Author Topic: Raise WW2 airplane from water or preserve? (Read 1274 times)

Frogm4n · « **Reply #15 on:** July 14, 2003, 04:24:04 PM »

we dig up war graves all the time. lets get over ourselves and raise them up and give the bodys to the familys. or 100 years from now they will do it anyways and by then the planes will be to decayed to be worth a damn for historical study.

swoopy · « **Reply #16 on:** July 14, 2003, 04:26:32 PM »

war grave leave it there

john9001 · « **Reply #17 on:** July 14, 2003, 04:43:49 PM »

need to define "war grave"

i think if it could have been done at the time the Arizona would have been raised and the dead buried, but given the war pressure, lack of manpower and technoligy, it was left where it sank.

whenever the US finds a new airplane crash site in vietnam, they bring the bones back for burial, they don't leave the bones and call the crash site a "war grave"

Dowding · « **Reply #18 on:** July 14, 2003, 04:46:27 PM »

The US did that after WW2 as well - Britain didn't. I don't know if there is an official policy on crashed planes and whether there are conditions that relate to the type of terrain. I'm trying to think of a similar situation, but can't remember one.

straffo · « **Reply #19 on:** July 14, 2003, 04:53:10 PM »

Raise the lawyer and company ancestors first ... then raise the fallen.

Creamo · « **Reply #20 on:** July 14, 2003, 05:14:00 PM »

That would be another tarded inevitable "Reply".

You didn't win a prize Straffo, yet.

straffo · « **Reply #21 on:** July 14, 2003, 05:24:19 PM »

Damit ! I make my best at an time I'm suppose to be sleeping and I don't even have an have accesit (*) ?

(*) should be a "certificate of merit" for you or something like that ...

Sandman · « **Reply #22 on:** July 14, 2003, 05:27:50 PM »

I'm sure Vaughan Reginald Gill and Raymond Laurence Knott are far beyond caring.

Furious · « **Reply #23 on:** July 14, 2003, 05:29:53 PM »

how does a the sight of a training accident in NE USA translate to a "war grave". I am unaware of any war that occurred in Maine that involved Corsairs.

Creamo · « **Reply #24 on:** July 14, 2003, 05:33:38 PM »

And with that, I retire to the DVD collection.

TK Furious. Ozzy is calling "LOUDER! LOUDER!" Actually he was.

Cheers.

wulfie · « **Reply #25 on:** July 14, 2003, 10:58:44 PM »

(last post for awhile again guys so if I don't respond it's because I didn't get to read the responses, etc.)

The guys trying to recover the aircraft could have some serious problems. I can't remember where I read it but it was an article written by the leader of a team of guys who looks for 'salvage' (sunken ships, aircraft under water, etc.).

The problem with any argument the recovery people could make is that the aircraft are still the property of the U.K. or U.S. military. The article told of several occasions where the salvage guys recovered something (once I think it was a TBM) and once they had recovered it the government stepped in and said "Thanks we'll take our aircraft/wreckage/salvage now" and compensated the salvage guys pennies on the dollar for their expenses. Of course part of the blame rests with the salvage guys because they didn't check with the government first and knew that 'post recovery seizure' was a possibility.

What I am surprised at is that I haven't seen the opinions of the surviving families listed, mentioned, etc. If they are at the bottom of a lake and it was a training accident I think the final word would have to come from any surviving family. If it was my Dad, I think I'd say recover the aircraft make it flyable and have my Dad's name and wartime rank on the side forever and a picture of him in the cockpit so everyone remembered where the aircraft came from.

The Arizona is a different case in my book - it's a landmark that's a big part of history that happens to contain the graves of a bunch of brave Sailors. But even the Arizona will be gone before too long the sea is eating away at her.

Mike/wulfie

-tronski- · « **Reply #26 on:** July 15, 2003, 01:47:45 AM »

A/C with their aircrew, that are discovered in the jungles of the pacific, or in Europe those aircrew are always removed from the crash site and reburied in a military cemetary. I see no real difference here, except perhaps the fact these aircraft were discovered for profit only....

Tronsky

Fatty · « **Reply #27 on:** July 15, 2003, 07:26:17 AM »

What if the egyptians had been this anal?

mjolnir · « **Reply #28 on:** July 15, 2003, 08:04:47 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Furious
how does a the sight of a training accident in NE USA translate to a "war grave". I am unaware of any war that occurred in Maine that involved Corsairs.

Damn, I'm glad somebody finally had the common sense to say this. I spent every summer of my childhood swimming in Sebago Lake. There certainly aren't any marks around it of a war that I've ever found. To be honest, I can't even really figure out why two British pilots were in Maine to begin with. You'd have thought they had more pressing matters on their side of the pond to tend to. This 'war grave' logic escapes me here. If they'd been driving a car in Maine at the time and gone off the road into the lake and drowned, would that still be a war grave?

The good news is that Sebago is a relatively clean lake, so the planes shouldn't have suffered too much damage from the water. It's also the deepest lake in Maine, around 450 feet or so. I doubt they've been disturbed by much in the last 50 years.

Dowding · « **Reply #29 on:** July 15, 2003, 08:47:37 AM »

That's a bit disrespectful - they were servicemen training for the war. Maybe they were to ferry their planes to the Pacific via the US. Shouldn't they be afforded the same respect as those who died in combat?