Hello!
I am totally new to this forum, so I don´t know if this is the right place to post - or if has any interest to you...
But here I go:
I encountered the wreck of Douglas A-20B sn. 41-3013 about 15 years ago when trekking in South Greenland, on the Narsaq Peninsula @ 15-20 km. southwest of Narsarssuaq Airport, the former Bluie West-1 USAF base. The wreck is situated on a plain just north of the mountain Nunasarnaq, in danish "Strygejernet", the "Iron" due to its shape.
It crashed on the 25th of april 1943, apparently killing its crew of 5. Pilot was Crider, Harvey A Jr.
I have ordered a crash report, now it will be exiting to see if it provides any information I can understand.
The dry climate means no corrosion to speak of, as you can see.
Am I correct in assuming that the red dots in the stars on the wings mean it has been a USAAC plane?
Work on B.W.-1 started in july 1941, and as I understand USAAC only existed until june 1941, and the stars on the tail section is also wothout the red dot, I assume that the red has been paintes over, and time and abrasion has removed the covering layer of paint. Or?
The wing centre section carried signs of a fire, and was torn from the rather undamaged tail section. Also, very little remained from the cockpit - the wreck is of course wellknown by the local sheepfarmers who removed other items of interest, like the propeller centres and landing wheels. The engines had ripped themselves loose from their nacelles and tumbled some fifty metres further on, still very undamaged, as is the broken-off wings.
My interest in aircraft stems from all the Airfix and Revell kits I made as a 10 year old kid, and I somehow kept the interest.
I have ordered a plastic model kit of an A-20B and some decals that are closer to the correct ones. Has anybody here knowledge of the plane or the squadron - paint scheme, history, stories - anything I will not learn from the crash report. Or somebody who has the crash report and can help to understand the report better? Significant points and details....
Other than this plane, Narsarssuaq gave many sights to wake my partly sleeping interest in aircraft.
I also found a Harvard wing, that one winter came down from the icecap in a storm and ended up in some bushes just behind the Youth Hostel in Narsarssuaq.....there goes a story about 2 Harvards that succesfully landed on a frozen lake about 50 km. north of the base due to not being able to land in bad weather and running out of fuel. Before they were retrieved, the weather worsened and the were smashed by heavy winds. Apparently, the wing should be from one of these. One of the the pics I do have shows the manufacturers plate on the wing, if that helps in determination of the aircraft and possibly confirming the story.
I never took pictures from the dump, but I should have. Among the gems there was the frame of a light aircraft of some kind, a Piper Cub maybe, and the belly-bowl gun tower off a B-17, complete bar the guns. And the rather huge main landing wheel of a B-29!
There is a nice little museum in Narsarssuaq with lots of stuff from the base. Go there if you ever comes by.
Thanks in advance
Jon Petersen
PS. Funny thing on your forum - when writing about Airfix and Revell kits, I also wanted to mention "F R O G" kits -
that was automatically changed to "french" - no euro-bashing here, I presume.......
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