PBY sunken wreck in Kaneohe Bay

[ALOHADAVE]

PBY-5 Catalina

In the attack, 75 percent of the U.S. planes sitting at airfields near Pearl Harbor were damaged or destroyed. For all the aircraft lost—the Japanese lost 59—there is one that can be linked to that morning. Very few people can gain access to it, and even then only with a military escort, since it lies in the water just off Marine Corps Base Hawaii at Kaneohe Bay, on the east side of Oahu. During the war, this was the location of a Naval Air Station for PBY-5 Catalina seaplanes, long-range reconnaissance craft.

The Japanese knew that these planes could track them to their carriers north of the island. The PBY-5s had a range of almost 1,500 miles and could be in the air in minutes. So, just before the general attack, at 7:48 a.m., attacking planes strafed the Naval Air Station with 20 mm incendiary rounds and bombs. Of the 36 planes there, three were out on patrol, six were damaged, and the rest were destroyed. Servicemen at Kaneohe Bay scrambled to put out fires and salvage what they could.

In the 1980s, the mooring area was used for training mine-detecting dolphins. That could be when the battered wreck of one of the PBY-5s was first identified. In 1994, students and archaeologists from the University of Hawaii and East Carolina University surveyed the remains. “It was a good start on the submerged story,” says Hans Van Tilburg, who was on that team and is now a maritime heritage coordinator with NOAA. In 2000, the University of Hawaii returned to the site for surveys that turned up aviation-related scraps, but no other planes. It’s possible that the others had been salvaged or drifted into deeper, murkier water. “Our desire is to get back to the bay and continue looking in deeper water,” says Van Tilburg.

The remains of the plane consist of the forward portion of its fuselage, including the cockpit and turret, which lies on its starboard side in about 30 feet of water, the starboard half of the 105-foot parasol wing, and the fragmented remains of the tail 30 feet away. It is likely that fuel tanks in the center of the wing exploded, but the wrecked seaplane holds telling details about the frantic eight minutes of that initial Japanese attack.

There is a large gash in the port side, just where a propeller would have been. Inside the cockpit, the port throttle is in the forward position. Yet the plane is still attached to its mooring line. This all suggests that an attempt was made to scramble at least one of the planes—but that it didn’t get far. The wreck does not provide evidence of what happened to the pilot, or just how many planes were moored at Kaneohe that morning. Some sources say three, others four, and there are six in a drawing by a Japanese pilot. “Every eyewitness account contradicts the other accounts,” says Van Tilburg. “It’s still a bit of a mystery. But this might be the only plane we know of that we can point to and say, ‘This is a December 7 casualty.’”

(photo Courtesy Hans Van Tilburg, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration)
if interested, I have many more photos and video of this PBY wreck

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[Warbird Kid]

Truly amazing and sobering. I wish someone would find Gordon Sterling's P-36 that is reported to have also been lost in Kaneohe Bay

[ALOHADAVE]

Truly amazing and sobering. I wish someone would find Gordon Sterling's P-36 that is reported to have also been lost in Kaneohe Bay

I'm working on that! I believe I know where he crashed into Kailua Bay, I have witnesses!, U of Hawaii found some unidentified wreckage. Site needs further investigation! U of H requires funding to do so.
Aloha Dave

[lucky52]

I know it is corroded pretty bad, but they need to raise it up to study what is left before it is completely gone.On a side note,I thought the Japanese only lost 29 planes.

[ALOHADAVE]

I know it is corroded pretty bad, but they need to raise it up to study what is left before it is completely gone.On a side note,I thought the Japanese only lost 29 planes.

29 lost during the attack, another 30 made it back but were written off as damaged

[lucky52]

Thanks

[JohnB]

I'm sure not much remain of any Japanese aircraft aside from the one Zeke forced down on a smaller Hawaiian island, burned and now at the Pacific museum at Pearl.

However, the now defunct Big Country Squadron of the CAF (see that thread) out of Abilene, Texas had a radio key from a Kate or Val shot down in the attack. It was given to them by a local Pearl Harbor vet who told them he was aboard a ship and the Japanese aircraft crashed on the dock near their ship.
I examined it and it was mounted on a wood base which had Japanese characters. It was like new.

I was at a meeting (what for, I don't recall since I'm not a member) when it was given to them.
I hope it was passed into the CAF museum when the squadron disbanded and didn't end up in somebody's shoebox.

[tjc333]

So there were 36 PBYs available for patrol however only three were out on patrol? No wonder the admiral was severely punished after the attack. Seems like at lot more could have been done to get some warning. I know hind sight is always 20/20 but from all the documentaries I have seen it seems like a great deal more could have been done to get some warning.

[Mick G]

I know it is corroded pretty bad, but they need to raise it up to study what is left before it is completely gone.On a side note,I thought the Japanese only lost 29 planes.

Sir. It is a war grave. Let it be. Respect.

[Jim MacDonald]

It hasn't been confirmed as a war grave according to the first post. If it is a war grave, since it is at a depth that divers can reach I would say it is more respectful to recover any remains and have them properly interred at the family's preferred cemetery than to leave them where they are as a "war grave" where they cannot be given the recognition and honor that the deserve.

Mac

[ALOHADAVE]

"Sir. It is a war grave. Let it be. Respect."
It is not a war grave, All men accounted for and buried on land later.
It is a plane grave, believed to be VP-14 PBY-5. We narrowed it down to three possible BuNos, but still no confirmation. No one was keeping records at the time and many records were destroyed.
I want to know what the dog was doing there?

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