bits missing but it stills points mag nth found this and some other bits and pieces with just a photo to go with.

 

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[Guest flying high]

ozzie

 

i i can honestly say that im glad to meet you some of your info is amazing i live about 10 mins from the maroochydore airport do you know of any lost pilots and military aircraft or even ship that are of the sunshine coast this is my immediately near me as iv only moved to qld recently so i don't know alot of the history or area to well originally from Victoria don't hold that against me "a Mexican" but i know and have been quiet excited that qld has a lot of ship wrecks and plane crash site alot of history iv gone up to gympie and had a look around and went dirt bike riding how is it for access to some of the off road trails im guessing alot of hiking is involved but thats cool im up for it il link a a couple of sites to this email let me know if you can if im looking in the right places some of the tunnel story's sound interesting i have to ask is there any organized groups that you know of exploring some of these site ,tunnels,ships,plane wrecks on surviver they showed some of the wrecks in ppng amazing after all this time and they have been picked at by locals as for planes gone down with a location on the report they don't say whether crash site is located or even a map location just a suburb doest give a lot to go on....thanx for you help very interesting:cool:

 

Treasure Hunting Tips

 

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Aviation Archaeology Search Result

 

Accident Reports.com USAAF, USAF, USN, & USMC Aircraft Accident Reports 1918-1955

 

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Air Pirates

 

ADF Serials - RAAF A16 Lockheed Hudson

 

AIRCRAFT CRASHES RECORD OFFICE

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Not sure about the maroochy area. i did hear from some locals of various items retrived from Morton Bay. Near Redcliffe area. Apparently at wars end many items were dumped ,some off ships, end of wharves, land fills ect. (lendlease agreement)Talk to fisherman who have been working this area for some time. A crate with a well preserved harley has been pulled up not to far from the shore. A Skipper i sailed with in Airlie grew up in Redcliffe and commercially fished this area for many years. He avoided some areas due to hooking up nets on aircraft ect. Also try looking at the highest hills along the coast. lookouts, radar towers ect covered just about all the east coast. local press may cover the dismanteling of these structures.

 

I used to listen to one uncle who served in the pacific and he spent several months after the war desposing of aircraft and parts simply by using a truck to remove the wings then pushing the fuse off the end of the jetty into deep water along with crates of spare parts ammo weapons when he arrived back off Sydney the ships captain said that all personell and gear would be searched before disembarking. he said all night long there was a continuous stream of people dumping "souviners" over the side.

 

nuff to make you cry.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest flying high]

thanks mate im going to get some scuba gear and start looking around the bay how about the sites mentioned above do you know of any other site giving more details than those site i guess alot of it is just what you7 here and know when you say look at the highest mountains are you saying look for planes that didnt make it over the hills as such and is there any groups that are going out regularly looking for planes and things as for that harley that would be awesome

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

Get yourself a magnatometer and drag it around first. hope you like mud plenty of it there. try along the line of mangroves and remember they have grown out into the bay over the years. lot of boxed stuff tossed in to the mud along the line of mangroves then. Again try and find some aerial photos showing ships at anchor.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest brentc]

Your second pic there Ozzie is definitely military with that distinctive arrow on the top. It's on every piece of my Army clothing. If not, it's a coinicidence. Reminds me, better dust them off for my next paintball visit.

 

 

[Guest brentc]

These pics might get your pulses racing.

 

Unfortunately they have already been well and truly discovered in Papua New Guinea.

 

One of the most interesting pictures is the 9th one. This aircraft doesn't have a wing spar, but rather uses what looks like standard galvanised iron to give it the required strength without a spar. Interestingly on the Japanese aircraft there is English writing which makes it difficult to work out which country the aircraft actually came from.

 

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[Guest flying high]

awesome

 

yeh they got my heart racing did you go to ppng and take these photos i must ask what were the locals like are they help full in looking for planes i wonder if you offered a little cash around or grog ha ha if it could be inspiring to the locals to find more wrecks i wonder how many would be over in ppng that are unfound im sure somehow ozzie has got some inside info on where there are lost planes in ppng as he seems to be a man of many talents..........great photos

 

 

[Guest brentc]

I'll be honest in that I didn't take the photos they belong to a flying friend who went over there in an RV6. Those wrecks are very well known over there. They were told about a couple of untouched Mitsubishi Zero's however after a day of looking they gave up. Apparently it was private property and they were a bit concerned about hanging around on it. Supposedly the aircraft were landed there and left there untouched until the greenery took over. They were eagerly looking but no luck and they were possibly long gone.

 

 

[Guest flying high]

man thats the sort of story you dream about hearing it would nt cost alot to go there and have a look for a week or 2 any chance you can find ourt the areas your mate looked in and find out a bit more from him i trying to get some areal and map photos at the moment and would like to try and line up the maps with known previously explored teritory and then maybe plan a trip if i can find out enough info im guessing there are groups of inthuists that go out looking would you know of any as im very interested but its hard to go out on your own in the forest let alone dangerous do you fly?

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

I have never searched outside of Australia. but as i have travelled and lived in various states i have found more than enough local history to get into. but i have worked for several people who were interested and had spent quite a bit of time in NG and the islands. They had aquired many maps, photos and other documentation. Even 20 years after relocating back to Sydney they still received bits and pieces and locations of newly found a/c through an extensive network of locals. i wandered into the hanger one night and tripped over a pallet i barked my shins on the Griffen V12 engine sitting on it. later a out of hrs bell47 turned up from Malaysia it had been used for many years anti drug running. the only thing missing were the guns. trigger relays still worked. later became VH JRF. Who you know and maybe a bit of graft helps. 6 half assembled trilander airframes, from florida of all places. But as for getting anything from NG or the islands you can forget it. Just about all are now protected by law. Have heard a few horror stories about NG's neighbour. recommended not to go within 50k of the border. story for later time.

 

One of the last aircraft that i heard of to come out of NG was a midengined cobra? floated down a river on a raft then barged to thursday island by a well known warbird restorer. The only time i wanted to head that way was when a mad keen diver and then more to places like truk lagoon and similar. I can see the facination for those areas that were part of the action but i preferred to try and find some of the still missing in Australia. Oh, next time you drop into a town for a stopover drop into the local RSL and see what they have been donated by members. They may be of help if the town had contributed in the war movement.' nuff 4 now

 

 

[Guest flying high]

tooradin i used to live in pakenham and narre warren up here in qld they call us mexicans .....lol

 

 

[Guest flying high]

crash site video

 

have look you will like

 

YouTube - Deadman Mountain Hellcat Crash

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

The aircraft you are referring to is 'Beautiful Betsy" an American B24D that went missing on a run from Darwin to Brisbane on Feb 26th 1945. It was found on the Aug 2nd 1994 near Monto, Biloela.

 

http://www.pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/b-24/42-40387.html

 

full history of aircraft here.

 

There may be several reasons for the missing components.

 

they were recovered at the same time as the remains of crew and passengers by the aircrafts original owners. USAF.

 

The aircraft may have been discovered earlier.

 

Or removed by the national park before they were pilferred.

 

I recall some interesting articles in earlier British magazines were groups would research downed ww2 aircraft then excavated the crashsite. They also searched neighbouring properties and found many parts like the blisters from the gunturrets that had become hanging plant baskets and tailplanes and wings that had become gates fences and building frames.

 

Ozzie

 

 

[Guest flying high]

ozzie you are a fountain of knowledge my friend i had alok at the plane how far from the maroochy area is it and i have attached a link to aerial photos can you have a look and tell me what im looking for as i cant make heads or tails from it

 

this is the email that was sent to me

 

you for your enquiry wanting to source aerial photos of the Maroochydore Sunshine Coast area.

 

The National Library of Australia's Map Collection holds and extensive range of aerial photos.

 

We do hold aerial photos of the Maroochy River dated 1942 [G56/10/152 & 162 and G56/11/153 & 163].

 

May I suggest you look at the flight line diagram, held at the Geoscience Australia's web-site address www.ga.gov.au/photos/sg56-11_map3.jpg or if this doesn't work, go into www.ga.gov.au and type flight line diagrams in the search box at the top of the screen, a large gridded map of Australia will appear, you will notice as you scan over the map it will show a number [e.g. G56-10] click on this number, and on the next page will show a list of place names, select Maroochy River, and that will bring up the flight line diagram. Looking at the diagram you will notice that the images that are relevant to your enquiry are either at the end or at the beginning of each run.

 

You are quite welcome to come and have a look at these aerial photographs, the Map Collection's opening hours are from 9.00 - 5.00 Monday to Friday, or if you are unable to come to the library yourself, the National Library of Australia maintains a list of Private Professional Researchers, the web-site address is www.nla.gov.au/infoserv/resfacil.html

 

I do hope the above information is helpful to you, and please do not hesitate to call me [contact details below] if you need any more help with the above information.

 

Thank you again for your enquiry and I wish you luck with your research.

 

Regards.

 

Lynn

 

Lynn Flower Maps Collection National Library of Australia Canberra ACT 2600 E-mail: [email protected] Phone: [02] 6262 1283 Fax: [02] 6262 1653

 

 

[Guest ozzie]

you have to pay for these.

 

go check your local library or council. or rsl.

 

have you checked the area with google earth?.

 

 

[Guest flying high]

i didnt know this very good ozzie i have another thread going on in general discusion about what plane is cheap and economical and good take off and has about a 200kg plus 2 pilot payload you got any ideas ?

 

as for google earth i had a look at 'Beautiful Betsy" but you cant see much i dont think google earth will do much

 

 

[turboplanner]

Reminds me of the Liberator that went down just off the southern tip of Badu, carrying gold bullion Macarthur had been using in the Phillipines. HQ left in a hurry when the Japanese were coming and this load didn't make it. The fin used to be visible at low tide but the place was inaccessible, so it was eventually forgotten.

 

 

[Guest flying high]

hey againboys its been a while since i have been on but as always am still keen lookin for lost planes ...

 

so where was this plane that you are talkinbout of the coast of the phillipines i have known a few guys that have gone there lookin for lost treaure man the y have spent alot of dosh and not cme back with much

 

 

[turboplanner]

Don't know much about it. My Uncle let it out late into the night at a party. Had got together with a couple of US Navy guys who flew a PBY round and found it - mentioned it was off a point a bit like a pen nib. They went back and sneaked a PT Boat around the area, but couldn't find it.

 

 

[Yenn]

Beautiful Betsy at Kroombit Tops was vandalised very soon after the National Parks ranger found it. I had walked within 200m of it several times, but it took a bushfire to reveal it. A local mechanic stole one of the engines, but was apprehended by the police and it was returned. A lot of the small stuff has disappeared since I first saw it, which was just after the US airforce had finished going over the site for human remains.

 

 

[Guest Maj Millard]

Ozzie, Adam Holt works on Caravan float planes out of Watsons' Bay now, he's been down there now for at least 12 months. He's also on this forum of course.

 

There are probabily many unfound aircraft wrecks in the jungles of North Qld, and New Guinie for that matter. There are website lists that are available listing missing aircraft, and giving approx locations.

 

I have Roger Marks' book on wartime airfields in Australia, and it mentions many WW2 crashes/missing aircraft.

 

Any aircraft that may have crashed into rain forrest jungle-canopy, may never be found, as they pull the canopy down over them, making aerial spotting almost impossible. The jungle then quickly grows over them.

 

There was a DC-3 wreck complete with several occupants accidentially discovered in rainforrest North of Karunda years ago, and many bits of that are in the RAAF museum at Townsville. Accidently stumbled across by a jungle gardner attending crops, if you catch my drift.

 

As far as the fabled 'Bunker' in the Townsville area, it don't exist in my opionion. My father worked for the commonwealth after the war, in the Townsville area, tidying up wartime sites, and he was adamant there were no bunkers. There may well have been plans for them, but when you read of just how quick things moved, and how quick projects were changed, or cancelled, you can understand better how such rumors were established. The whole effort went back a few gears right after the allies won the battle of the Coral Sea.

 

When that Wankxx from down South comes up here searching for 'The Bunker' one local sandwich shop offers the 'Bunker burger". It's two dry buns with nothing inside !!..................................................