WWII Airplane Debris Found In San Jose.

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TopGun

Recruit
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Feb 17, 2007
Leeuwarden,The Netherlands
Dear Members,




By internet I found this article WWII airplane debris found in San Jose.
The airplane a Douglas SBD-5 Dauntless was discoverd by a construction crew nearby the Pajaro River in north Monterey County,CA.
The plane was stationned by VB-18 Sqn. naval air base in the Central Valley.
The both pilots of that plane where Delbert C.Goodspeed,21, and Robert Henry Paulsen,22.
Can you help me to find the registration of these airplane?
I douldn't find anything about the registration of that airplane.
I will thank you very much for your support.




Abe v.d.Bijl,
The Netherlands
 
Kind of odd. Found in the middle of farmlands? Didn't anyone notice it when they went in?

That's a fairly sparsely populated area, so it would be easy to see how an airplane could auger in and no one would notice. Also, at that time there were always a/c flying overhead on training missions out here on the West Coast; I myself live within a few miles of an old WWII naval training base, and there are several more out here in the Central Valley, all within 30 or 40 miles of each other, so during the War there was almost always an aircraft of some type flying around on a training mission out here (in fact, our small-town police department accidentally had a practice bomb dropped on it by a TBM trainer in 1944!). I'm guessing there was probably at least one training crash per week out here during the War, particularly up in the mountains (which is where they found those frozen bodies last year).
 
Frozen bodies? Must of missed that. Don't get much of that sort of stuff out here on the East Coast.

What happened?
 
In the UK we have thousands of crash sites, lots shot down during the war and many training accidents as well as bombers returning from raids. We have at least a dozen MIA on the land, 1000s in the sea....it is very sad.
We have to have a licence to dig a particular aircraft site, I have 3 licences at the moment (a Spiteful, Mustang and an Attacker).
 
Frozen bodies? Must of missed that. Don't get much of that sort of stuff out here on the East Coast.

What happened?

A bomber crew was killed when they crashed into the Sierras. They weren't the only ones, unfortunately. The Sierras have claimed countless aircraft and thier crews over the decades. Lost Flights: The Sierra's Deadly Legacy - fresnobee.com

There was another crash site, on the eastern side of the Sierras, that was discovered back in the 80's, of a B-25 at the bottom of one of many man-made "lakes", complete with crew. They had become lost during a snowstorm, and aparently had tried to set down in what must have looked like to them, a snowey meadow. In reality, it was the snow covered surface of a lake that had been logged over after it had filled, leaving the rest of trees just below the waterline. :(

The only SBD wreck that I know of, is near San Diego: 09/15/43 SBD-5 #29018 crashed in Wagner Cayon NE of San Juan Capistrano
and it's listed on this site: AIRCRAFT WRECKS IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
 
Requesting help. I was given a data plate taken from an ME-109 which had crashed some place in Europe? It was recoved by a USAAF B-24 pilot (now deceased) would like to find out someway I can trace the history of this aircraft. This is the info on the data plate: Gerat Nr. 9-12087-A 3 Werk Nr. 15.9545 Flugel satzweise austauschbar. It also had a round stamp in the plate with the letters BA 2? (not sure of the second letter or number) 03.
 
Two for one....
 

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