Warbird Information Exchange

Thank you for finding this record of the locations of all US Navy aircraft (and USCG's VP-6 CG) during all of WW2; not merely those in Greenland in 1942-43. [ John: We shall miss your long leadership in the "Duck Hunt" project.] This Navy record supplements the large amount of acquirred information, including the vast amount that we have related to the 6 months long B-17 "PN9E" rescue saga.

It provides the chronology at approx. every 2 weeks intervals of the progressive changes of the series of US Navy patrol squadrons that relate to the Greenland Patrol which were based at Argentia, Newfoundland, and their detachments based in Greenland, as well as their seaplane tenders, and in Iceland. This includes the various transitions during 1942-43 from VP-93 to VPB-126, to PV-31, to Hedron-7, and finally to the USCG's Greenland Patrol getting its own USCG manned VP-6 CG. { Note that there other Navy patrol squadrons also based at Argentia and Iceland which also rotated during this time period.}

CHRONOLOGY - Aviation Highlights:

(1) VP-93's 12 PBY-5A's arrived at Argentia in mid-May 1942 in advance of the intended start of the Operation Bolero trans-Atlantic flights of aircraft from USA to Brittain, and 6 were promptly assigned to SOPA-USCG in Greenland; 3 at Narsarsuak BW-1 (called " O-No-To") under LCDR Loomis, and 3 at Sondrestrom Fjord BW-8 (called "Bodkin") under LT Parunak. For various reasons the start was delayed until June 26, 1942, while USCGC Comanche served as the visual aid & radio beacon to BW-1. Three B-17's crashed on the first day, and were rescued by SOPA-USCG assets. ( It took USCG more than a month to break the sea ice in Sondre Strom Fjord before the first gasoline tankship could deliver the first aviation gasoline to BW-8 located just north of the Arctic Circle, and the air control system and aids to navigation and additional weather stations were still being established in Greenland.).

(2) In early September, about the time that winter and reducing daylight was beginning to set-in; the PBY-5A's were removed from BW-8, and the number of PBY's in Greenland was reduced from 6 to 4 PBY's during Sept.-late November, and VP-93's total number of PBY's was reduced from 12 PBY's to various numbers of 5-6 to 4, leaving only 2 to 3 PBY in Greenland. In October, VP-93 progressively began switching from PBY-5A's to PV-3 Venturas toward becoming VPB-126 by the end of February 1943, and departing to USA. During this time period, from the first of December to the end of February 1943, SOPA-USCG generally had only 2 PBY's and occasionally 3 PBY's in Greenland rotating between BW-1 and Argentia for logistics and maintenance.

(3) On November 5, 1942, a C-53 transport made a forced landing on the Ice Cap on the east coast "near" and about 25 miles north of the new USAAF weather-rescue station called Beach Head Station at Comanche Bay (established by USCGC Comanche in August 1942 after the rescue of the 8-planes "Lost Squadron" there in July, "close" to these abandond 8 planes which had been rescued by USCGC Northland on July 22-23). The coastal pack ice was rapidly closing the ship navigation season there. USCG's other priorities only allowed the use of 2 PBY's to make 5 search flights, while USAAF began detouring large numbers of in-transit aircraft (B-17's, B-25's & C-47's) at BW-1 to search for the C-53.
On Nov. 9, the B-17 "PN9E" with 9 men aboard crashed on the Koge Bay Fjord's active glacier amid crevasses about 29 miles west of the station. USCGC Northland was engaged in transporting the last 80-some US Army men to the new small emergency airbase at Ikateq BE-2 (called "Optimist") 90 miles farther north of Comanche Bay, and taking out the last 80-some civilian construction workers, and thus was not available, nor called upon to assist when it passed-by Comanche Bay - Koge Bay twice. On Nov.10, a Canadian RCAF A-20 made a forced landing on the Ice Cap farther south, and after transferring the workers to the troopship USAT Brooklyn Heights on Nov.19, , the Northland rescued the A-20 during Nov. 19-23. The Northland then went north again through heavy pack ice to assist USAAF's rescue of the B-17 "PN9E" at Comanche Bay. The USAAF station there was equipped with 6 motor-sleds and about 30 sled dogs.

(4) On Nov.28, upon the ship's early morning arrival at Comanche Bay, USCGC Northland's Grumman J2F-4 Duck ( pilot LT Pritchard and RM1 Bottoms) located and landed about one mile from the crashed B-17 "PN9E" which had broken apart and its rear section overhanging a large open crevass, and they walked 2 injured men back to the CG Duck, assisted by the B-17's copilot Lt Spencer who helped turn the Duck around and push it to assist its down-slope take-off. The Duck returned to the ship in the dark with 2 of the B-17's 9 men. [ This was the historic first successful landing & take-off of an aircraft on Greenland's Ice Cap.].
On Nov.29, the weather was changing, and LT Pritchard air dropped 2 improvised stretcher-sleds for the 2 badly injured men, and then landed again as a snow storm was beginning. In the rush, the Duck picked-up one man, the B-17's radioman and took-off into the snowstorm, and crashed about 9 minutes later. During this time period each of the USAAF station's several attempts to reach the C-53 and the B-17 by motor-sleds and dogsleds failed, and after 30 days the search for the C-53 whose flares had been seen 3 times from the station was abandoned. The station's CO, Lt Demorest had fallen to his death in a crevass on his motorsled close to the B-17 with Sgt. Tetley's motorsled at about the same time that LT Pritchard arrived on the morning of Nov.29, and Sgt. Tetley and Lt Spencer attempted to get the B-17's navigator, Lt O'Hara whose feet were frozen with gangreen, to the station where Northland's Hospital Corpsman was waiting. About one mile from the B-17, the B-17's passenger Pvt. Wedel fell to his death in a crevass, and the motorsled brokedown about 6 miles from the B-17, and these 3 men had to wait there (at "Spencer's Motorsled Camp") until they were rescued on Feb. 5,1943; by then both of his feet had fallen off. 3 men remained at the B-17; one with a broken arm when through out of the radio compartment when the B-17 broke apart, and one who went mad off & on before being rescued on April 6,1943. Two of the men had volunteered at BW-1 to go along as air observers, one of them thrown out through the B-17's plexiglass nose.
On November 24, COL Balchen, who had commandeered a civilian TWA C-54 at BW-8,located the crashed B-17, and on Nov.28 Captain Ken Turner's assisting B-17 arrived at BW-8 to replace it. BW-8 own single-engine Norseman ski-plane was destroyed in a fire along with an American Airlines C-54 which flew-in rescue supplies was also destroyed the hanger at BW-8 on Dec.22.

(5) On December 4, USCGC Northland transferred 5 men led by ENS. Fuller to the USAAFrescue station. ( This would be Fuller's 3rd Ice Cap rescue since July.). On Dec.6, Turner's B-17 was sent from BW-8 to BE-2, and on Dec.7, it located the USCG Duck and reported its location to the Northland. ENS Fuller's CG search party promptly set-out on foot across the fjord to the next fjord, and into the coastal mountains during the following days with but a few hours of reducing daylight. Later on Dec. 8, unknown to ENS Fuller, the B-17 reported that it had identified the wrong fjord; the CG Duck was at the next 3rd fjord, the Koge Bay fjord, farther west of the station. On Dec.9, heavy pack ice drifted in toclose Comanche Bay and the ship was forced to depart seaward beyond the wide belt of heavy pack ice, where it lost radio communications ashore. Also on Dec.9, the assisting B-17 (pilot Captain Turner and navigator Lt. Kurz) repeated their correction of the location of the CG Duck to USAAF at BW-1 & BW-8 specifically addressed, "Turner to Balchen", the CO of BW-8.
SOPA-USCG sent the USCGC North Star with its Grumman Duck to Comanche Bay, which was now sealed off by heavy pack ice, and on Dec.13, it and USCGC Northland were ordered to return to BW-1; leaving ENS Fuller & 4 CG enlisted men behind, and unaware of the corrected location of the CG Duck.

(6) USAAF next chartered a civilian Canadian twin-engined Barkley-Grow ski-plane. On Dec.22, it flew from BW-1 toward BE-2; but it ran out of gas and landed on the sea ice in a fjord near BE-2 and sank. They were later rescued by chance by local Eskimo hunters. USAAF also arranged for two twin-engined AT-7/C-45 Beechcrafts to be sent to Greenland with skis. (Both had their own mishaps later in January.)

(7) A meeting was held at BW-1. COL Bernt Balchen proposed the use of two of SOPA-USCG's PBY-5A's, to land one near the B-17 "PN9E" as LT Pritchard had done. It would be for only a few days. At that time, SOPA-USCG had only 3 PBY's, and soon, only 2 PBY's (per the Navy aircraft record.). USAAF applied pressure via USAAF and Navy in USA, and SOPA-USCG, RADM "Iceberg" Smith reluctantly agreed on the condition that Arctic & Antarctica experienced pilot COL Balchen personally supervise the landing(s) on the Ice Cap, because their VP-93 pilots were fairly new in Greenland, having been among the PBY's based at Argentia. COL Balchen's boss, COL Wimsatt, placed COL Balchen in charge of the rescue operation; his airbase, BW-8 was already essentially "closed" for the winter.
On Jan. 9, the 2 PBY's flew from BW-1 to BW-8 where they picked-up BW-8's 3 rescuers and 6 dogs dogsled team, and then flew to BE-2, which had no hanger. These PBY's were LT Dunlop's (93-P-20) and ENS Henderson's (93-P-17) with ther copilots and air crewmen. Both PBY's were soon damaged by bad weather at BE-2, and remained there unused until Feb.3.

(8) The 2 Beechcraft ski-planes arrived at BW-1. On Jan. 17, the first one was lost somewhere enroute from BW-1 to BE-2. On Jan. 20, the second one arrived at BE-2, and where its skis were installed....and its propellers "chopped off its skis". (This story was told to me by 2 witnesses whom I interviewed; Lt Spencer and Lt Kurz.).

(9) On Jan. 27, VP-93's (93-P-22) while flying from BW-1 to nearby Ivigtut BW-7, flew-onto the Ice Cap in a visual white-out and was eventually rescued by CG ships. SOPA-USCG now had no PBY's.

(10) On Feb.3,1942, the Greenland troopship USAT Dorchester with 904 men aboard in USCG escorted Convoy SG-19 was sunk in about 15-20 minutes just south of BW-1. Per this record, there were no PBY's in Greenland to escort its arrival at BW-1, let alone to patrol the Greenland Air Gap. On the next day, the same U-Boat patrol line picked up and tracked the Iceland bound Convoy SC-118, and on Feb. 7, sank 7 of its ships including another troopship. Later on Feb.3, the 2 PBY's were finally used for the first time, and made a survey flight from BE-2.

(11) During this time period, USAAF was reassuring SOPA- USCG that the rescue was on verge of success by dogsleds. Admiral Smith made a series of requests to the USAAF's Greenland Bases Commander during this time period to return his 2 PBY's to no avail. They were urgently needed for ASW anti-submarine patrols and convoy escorting. (Earlier, the 6 men at the crashed B-17 had separated and got stranded about 6 miles apart.)
Every attempt by USAAF motor sleds and dogsleds had failed, and ENS Fuller and Johanson had taken-over a dogsled, and were enroute with 15 dogs with a tow-sled and supplied by airdrops and marked the trail as they went, and guided by Turner's assisting B-17 more than 40 miles on the Ice Cap to " Spencer's Motorsled Camp"....and arrived on Feb. 5 at the same time as LT Dunlop & LTjg Waters' PBY made their first belly-landing with COL Balchen along as advisor at "Lt Spencer's Camp". The PBY took-off with the 3 men there and returned to BE-2, and ENS Fuller continued on toward the B-17. A bad storm struck them on Feb.6 and also grounded the 2 PBY's & Turner's B-17 at BE-2. Their tent camp was wrecked and Fuller who was on skis wearing ski-boots right foot became frozen, their first dog was lost, and they needed the now grounded B-17 to guide them to the crashed B-17. They was forced to give-up, and returned back to the small shack called Ice Cap Station, located 17 miles north of the main station, and it became completely buried under snow, and thhey lost 8 more dogs. This was followed by a hurricane force wind, which blew away all of the deep loose snow, and they got back to the station at Comanche Bay on March 2.
On March 3, ex-VP-93 (now VPB-126)'s PBY (93-P-22) enroute from Argentia to BW-1 fatally crashed in the mountains near BW-1.

(12) At this time in early March, US Navy next sent 2 of VP-31's PBY-5A, (later only one PBY), and 2 of ex-VP-93 (now VPB-126) PV-3 Venturas from Argentia to SOPA-USCG at BW-1. On March 5, LT Dunlop's PBY made its 2nd landing with the USAAF dogsled party from BE-2, which recovered the 3 men at the B-17, back to the landing location, and were picked up on April 5; but the PBY developed an engine fire while attempting to take-off. COL Balchen decided to off-load the dogsled rescue party, and follow Fuller's marked trail back to Comanche Bay, and the PBY was able to take-off on April 6 back to BE-2. COL Balchen's party arrived at the station on April 16, and COL Balchen informed ENS Fuller of the location of the USCG Grumman Duck, which later turned out to also be in error. COL Balchen's party and dogs were picked-up by ENS Henderson's PBY on April 18. The rescue was now done; except that the 5 USCG men were still there.

(13) At the end of April, VP-31's PBY's returned to USA from Argentia, and Hebron-7 at Argentia now began to to provide 2 PBY's to SOPA-USCG Greenland, and VPB-126 continued to provide 2, then 3, mix of VP-1 and VP-3 Venturas to SOPA-USCG. At the end of June, VPB-126 also returned to USA, and thereafter Hedron-7 provided 2, then 3, PBYs,and 2 or 3 Venturas to Greenland.

(14) On May 8, 1943, ENS Henderson's PBY returned and picked-up the 5 USCG men, and on May 13, the two PBY-5A's finally returned to BW-1, in bad condition needing major repairs in USA.

(15) The Navy record dated July 21 stated: " VP-6 CG Ordered to Commission". After all of the problems with US Navy aircraft in Greenland, SOPA-USCG was finally going to get its own USCG manned patrol squadron. By October 17, USCG had 7 PBY-5A's and one J2F-5, and Hedron-7 stopped providing aircraft to SOPA-USCG. Eventually VP-6 CG got 12 PBY-5A's. Most of them came from ex-VP-31, and some from VP-84, and as I recall, one from ex-VP-93. (This information on their various sources is not in this US Navy record.).

(16) Thus, the rescue saga of the B-17 "PN9E" spanned from November 5, 1942 to May 13, 1943; and USCG's Greenland Patrol finally got its own USCG manned Squadron VP-6 (CG). [ There is a lot more to this story. ]

(17) The series of US Navy seaplane tenders during this were Lapwing AVP-1, Biscayne AVP-11, Sandpiper AVP-9, Barnegat AVP-10, and Rockaway AVP-29.

(18) In August 1975, the icebreaker USCGC Northwind searched for the CG Duck on barren ice-free Pamiagdluk Peninsula with 2 helicopters and ground party under ideal conditions per its report, and found nothing per its report. This location was approximately midway between the "wrong" reported fjord, and the hopefully at the "correct location" on the mountain ridge on the east side of Koge Bay fjord; which presently still has a layer of ice and snow of unknown thickness at the end of the summer snow melt. It had been reported in 1942 to be about XXXXXXX from the water.

Gosh... what a hostile, hostile place...

Dave