Warbird Information Exchange

How come the G4Ms on Ballale haven't been recovered? They seem so be remarkably intact and in an easily recoverable space. Also, what about the J1Ns and the D3As there?

Wolverine

Hi wolverine:

They haven't been recovered, because of the strict penalties imposed by the Solomon Islands gov't. If you wrote a letter to the Honorable Sir Allan Kemakeza, President in the Solomons. Maybe he'll grant permission. As far as I know, nobody has tried very hard to do this.

Two years ago someone stole the last Val from Ballale. The J1Ns, and Betties and some Zeros are still there.

Try writing the President of the Solomons a letter, and maybe he'll let you do it. Charles Darby might know too.

Chris

Sometime is is better to beg for forgiveness than ask permission!

Really? Why is that? Even asking permission from a crazy government like that?

Those Betty's would have been recovered during the Tallichet expedition back in the 1970s had there been an existing dock on the island. I was told that the simple absence of something like a dock complicates the recovery effort exponentially. The fallout from those same expeditions are what led to the current ban on SoPac recoveries which is why they haven't been recovered since.

_________________
Rob Mears
'Surviving Corsairs' Historian
robcmears@yahoo.com
http://www.robmears.com

I don't know Rob:

I'd think they could have drug the planes onto a barge. All this stuff takes is good leverage.

Also, Diemert told me that he recovered the Zeros in the 70's, and that he was responsible for the political fallout. Especially when he barged the Zeros and the Val to Port Moresby and the RCAF C-130s picked them up. According to him that upset a lot of officials.

David Tallichet?

I emailed Peter Dunn who has the Australian Wrecks website, and he says an Australian gentleman claims ownership of all the wrecks in the Solomon Islands. He claims that the gov't of the Solomons granted him rights to all the wrecks.

harvard iv, can i have the aussie wreck website address?? thanks, tom

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tom d. friedman - hey!!! those fokkers were messerschmitts!! * without ammunition, the usaf would be just another flying club!!! * better to have piece of mind than piece of tail!!

Hi Tom:

Here it is: http://home.st.net.au/~dunn/ozcrashes.htm

Good luck.

President Rohr, (hey that sounds pretty good), isn't just as silly to say that Tallichet has right to all the wrecks? If so, how did he do it?

CHris

In addition:



You are claiming that the Ki-61s came out of a pit?

If so, why then did are the folks saying that these are planes that've been in storage at the PNG Museum?

Chris

He's talking about P-61 Black Widows.

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Brad

Mr. ROhr:

Good post overall, except for the following joke:



The scrap yard is full of WW2 parts as well, shavings that is..

At Pima a coupla years ago was a wrecked Curtiss AT-9...was that an
Arizona recovery? I'd like to see that one fly! ( translation: Another ride
I'd like to have!)

_________________
He bowls overhand...He is the most interesting man in the world.
"In Peace Japan Breeds War", Eckstein, Harper and Bros., 3rd ed. 1943(1927, 1928,1942)
"Leave it to ol' Slim. I got ideas...and they're all vile, baby." South Dakota Slim
"Ahh..."The Deuce", 28,000 pounds of motherly love." quote from some Mojave Grunt
DBF

Hi airnutz:

Good guess, it came from U.S. Forest Service Land in New Mexico. We've also got a wrecked B-24 in the Mountains, and the wing is in good shape, but everything else is gone. We've got a PB4Y-2 up on a 10,000 mountain, a firebombing plane. Wings and tail are intact.

These are all way to far gone to rebuild.

I'd say the mysterious planes in the Pacific region are a better deal, but I'd have to look at the UNESCO rules first.

Chris