Doolittle B-25 site in China?

[6trn4brn]

I keep seeing little bits of info/references to the possibility of one of the B-25s from the Doolittle raid being found in China? Have also heard or seen a rumor/wishful thinking that one of the Flying Tigers P-40s is in a lake somewhere in China also? Whole lotta hogwash or just plane wishful thinking? Anyone point me in the direction of a website or something substantial to be found on the net somewhere?

Thanks ahead of time for any assistance

[mustangdriver]

I always wondered why no one went after the Doolittle B-25's. Some of the landed on dry kland, while some like the Ruptured Duck were in shallow water.

[Tim Landers]

Have also heard or seen a rumor/wishful thinking that one of the Flying Tigers P-40s is in a lake somewhere in China also?

http://www.sinoam.com/AVG/kunming.htm

There is a piece from Doolittles plane in San Marcos, Tx. at the Centex Wing's museum
http://www.realtime.net/centex/museum.htm

[Chicoartist]

Yeah, I've often wondered the same thing ... 'course, with the Raid being in 1942, lots can happen to pieces of aircraft in the meantime, no matter where they came down.

The site that claims the seat/seat part was "the only part ever recovered from Doolittle's plane" is wrong ... the NASM may have several pieces of Doolittle's #1 plane. I saw one of them, a stringer about a foot long or so, on exhibit in the WWII gallery a while back. I'd bet they have more.

Wade

[Steve Nelson]

I have always heard that the locals stripped the wrecks of anything usable. I would imagine the Japanese occupation forces probably salvaged whatever metal was left.


SN

[6trn4brn]

Thanks Tim for the link to the Blackburn recovery site. Surely that aircraft has been recovered by now? Any idea where it might be if it has been recovered? Still hoping that someday someone will find some of the Doolittle raid crash sites and there will be substantial wreckage left. Would seem to be priceless artifacts if either Tiger or Raider planes could be found. To get the Chinese government to allow those pieces/planes to return to the US might be an even bigger undertaking!

Thanks for your help gentlemen.

[Jack Cook]

No, it's still there. The other question is to the ID of the airplane. It supposed to be a E model #68. But E models were numbered #100 and higher. #68 was Chguck Older's B model that was destroyed earlier.
Any answers out there????????

[mustangdriver]

From what I saw I thought that each squadron had different numbers. I think there was more than one 68, but the were in different squadrons of the AVG.

[Jack Cook]

No, each plane has one assigned number from 1-99. The P-40Es were numbered 100 to around 115. 1st Sqd 1-33, 2nd Sqd 34-66, 3rd Sqd 67-99. Later on there were inter sqd changes has repaired a/c were assigned to other sqds such has #47 going to 3rd and flown by RT Smith. Both no 2 airplanes had the same number.

Last edited by Jack Cook on Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:01 am, edited 1 time in total.

[mustangdriver]

That must be what threw me.

[Tim Landers]

Here is some info I ran across.

Future projects include the recovery of a P-51 Mustang shot down over Hubai Province and the recovery and restoration of a B-25 Mitchell bomber flown by "Doolittle's Raiders" that has been located off of China's Yellow Sea coast.
http://www.airportjournals.com/display. ... as/0511007 about halfway down the page

[Django]

That was a good read. I hope they can pull it off.

[Tim Landers]

Looks like TIGHAR is trying to get a piece of the action

Doolittle B-25
There have been some important develop-
ments in TIGHAR’s investigation into the pos-
sible recovery of one of the 16 North American
B-25Bs which participated in the April 18, 1942
Doolittle Raid. Only plane number 15, Air Corps
Serial 40-2267, may still survive. It was ditched
off the coast of China, near the island of Tan-
toshan, where it floated for eight minutes, allow-
ing the entire crew to escape safely. There is a
chance the airplane is still there and intact.
In April, Chinese authorities advised us that
another American group was also interested in
the airplane and that this was causing some
confusion and delay. The other group is known as
The USA – China Friendship Expedition and we
lost no time in contacting them to coordinate our
efforts. The group is associated with the Oregon
Air & Space Museum of Eugene, Oregon and
is led by Stuart Barr, a local businessman and
amateur scuba diver. Mr. Barr and his associates
(who are also amateur scuba divers) are primar-
ily interested in diving on the wreck and taking
photographs to assess its condition. They have
no intention or interest in effecting a recovery
themselves but had been planning to contact
TIGHAR if they were successful in finding the
airplane. Because they were far ahead of us in
arranging official permission to dive on the site
(which is within the borders of a Chinese naval
base), and not wanting to do anything to jeopar-
dize or delay their mission, TIGHAR has adopted
an arm’s-length advisory relationship with the
USA – China Friendship Expedition. We’ll help
where we can, and if they’re able to locate the
airplane, and if it’s in recoverable shape, we’ll
tackle the problem of what can and should be
done with the artifact. The USA – China Friend-
ship Expedition is basically a small, well-funded
group of amateur divers who want to go out and
find something historically significant. We wish
them much luck and success.

[Jack Cook]

We met Stuart Barr a few years back when we had the b-25 to the Eugene Airshow. He a relative of Raider/POW George Barr. He's a nice guy and very much up on Raider history!

[agent86]

[quote="
lost no time in contacting them to coordinate our
efforts.

They have no intention or interest in effecting a recovery
themselves but had been planning to contact
TIGHAR if they were successful in finding the
airplane.

We’ll help
where we can, and if they’re able to locate the
airplane, and if it’s in recoverable shape, we’ll
tackle the problem of what can and should be
done with the artifact.


Once again ol snake oil salesman Gilespie and his band o blow hards are blowing smoke up peoples backsides.Lets see ,they not only lost no time in contacting them to cordinate their efforts but these other guys were planning to contact Tighar when and if they found it. Why on earth would anybody serious about this waste their time with these guys?Other than declaring that they solved the Amelia Earhart mystery cause they camped out on Nikamaroro(? )island and found the petrified sole from an old female shoe and a hunk of possibly aircraft aluminium,have they ever actually recovered anything worth while?Their website for many years claimed that they were going to become the premier organization in warbird and antique airplane recovery.Havent heard much in a long time,has anybody? It looked like they were going to put Gary Larkins out of business.(I'll bet he was quaking in his boots) I'm guessing that after the official Tighar expedition to recovery the B-25,they'll ship it back to the Tighar lab for conservation and then to the second to none Tighar restoration facility. uh huh,sure.