Warbird Information Exchange

Heroes' final resting place: Three US bomber aircraft shot down during WW2 and missing for 76 years are found using high-tech sonar at the bottom of a lagoon in Micronesia

Project Recover, an organization dedicated to finding American MIAs, discovers remains of three warplanes
Two SBD-5 Dauntless bombers and a TBM/F-1 Avenger torpedo bomber were found in seabed of Truk Lagoon
The planes took part in Operation Hailstone, the February 1944 mission to remove Japan from the lagoon
An estimated 30 aircraft were lost and 40 American soldiers died during the operation in the Pacific

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/articl ... nesia.html

"The remains of three American fighter jets that flew missions over the Pacific during World War Two and then went missing have been found at the bottom of a lagoon in Micronesia."
It's mostly a really good article, and gives the correct aircraft types, but somebody failed to proofread.

The photo of the Avenger part around the window and door is intriguing - red primer?

Richard

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I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

The red is either corrosion or, more likely, encrustation....note the same red in the shot of the Avengers engine....

Sure is a uniform, vivid red but I would guess some mineralization process caused it. Never saw anything but zinc chromate [dull yellow] for primer in WW2 US aircraft.

The uniformity is what puzzles me. What could alter the color like that? The early F4Us did use a primer that we refer to as "Salmon", but it wasn't nearly as bright a red.

_________________
I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

Just a wild guess, but perhaps they used some sort of filter on the camera?

Here's the photo in question.

24864470-8011305-image-a-57_1581996908319 by Richard Connell, on Flickr

_________________
I am but mad north-north-west: when the wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw.

Article also says the US captured Truk. Not quite.