Russian Doolittle B-25 (Article now Included)

[Wildchild]

Not sure if this was ever cleared up here, but I just read a magazine claiming they know what happened to it. It was torched into 4 sections and then bulldozed. appearently the data plate survived and is now in the US.

When I get a chance too ill upload the article.

EDIT:

Last edited by Wildchild on Mon Apr 22, 2013 7:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[Ken]

If you do find/post that stuff, would you consider adding it onto one of the in-depth threads already going on this topic to keep the info together?

Ken

[Wildchild]

Sure, if I can locate the thread

[Richard W.]

Which magazine?

[Russ Matthews]

Sure, if I can locate the thread

Take your pick ...

http://www.warbirdinformationexchange.org/phpBB3/search.php?keywords=vladivostok&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=all&sk=t&sd=d&sr=posts&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

[Wildchild]

Which magazine?

Aviation History

[Wildchild]

viewtopic.php?f=3&t=48060&start=30

[gary1954]

Not sure if this was ever cleared up here, but I just read a magazine claiming they know what happened to it. It was torched into 4 sections and then bulldozed. appearently the data plate survived and is now in the US.

When I get a chance too ill upload the article.

and where may this artifact be viewed

[Wildchild]

Uploaded.

[SaxMan]

The author of that article posts here. Perhaps he can shed some more light on the topic?

[Stephan Wilkinson]

That would be me. Not sure what further info is needed, but let me know and I'll try to help.

[Wildchild]

That would be me. Not sure what further info is needed, but let me know and I'll try to help.

Do you know what airbase this was at? We might be able to track the history of the plane after it landed in Russia. On top of that, is the wreckage still there?

[Stephan Wilkinson]

Charles Runion, the Tennessean who owns the collection of WWII artifacts of which that B-25 dataplate is now a part, told me that the remains of the B-25 were found by a friend of his during a business trip "some years ago" (I got the impression that it was the early 1990s) on "a Russian airbase." Runion was no more specific than that. He did say that his friend told him that all that remained of the Mitchell was the nose-and-cockpit section, and that it appeared to have been crushed pretty much semi-flat by some kind of tracked vehicle, whether that was a piece of construction equipment or a tank wasn't known. What remained had been picked clean of things like instruments, accessories, controls, etc. and that literally all that remained was the structure and the dataplate.

I've seen a photograph of the dataplate (reproduced in my article), and it certainly looks entirely original to my untrained eyes.

Runion is -not- a historian. He knows the general provenance of the artifacts in his collection, but that seems to be as far as his archaeological interest extends. His purpose is simply collecting and displaying them, and I'm sure some of the stories behind his stuff have been filtered through a generation or two of late pilots' misremembering relatives and the like, though the B-25 account has only two degrees of separation: Runion and his friend.

If anybody wants to pursue this any further, Runion can be reached at wrememberd@aol.com (and that's not a misspelling). I'm sure he would be happy to help to whatever degree he can, and if there's anything further that I can do, please let me know.

[Stephan Wilkinson]

By the way, Wildchild, I note the Skip Barber logo on your racecar. Skippie was my college roommate during my senior year. At Harvard, believe it or not. The Rhode Island School of Design turned out Sam Posey, but Harvard is responsible for Skip. (And me. Do an amazon.com search for my book "The Gold-Plated Porsche," about building my 911 track car.)

[Wildchild]

Thanks for the info Stephan

By the way, Wildchild, I note the Skip Barber logo on your racecar. Skippie was my college roommate during my senior year. At Harvard, believe it or not. The Rhode Island School of Design turned out Sam Posey, but Harvard is responsible for Skip. (And me. Do an amazon.com search for my book "The Gold-Plated Porsche," about building my 911 track car.)

Really? Small world! That picture was taken at Lime Rock Park when I had my drivers school up there. Currently I race a 1972 MG Midget in SCCA and a Honda Prelude in Chumpcar, but we are planning on buying a FR500C Mustang to race in the Pirelli World Challenge, Contential Tire Challenge, and Trans-Am. Only problem right now is sponsorship...