Wake Island Wrecks

[mrhenniger]

I must admit I am being lazy here. I simply don't have the time right now to do the research myself. So here is the question...

Have there been any WWII wrecks recovered from Wake Island? If so what and when?

I bet there are some knowledgable WIX people that already have this summarized in a list.

Mike

[tom d. friedman]

wake has almost no foliage or real jungle growth, no swamps etc. the place is actually an atoll with a lagoon, & the island has roughly 20 miles of beach. wake actually consists of 3 islands. peale, wilkes, & wake. any wrecks still their are probably submerged in the ocean, anything else on such a desolate place would stick out like a sore thumb. best, tom

[m50a1ontos]

When I was there on Det 20 years ago it was rumored that an F4-F and a Zero were in the lagoon...several "tracked vehicles" were rusting away in the surf near POW rock. There was a definate airplane shape under water as seen from the old Pan-Am facility and another at low tide from the beach near the club....

[mrhenniger]

I'll try to be a bit more specific. I am looking to ID an airframe that would have been on a beech (or very near-by a beech) that is of Japanese origin. Obviously it would to ended up there in WWII, but it was still there as late as the Korean air lift (early 50's).

I do have a picture, but can't share at this point. It looks like it may be twin engined. It has a top turret aft of the cockpit. The cockpit has doors that remind me of A-26 clam shell doors.

I haven't been through my aircraft encyclopedia yet. I may get a chance tonight.

Mike

[jcw]

mike
i used to go there a couple time a year 5 years ago in a prior AF life. we would snorkle in the lagoon although teh visibility was poor and about three feet below the surface there was a wing of a Japanese flying boat of some kind that we used to stand on.. not much left but the wing... i brought back a few very corroded chunks of alum skin to put on my desk.. i assume it is still in the lagoon as not many folks go their...

take care

[mrhenniger]

I had a chance to check out my aircraft encyclopedia last night. The airframe in the photo is a Mitsubishi G3M "Nell". Has anyone heard anything about one of those on Wake?

In the picture the aircraft fuselage in sitting on what appears to be a small stone beach near some shrubs. The picture is from 3 o'clock and does not include the nose forward of the wind screen. The fuselage appears to be intact from what I can see in the picture, but there may be severe damage to the aft of the fuselage just aft of the upper turret (most of this section is outside of the frame. The starboard wing appears severely damaged and looks like it is folded under the fuselage. There is no engine on the starboard engine mount, but the mount itself does not appear damaged. It looks like the airframe has been picked clean by souvenir hunters, since glass panes and access hatches are missing.

I just checked www.axisaircraft.com, and no G3M is listed anywhere. Is it possible this was completely scrapped at sometime? Does Wake still have a military base?

Mike

[Warhawk]

According to Pacific Legacy by Rex Alan Smith and Gerald A. Meehl (copyright 2002)

"A visit to Wake by a civilian today is difficult at best, since the only transport to and from the island, which is administered by the U.S. Air Force, is by military aircraft." (page 35)

Hope thats helpful.

[mrhenniger]

According to Pacific Legacy by Rex Alan Smith and Gerald A. Meehl (copyright 2002) "A visit to Wake by a civilian today is difficult at best, since the only transport to and from the island, which is administered by the U.S. Air Force, is by military aircraft."

Paging Brad... Paging Brad... Have you ever beek to Wake Brad?

Mike

[tom d. friedman]

japanese nell bombers made the 1st initial raid on wake on december 8th 1941. an air raid coordinated with japanese naval ship bombardment took place a few days later to soften the island up for the invasion, which the marines repelled on the japanese 1st attempt. a few nells were shot down by a couple of usmc antiaircraft gun shore batteries during that battle. also a marine wildcat pilot claimed 2 nells as well in that span of time between the 8th & 10th. this is probably 1 of the submerged nells being spoken of in this thread. best, tom

[mrhenniger]

Thanks Tom for that info, you certainly appear to be more versed on the details of activity in the Pacific theatre in WWII than I.

This is probably 1 of the submerged nells being spoken of in this thread. best, tom

Actually no. This airframe is clearly high on a beach amognst shubbery. It does not appear to have any severe corrosion damage that you would expect with an airframe that had been submerged and perhaps resurfaced (clearly wreckage or natural tides). It also appears to have some original paint and a rising sun / red meat ball is clearly visible on part of the damaged starboard wing. When I look at this picture I don't suspect it was ever in water.

I wish I cold share the picture with you, but at this time I can't. I will do if I get permission. It is certainly an interesting picture.

Regards,

Mike

[tom d. friedman]

thanks mike, hope you get the nod to post the pic!! i'm currently reading "pacific alamo by wukovitz, pertains to the dark days of ww2 wake island. an excellent read!! thanks, tom

[jcw]

mike
i have walked almost every inch of the island and poked my nose into most of the delapidated buildings as well as killed many a bottle at the lagoon at night and can say other than what is in the lagoon we would stand on there is nothing on land.. i have uncovered several big round motor cyl's still in the crates (or whats left of them) out buried in the sand. did bring one home for a door stop.. its now out in the shop as the other half hates it as well as my 100# practice bombs that make a great item to hang a coat on...

take care

[Brad]

According to Pacific Legacy by Rex Alan Smith and Gerald A. Meehl (copyright 2002) "A visit to Wake by a civilian today is difficult at best, since the only transport to and from the island, which is administered by the U.S. Air Force, is by military aircraft."

Paging Brad... Paging Brad... Have you ever beek to Wake Brad?

Mike

Yes I have, many times. I'll email you the pictures of what I saw as soon as I can. They were taken before I went digital. Best I can remember, everything I saw was pulled out of the lagoon. To add to what JCW said, nothing that was very big could be on land as there's not much land to begin with!

[Brad]

I found a couple of Wake pictures. I'm thinking these were taken around early to mid 2001.

http://community.webshots.com/user/bradleypilgrim

Some of the wreckage in the "airplane parts" picture was American and some is Japanese. I found a data plate on one of the wings that had Japanese writing on it, but you could only make out two or three characters. I found a wing that I really thought was from a Wildcat, and brought back a few parts of it. I compared them with an F4F and an FM-2 and nothing matched up so I guess it came from something else.

I did find a prop that I know came from a wildcat, it still had the writing on the cuffs. I also found part of the nose case of an R-1830 engine. Now if it was one of the destroyed Wildcat's or one that was shot down later, I don't know. None of it appeared to have come from the water.

I also found LOTS of ammo casings and such. One of my crew chiefs found a broken bayonet. All you have to do is go down to the beach and kick through the sand. Wakes a fun place for about two days at a time!

On a side note: Towards the end of this trip around the Pacific islands, I showed up back in Hawii with a bag full of airplane parts and souveniers. It was all pretty filtly so I decided to wash it all in the bath tub. It was going pretty well until I started cleaning out the mortar caseings and I clogged up the drain with dirt and crap that was down in them. Needless to say, the housekeeping staff wasn't happy with me!

Another side note: While I was still flying around Sarajevo and such places during the Bosnia stuff, we lived at Sembach Airbase in Germany. Over behind our barracks was the cop shop. In front of their building was a 100 pound practice bomb and a mortar tube sitting in the flower bed as a decoration. Naturally, we had to have it so one night just before Christmas, we snuck over and took them. We got about ten feet when we found that the mortar base plate was chained to the ground. It took three or four of us but we finally got it all loose and carried to my barracks room. How the cops never heard us is beyond me. A bunch of drunks draging bombs and mortar tubes down the road tend to make alot of noise. Of course, the next morning the cops were mad. We all denied any knowledge of the event and a few days later, drug everything out of hiding and decided to wash it off in my bath tub....which clogged up the drain.....which another loadmaster tried to clear.....which broke the drain pipe.....which caused water to leak through the roof of the room below me.....which caused the maintenance staff to show up......who called my commander....who never thinks anything is as funny as I do! We managed to keep the souveniers hidden, but everybody in the squadron knew who had them. When packing up the planes to go back home, we got tired of dragging the base plate to the morter around and threw it in the dumpster. The rest of the mortar is now in the back yard of an officer stationed in Texas and the practice bomb resides in a barn in Oklahoma.

About two weeks after we broke the tub, maintenance had finally forgiven us and the First Sergeant had quit checking in on us every time he walked by my room. Things went good and then one of the pilots hit a deer with a crew van. We were gutting it in my bath tub when we got caught......but that's a story for another time. Dang we had fun that year!

Anyhow, if I find any more Wake pictures, I'll post them.

[mrhenniger]

Thanks Brad! That really isn't a big place is it?

Mike