The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) has a story on its Web site that's a fascinating piece of aviation history. It includes a video clip of a B-29 bomber crashing after a raid on Japan in 1945, and the rescue of its crew (who parachuted to safety before the aircraft hit the sea) by a US submarine.
The aircraft had sustained heavy damage on a mission over Japan. Running with only one engine, the pilot had communicated with the submarine USS Pintado that they were going to crash as another B-29 led the crippled craft to where the sub was and they all jumped out. Shortly after the Superfort crash-landed into the sea.
"When I ’chuted out was 71 miles off the coast of Japan," Vanden Heuvel told EAA. "An officer on board the sub - I never did get his name - filmed the whole thing. I got a Mae West on (life jacket), got in a 1-man dinghy and the sub pulled up and picked me up. The video shows me holding my rip chord."
The officer who shot the film stored it away and 65 years later came across it. The found footage shows parachuting airmen, the airplane plunging into the ocean and exploding, plus the rescue of the airmen.
There's more at the link. Here's a modern news report describing what happened.
And here's the footage from 1945.
Some happy memories from a very unhappy war!
Peter
That is fantastic! And nice to see that at least some of them are still around!
ReplyDeleteGod love 'em all.
ReplyDeleteFor those interested, the fairwater of the USS Pintado is on display at the National Museum of the Pacific War in Fredericksburg, Texas.
ReplyDeleteNice peice of history.
ReplyDeleteMy Dad flew Mustangs off Iwo Jima, escorting those same B-29's to the Japanese home islands.
I have one of his original mission charts, showing the route from Iwo to a Mitsubishi engine plant in Nagoya, and back. Penciled in along the route (during the pre-mission briefing) are locations of submarines and orbiting PBY Catalinas, which were staged to pick up fliers in distress.
This rescue system was so successful that any fliers who ditched or bailed out offshore of the Japanese islands was almost sure to be rescued and brought back.