Ditched P-51 Japan

[DaveM2]

Just reading 'Strike & Return' which has a section on the ditching of Lt. Gordon Scott of the 15FG in his P-51 after a strike on the Kasumigaura aircraft assembly plant on July 4, 1945. He shot down a couple of floatplanes over the lake of the same name, but engine damage forced him to put down, the aircraft sank and he swam ashore, and was eventually captured.
Anyone know if the aircraft was ever recovered?

Dave

[Bill Greenwood]

Better than that, Gordon Scott is a friend of mine, he lives just outside of Alamosa, Colorado. He is a great guy, the last time I spoke to him a few years ago, he is a flight instructor, does mountain flying checkouts, and he was the CFI for my commercial rating. He told me he was shot down in the last few weeks of the war when he was strafing a floatplane and it blew up downing him also.

[DaveM2]

Bill

Very interesting, be a blast if the aircraft was still there and good enough to be recovered, with Gordon being present.

Dave

[Bill Greenwood]

Dave, I realized that it has been a few years since I have talked to Gordon. I just tried information for him and got no phone number so I don't know. I will ask around some. As for the plane, who knows it must have been in decent enough shape since he survived the ditching uninjured. He was attacked by civilians, but saved by guards, who seemd to realize the war was ending and did not need any more war crimes.

[Dan Johnson II]

There is a crew lead by Mark Stevens trying to come up with the resources to recover that bird. Mr Scott is involved in the process in some form I believe. The goal is to recover it if possible, in particular while Mr. Scott is still with us. Interestingly enough they are working with the help of the Zero pilots association in Japan. Jerry Yellin of the 15th FG was involved in contacting them if I remember right.

A profile I did for Mark Stevens of "Sparkin Eyes" the P51 in question.

Check the latest edition of the Sunsetter Gazette for more on Sparkin Eyes.
http://www.7thfighter.com/newsletter/su ... l_2006.pdf

Dan

[DaveM2]

Dan

Many thanks for the update, certainly an exciting project and not anything I thought I would get response to after posting 'on a whim'.
I am aware of a nice Zero being recovered from a Japanese lake some years ago ( maybe mid nineties?), anyone else aware of anything coming up from the Japanese mainland lakes......NOT the sea??

Dave

[Kaigun Fan]

Dave,

A few years ago there were a number of P-51 parts recovered from a Mustang that crashed in a lake. I believe it consisted of one "leg", etc.

I don't know of any "fresh water" Japanese recoveries. There must be more allied planes out there.

I believe a Japanese collector is also restoring a P-51, but not sure if it is static. My guess, it will be because I doubt the Japanese government will issue "flying papers" for it. The same sad fate happened to Harada's near airworthy A6M2. She is a beauty too.

By the way, was the last issue of "Classic Wings" already sent out? No sign of mine yet (in Chicago).

Cheers,

Ron W.

[DaveM2]

Here is the Zero recovered from Lk.Biwa in 1978

http://miletmaq.hp.infoseek.co.jp/Info/ ... seumE.html

Ron, yes issue 58 should have been with you by now, I will send another.

Dave

[Mark V]

Lucky man to survive the ditching and escape serious injury at the hands of the locals. The manual states that P-51's have been ditched succesfully but reccomends against it, due to the effect of rapid water ingress through the air scoop.

[camshaw]

very old topic, but what ended up happening to this recovery? searched the web and found nothing new on the topic...

[ALOHADAVE]

I heard of this story years ago too and wondered what happened. I spent more than 2 years in Japan and looked for some crash sites. Anything on land was recovered for the scrap metal. Most lakes have never been searched. Now is a good time to further the search efforts.