MADISON, Wis. — Searchers introduced Thursday they’ve found what they imagine is the wreckage of World Struggle II ace Richard Bong’s aircraft within the South Pacific.
The Richard I. Bong Veterans Historic Middle in Superior, Wisconsin, and the nonprofit World Struggle II historic preservation group Pacific Wrecks introduced in March they have been launching a joint seek for Bong’s Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter. Bong nicknamed the aircraft “Marge” after his girlfriend, Marge Vattendahl.
One other pilot, Thomas Malone, was flying the aircraft in March 1944 over what’s now often known as Papua New Guinea when engine failure despatched it right into a spin. Malone bailed out earlier than the aircraft crashed within the jungle.
The expedition’s chief, Pacific Wrecks Director Justin Taylan, stated in a information launch that the search group found the wreckage within the jungles of Papua New Guinea’s Madang Province. He launched images of himself within the jungle with chunks of metallic on the bottom taken Could 15.
In a single photograph he factors to what the caption calls a wing tip from the aircraft stamped with “993,” the final three numbers of the aircraft’s serial quantity. Enlarging the photograph exhibits markings that could possibly be two “9s” however they’re obscured by what could be grime or rust and tough to make out. One other photograph exhibits a chunk of metallic stamped with “Mannequin P-38 JK.”
“The aircraft’s affiliation with Richard Bong makes it probably the most important World Struggle II plane on the earth,” Taylan stated within the information launch.
Bong, who grew up in Poplar, Wisconsin, is credited with capturing down 40 Japanese plane throughout World Struggle II. He plastered a blow-up of Vattendahl’s portrait on the nostril of his aircraft, based on a Pacific Wrecks abstract of the aircraft’s service.
Bong shot down extra planes than another American pilot. Gen. Douglas MacArthur awarded him the Medal of Honor, the U.S. navy’s highest ornament, in 1944.
Bong and Vattendahl ultimately married in 1945. Bong was assigned to responsibility as a take a look at pilot in Burbank, California, after three fight excursions within the South Pacific. He was killed on Aug. 6, 1945, when a P-80 jet fighter he was testing crashed. He died on the identical day america dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.
Vattendahl was 21 on the time of Bong’s demise. She went on to turn out to be a mannequin and {a magazine} writer in Los Angeles. She died in September 2003 in Superior.
A bridge connecting Superior and Duluth, Minnesota, is called for Bong.
“The Bong household could be very enthusiastic about this discovery,” James Bong, Richard Bong’s nephew, stated within the information launch. “It’s wonderful and unbelievable that ‘Marge’ has been discovered and recognized.”
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