Curtiss SB2C-4 Helldiver "CAPTURED" ...

[Mark Allen M]

A Curtiss SB2C-4E Helldiver of Bombing Group VB-12 USS Randolph CV-15 after being forced down and captured by the Japanese. I'm assuming this photo was taken somewhere in Japan as opposed to perhaps Okinawa or China. Looks like lots of interest going on. Perhaps J. MacDonald will stop by with the facts of who the crew was and the details of how, when and where.




Curtiss SB2C-4E Helldiver #9 behind Helldiver #15 of VB-12 waiting to be launched from the USS Randolph CV-15 on perhaps it's last mission over Japan c 1945.

[Jim MacDonald]

I believe this could possibly be SB2C-4E BuNo 20308. It was hit by AA on 16 Feb 45, while attacking an aircraft assembly plant & made a controlled water landing in Kasumigaura Lake. Pilot Ens. Charles H. Brown landed in the "narrow neck" of the lake. Brown and his radioman ARM3c J.D. (Jack) Richards were captured by local fishermen and were sent to Ofuna POW camp. They were both repatriated after the war.

One of the reasons I feel that this is the same plane in the picture is that all of the other VB-12 SB2Cs crashed or ditched in the ocean. Assuming that Kasumigaura Lake was fairly shallow it would have been feasible for the Japanese to raise the plane. Kasumigaura airfield was close by and could have supplied the manpower. The background of the photo looks to me to be an expanse of water with trees on the far shore. Or...what looks like water in the background could be an airfield. A likely scenario for me would be that the SB2C was raised from the lake and taken to Kasumigaura airfield where the photo was taken shortly after the plane arrived.

Mac

[Jim MacDonald]

Another thing I forgot to mention yesterday is that 20308 ditched due to a fire in the engine. In the photo the damage to the lower cowling looks like it could have been caused by ditching, the damage to the top of the cowling looks to me like it was caused by fire.

Anybody else have any thoughts?
Mac

[lucky52]

Pretty stout plane for the wings to fold after a ditching.I'm impressed.

[airnutz]

The max depth of Lakes Kasumigaura is about 21 feet, and its average depth about 12 feet so retrieval of the SB2C wouldn't be much of a challenge even in a worst case.

[Jim MacDonald]

I shudda thought about googling info on the lake.

Mac

[airnutz]

It's a water lizard/Navy thang Jim.
James

Last edited by airnutz on Mon Apr 15, 2019 10:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[airnutz]

Ooops...doppel post

[Jim MacDonald]

That explains it. I can't even swim & I was AF.

[airnutz]

I can't even swim

Navy boot camp fixes that...everybody goes for eval and training if you don't swim.
Which brings up a point of untrivial trivia. In the recent past some folks saved themselves when lost at sea by turning their pants into flotation devices. You tie knots into the end of both legs and scoop air into the crotch and position yerself laying or reclining into the crotch with the inflated legs on either side of your torso looking like rabbit ears. The press keeps reporting it's a Navy SEAL trick...it's actually a Navy and Coastie Basic Training trick. Sooo..if you ever find yerself out in the open water without a boat...or an airplane...or anything... just don't ferget yer pants!!

[Jim MacDonald]

But if you're just wearing shorts or a pair of swim trunks...you're screwed.

Mac

[airnutz]

But if you're just wearing shorts or a pair of swim trunks...you're screwed.

Mac

Pray for a generous redhead floating by on a door...an ungenerous ginger unwilling to share doorspace is referred to as getting "Jacked"...then your SOL

[Lon Moer]

I can't even swim

Navy boot camp fixes that...everybody goes for eval and training if you don't swim.
Which brings up a point of untrivial trivia. In the recent past some folks saved themselves when lost at sea by turning their pants into flotation devices. You tie knots into the end of both legs and scoop air into the crotch and position yerself laying or reclining into the crotch with the inflated legs on either side of your torso looking like rabbit ears. The press keeps reporting it's a Navy SEAL trick...it's actually a Navy and Coastie Basic Training trick. Sooo..if you ever find yerself out in the open water without a boat...or an airplane...or anything... just don't ferget yer pants!!

A Navy SEAL trick?? ....I learned that one in Boy Scouts!

[airnutz]

I can't even swim

Navy boot camp fixes that...everybody goes for eval and training if you don't swim.
Which brings up a point of untrivial trivia. In the recent past some folks saved themselves when lost at sea by turning their pants into flotation devices. You tie knots into the end of both legs and scoop air into the crotch and position yerself laying or reclining into the crotch with the inflated legs on either side of your torso looking like rabbit ears. The press keeps reporting it's a Navy SEAL trick...it's actually a Navy and Coastie Basic Training trick. Sooo..if you ever find yerself out in the open water without a boat...or an airplane...or anything... just don't ferget yer pants!!

A Navy SEAL trick?? ....I learned that one in Boy Scouts!

Wellll crap...that means I forgot something else in my old age, 'cause I was a Boy Scout!

[Pogmusic]

One can do the same thing with a t-shirt or a long sleeve shirt.