15:06
February 21, 1944. 800 American bombers return from a raid on targets in Germany. 3:00 p.m. They were in the air for 5 hours and finally left behind the last enemy fighters and their depleted batteries. Everyone relaxes as they fly over the Norfolk coast. Then tragedy. They were only a few minutes from the safety of their base when suddenly one of the bombers collided with another, and the two planes crashed sharply to the ground somewhere here in the Rydham Marshes. All 21 crew members died. So what exactly happened? We only have 3 days to try to shed light on this mystery. We are going to excavate one of the planes in the hope that its hull may provide some clues, if anything remains of it, and we
will try to learn as much as we can about the two crews and the events leading up to the crash. The bodies of the two crew members, one piloted by Captain John Hutcheson and the other by Lieutenant Warren Pease, were recovered by the US Air Force shortly after the crash. All that remains today, somewhere beneath these Norfolk marshes, are the mangled wreckage of their planes. What do we know about the last minutes of our planes' lives? We know that the two planes had just broken out of the cloud, and that Hutcheson's plane, leading the formation, was descending straight and horizontally. And then Pisa's plane came out of the cloud,
seemingly out of control, and stopped in front of Gatch's plane. The two planes collided, and we know that Gatch's ship instantly rolled into the swamps and exploded. Then part of the tail of Pisa's plane broke off, but according to local witnesses it was somehow out of control and it descended into a swamp, apparently trying to make an emergency landing, but then crashed there and exploded. It took Ian 30 years of research to piece together this much history. He first identified the crashed plane by digging Captain Hutchison's plane out of the swamps, and then established the sequence of events by talking to eyewitnesses and reviewing official accident reports. But the story is not over yet. Ian wants us to
help him dig up the second plane. Among his remains, he hopes to find the key to solving the real reason for So is this what we are looking for? Yes, this is the B-17G "Flying Fortress," so called because of all the cannons sticking out of it everywhere. A giant aircraft for its time. On some missions there were 800 or 1000 of them in the sky. The sky must have been black when there were so many from those big engines, yeah. Ian thinks we'll find Pisa's plane somewhere in this field. And geophysicists are already examining this area using a modern metal detector. It may look like something from a local dumpster, but the sensors in the frame can detect
metal at a depth of 5 m. God, it's true, John, there's so much. Well, these are the results of the metal detector on wheels, and here we are looking at the surface. So, there's a lot of surface metal there, these are yellow spots. But what's interesting is that yes, there is concentration there. And if we dive deeper, then we will lose surface debris. Yes. But we still get this strong signal here. And also this point there. Yes. Oh, yes. This also shows depth. So what exactly are we talking about? Well, it's right here, Tony. I mean, there's a lot of material that was dug out of the dam and that's scattered across the surface. But our anomalies, the strong area, is about here.
Yes. You know, it gives us confidence that there could be a large body of metal there. And how far is second place? You are going in the wrong direction. Oh, yes. Where is it? Here. I guess my card is upside down Ah, well, about here, Tony. The results cannot tell us how the debris is deposited, how deep it is, or how much of it was left behind by the US Air Force. So MIT decides to open a trench at each of the two spots to see what's there. To solve the mystery of the collision, we will have to treat this like a plane crash investigation. This means digging up almost all the debris from the swamp. And this will create some unusual
problems for us. We will probably have to dig several meters deep over a very large area. Hence the giant mechanical excavators with very long reach and very large buckets. And it's also very likely that this is a swamp, the trenches will fill with water. So we brought huge pumps with us. Good morning. I'm Flight Sergeant Don Barrett. I'm from the 5131st Bomb Disposal Squadron. I want to, I want to do. But what worries Phil and Karenza the most is what was on board the plane when it crashed. As far as we know, there are large bombs on the plane. So, as far as you can judge, how confident are you about this Well, we can never be 100% sure that the plane came back empty, um, but, uh, as far as we can tell from the records, uh, they
came back without any big bombs. But what you'll find, or there's a chance you might find, are these.5 caliber shells, uh This looks like a pretty dangerous projectile It is not dangerous as such. So if you hit it with the base of a shovel, it shouldn't explode. OK? But what if you hit it with something small in the center of this capsule, like a trowel? For example, with a trowel or something like that. If you hit it with a certain amount of force, there's a chance it will happen. How strong will the explosion be? Is this something that will kill you, or just hurt you? No, it will just hurt. It won't kill you, but it will hurt.
This will cause lacerations, uh, something like that. Don believes there may be several thousand shells at the excavation site, and almost immediately the first one surfaces in the second trench. So, you see it. This one-no. It did n't explode either. This also confirms what you said about how hard you could hit them, because you actually see them hit with the backhoe bucket. It went through the metal. They boldly dig in both trenches. And at this time, an army of aviation enthusiasts like Ian, armed with an impressive set of metal detectors, descends to the ground in search of finds. But there's nothing there except ammunition. And it soon becomes
clear that if there are no planes here, then it is quite deep. How much do we know about our particular crew? No, my research focused on another plane that crashed about 800 yards from here. It was Hutchinson's crew. And, uh, I even have a photo of the crew. How old were these guys? He was a little older than the rest of the crew, um, under 20, but most of them were 19, 20, 21. The rest of the men on the base had a lot of respect for him, and they were all very upset when his crew had a disaster. And they were carrying out their 25th and final mission. Returning home would be the end of the war for them. And a few minutes from the base, a tragedy occurred, a collision, and they were destroyed in a matter of seconds. And here we have, I mean, a
telegram. This is from Gatch. Which was sent home a day or two before this fateful mission. I'm fine. I want to leave. With love to all. Johnny. That says it all. This is a tragedy. Finding any explanation for the deaths of Gutch and two crew members in the wreckage of Pace's plane is obviously unlikely. There is no black box. Our only hope is whether there is some clue in the design of the airframe, or in one of the engines, or in the propeller, or in the settings of the dials and levers in the cockpit. If they survived the accident. If we
can find them. And in trench two there is already a sign of the difficulties we face. found a bullet. Look. I just pulled the bullet out of here. It has only produced more ammunition, and has already turned into a pond. Could you turn it on now, please? Accepted. Yes. This pump can pump 60 liters of water per second, but by itself it cannot solve our drainage problem. The surrounding marshes are protected by strict environmental legislation. And because the water from the trenches is probably contaminated with fuel and
chemicals from the plane, we had to build this 90- meter-long treatment tank to contain it. Can you check the bottom with your metal detector so we can see if there's anything left there? Good. This is not just any detector. The Royal Air Force commonly uses it to search for bombs. Although in this case we would prefer them to find us a plane. No. There is nothing under it. There's nothing of a decent size here. Okay, I think we should think about closing it. Do you want your hand to come out? shock. And if just a few rounds gave the geophysics big readings here, what would we find in trench
number one? Phil quickly calms us down as he pulls the first parts of the plane out of the ground. It was the smell of gasoline. Yes. Then a piece of fuel pipe. Yes, look at this. Parachute, right? No, that's one of the guys, is n't it? One of Yes. We have a glass headlight on the windshield. My God. Oho. So what is this? This.They're going to install a light that will actually be located on the front of the wing, and maybe on the very, very edge of the wing. And you'll have green on one side and red on the other, right? And on the right. That's right, yes. Oh my God, a lion. And this is completely, which happens very rarely.
All of these finds were discovered by mechanical mining, but there is some disagreement about how to proceed. The Time team prefers a traditional approach. They want to scrape off the next layers by hand, recording them as they go so they do n't miss anything. Aviation enthusiasts, on the other hand, want to continue working with the machine to get to the main body of debris as quickly as possible. In the end, they compromise. The machine scrapes off a few inches at a time, and then Phil grabs his trowel. And the strategy seems to be working, because within an hour they come across metal. We have apparently reached our first real archaeological layer. So, we have all this slab here, and here is the cable, there are pipes, and here, look, there is the
fabric, if you can see. I don't think it could be part of a parachute or anything like that. And then, the most interesting thing, we have this big rod with a big thread running through it. Wait. Bob, well, Bob, you used to be a line manager here, right? Yes. So you were responsible for patching these things up when they came back. Do you have any idea what we are actually seeing? I think it might be the Well, he was raising and lowering the tail wheel when. This piece right here, then Bob. Yes. So, with our first identified aircraft part, we can begin to investigate the remains of the B-17 Pi. As early as February 1944, the
aircraft and its crew were carrying out regular bombing raids over occupied Europe as part of the 385th Bombardment Group, based at Great Ashfield in Suffolk. Mick went to find out from Ian and our historian Guy what the group was doing on the day the two planes crashed. Well, we know that 34 aircraft took off from their base at Great Ashfield in Suffolk and flew across the North Sea to attack Diepholz air base, which you can see there. He's Good. And we know that they seriously damaged her. And then they turned around and headed home across the North Sea, towards Great Yarmouth. They took part in a raid involving over 900 bombers in what we call Big Week. Have a great week. A big week in late February 1944, which was part of a huge, long-term campaign to
destroy the German aircraft industry. Right. Well, Big Week was also a concerted effort, with the Royal Air Force and the Americans joining forces. They were going to hit the Germans with the force of both air forces and then knock out the Luftwaffe. So when the troops land in a few weeks or in February, we're talking about an invasion in June, then you won't have any resistance from the Luftwaffe. And it worked because they didn't What doesn't work is the archaeological compromise in the first trench. Ever since Phil hit the propeller, which Bob believes is actually part of the main chassis, he has banned any further digging with the machine. So when Ian returns, he sees Phil poking around in the same layer of rubble with a trowel,
while the frustrated diggers stare longingly at the pieces of metal they so desperately want to pull out with a machine. Hey guys, I'm a little worried about the speed of the excavation. We're already far along on the first day, and I think we need to find some kind of compromise between traditional archaeology and maybe a faster recovery of something, otherwise we'll spend 3 days on this. Yes. So, what do you think about that, Phil? Well, I mean, if, if we're going to do it in an archaeological way, yeah, then I mean we have to do it properly. It's just that the time factor is pressing on us now. But you know, given
how we are, I mean, it's interesting that you think things are happening slowly, because we're often accused of the opposite. So this is something new. We like it. Yes, yes, I think it's a compromise, I guess. One of the things we are accused of is moving too fast. Yes, yes, this is an attempt to find a compromise between the speed at which we would like to move and the recognition of an archaeological site. In the end, Mick agrees to give the machine another try, but only to widen the trench so he can see how far the debris extends. And he insists on not deleting anything until it's documented. But all day long, while we were working on this side of the big dam,
John and his team of geophysicists were working here in this area, and hopefully by now he has some results for us. What do you mean by "hopefully by then"? How are you doing? That's actually quite fascinating, Tony. This is a dam that runs through the middle of the two study areas, and this is again a wheel magnetometer. We're getting very strong signals from this side, and what appears to be a whole scattered anomaly. And this is the place where we have already dug. This is the place where you have already dug. Now, to my untrained eye, that would mean the middle of the plane is in the dam.
Well, that's what it seems to imply. Well, at least debris all over the area is what it looks like, right? I mean, Tony, it's almost like this depression here for me. Could this be the original depression where the plane crashed? We are getting strong signals right on the edge and returning in that direction. This is straight to. Yes. So, is the plane in a field or in a dam? I knew it would be big, my friend, but I do n't think I ever realized it would be this big.
It's about as wide as two cricket fields, right? And it's very tall, look all the way to the tower. It's only when you see one of these bombers in person, like this one at the Duxford Aviation Museum, that you realise how little we've found so far and how much we still have to do. We want to look at the undercarriage, because that's where Bob thinks these fragments were found. Of course, what we found in the trench. Yes. Yes, here we are. Look, this is it, is n't it? It is, isn't it? Yes. Because we also have a sleeve around it. Yes. But so far, this screw is the most important part of this huge monster that we managed to extract. So everyone at the scene is digging like
crazy. And we opened a new trench, trench three, on the other side of the dam where John got his strong reaction last night. However, an hour of archaeological excavation revealed only a pile of ammunition and this steel cable, which Ian believes is left over from a US Air Force towing operation in 1944. And the soil in the trench looks completely untouched. Of course, the cable could have caused iron reactions. It's worth scanning to see if there's anything else there. No, it looks clean. , we have no reason to believe there's anything in the dam. So, our gaze is once again focused on trench number one. Just playing.
We continue to play. Uh, that means we should be able to see something rising in the trench. Phil finally agreed to let the machines do more of the work. And finally we pull large pieces of metal out of the ground. By mid-morning there is enough for identification by Bob, the old crew chief. This is part of the magneto harness that ran around the outside of the engine. And you can see the high voltage spark plug wire So, the spark plug. She was coming up to the spark plug, yes. What is it, what is it for, for example? This is part of the spar that I think was in the bomb bay because it is very well worn. So, we.we.we're kind of looking between the fuselage. This thing is inside the fuselage.
Oh, thank you. Why did they have to wear all that? Well, they would be flying at 20,000 feet and the temperature outside would be -40°F. So if you weren't covered in a raincoat, you would just freeze to death. I'm right in the front of the cabin, look. Can you see me through this? Oh, yes, I see you. You are passing through there. Narrow, isn't it? This is claustrophobia. You're going through the middle of the shooter over there, look. There would be knee-deep shells there. And then you go through a bullet turret, look.
There, in the radio operator's room. Yes. And then you'll have to squeeze through the bomb bay. Oh, is this the same bomb bay that's right here? Yes. I will never get through there. Wait. Two large bomb racks. Just imagine, Tony, squeezing in there You know, with all that noise, the fighter jets and everything. I think you'll have to take off your parachute. Here he is. A. Yes, when he climbs over that threshold, you'll have to squeeze under the must have been very difficult. And then you have to climb under the upper tower, where you are now, look. And then when you get there, you can go up here, where the two
pilot seats are, where I am. This is the only part of the armor, look, these two plates behind, um, the pilots. Imagine if there was a crisis on the plane. If you were grabbing onto a parachute trying to get out. Yes. And that's probably how it was, you know, when our guys were kind of flying, like falling, you know, panicking, you know, wondering if they were going to be able to get out. Terribly. Absolutely terrible. This is the pilot's armor. One J-shaped piece. Right. To protect him from projectiles from behind. My God. And I think it's the pilot's seat because it's cut out to provide access to the cockpit.
The pilot always sat on the left side. Right. This is the armor plating on the back of the seat he died on. Right. Sergeant, there's a nice inscription here. I really like it. Annie Gordon must have met the men from our two crews. She worked as a Red Cross worker at Great Ashfield Air Base during the war. She provided first aid to the wounded and gave hot tea to everyone else. But at that time she was much better known as a painter of nude women. Because, in addition to being a nurse, she was one of the most prolific artists depicting Usually they wanted to
see these cute girls. Without special clothes. No, not much clothing, but some of them were pretty good, you know, they weren't as bad as people thought. Did you draw everything they asked for? Yes, I drew. They were really stupid. I mean, the ones I did didn't ask anything too terrible. " The Descendant," "Mr. Lucky," "Madame Shu -Shu," and "Pregnant Scum" were all hers. We are going to make a monument to the two crews. And to do this, she agreed to paint a copy of the drawing on the nose of Hutchison's first plane, "Sleepy Girl." I once sat on overturned bomb crates. And now, you're going to have to make her hands like this. And here is her hand.
Back at the place, Ian loses his patience again. Although there is still a lot of debris remaining in trench number one, it is all relatively small items. He believes that what we are finding may simply be a trail of debris from the crash, and the main part of the plane may be elsewhere. If we weren't here, where would you go, because I'm already a little nervous. To completely frank. Well, Vic, one of the excavator operators, spent most of his adult life working in the swamps. Where? Where are you going?
Um, along the dam and on both sides. Take, you know, a little bit of a detour from the shore, then that's where the interesting, interesting bits are. Okay, what do you mean by interesting bits? I had, um, parachute handles in there, and, um, we found a silver dollar. Last time I dug there, um, there was a lot of oil and, um, something like paraffin, came out. So maybe part of the plane is still in the dam. And when Mick returns to the scene shortly after lunch, he will be immediately pressured to find out. I mean, what are we supposed to do, Ian? Would you say.If we got here? It could blind me. A little hazy, but.
Very firm.and take that lump in the middle. Well, if he's going there, and part of what Viga told me is.a little bit of that is him. Oh, what a sensation. Fishing is here, I think. So, but he can't get to what's there because he doesn't have the reach. We have reach. So now is a chance to get in there and see if we can pull it out, and then come back because we know we're getting some metrics here. Good. We're getting some metrics here. We know we're getting some metrics here. This is what we have on this geophysics, we have these two indicators up front. So, we should also look at this area.
Yes, but then those pieces start to come together, right? Yes, that's right. Yes, just level it out. Level it up and go down. Yes. Okay, so to sit down and pump out the dam. Yes. Let's continue. Okay, then let's continue. Even at a rate of 60 liters per second, it would take several hours to drain this section of the dam. Meanwhile, Stewart teamed up with Bernie Forward, an expert on plane crashes. He might flip over in this plane. Mhm. But not in a circular shape. So, if the witnesses say he was investigating the Lockerbie disaster, and he came to help us solve our
mystery. The first task is to find out exactly how Pisa's plane crashed and what happened when it hit the ground. And two witnesses mentioned the idea of a belly landing. Hmm, and one is quite specific. Yes. He slid through the swamp and everything seemed fine until he reached the dam. The nose dropped, the rear of the fuselage rose, and it hit a dam and exploded. Yes. Hmm, a statement was taken from a person he worked with in the exact same location, which is almost a mile away. So, they are very far from the scene of the disaster. It's almost the same story. But, this is an important point.
Hmm, when he was about to land, his view was blocked by trees. A. And he says: "Although I didn't see the landing." So, a contradiction immediately arises And they both stood in the same position. That's true. So, we clearly need more reliable eyewitnesses. And the two of them set off on the trail. After two hours of pumping, the dam became as dry as possible. My God And we started searching. Meanwhile, trench number one continues to yield fascinating things, including some striking reminders of the young men who died here.
I think it's amazing. We have this throat microphone that is written as being made in Inglewood, California. It looks so new. It probably still works just as well if we had the opportunity to plug it in. And there's also a visor, which I assume is taken from the visors of an officer's cap. Which is quite touching. And here we have this inner glove to warm our hands from the deadly cold at 20,000 feet. If you touch anything metal inside an airplane without gloves, you will burn your hands. The skin will just stick to the metal and, uh, you'll get frostbite. It's unusual to find such perishable things, isn't it?
Well, that's because it happened so recently, right? I mean, it's just not that long ago. These people should by right still be alive. Yes. Yes, that's true. Stuart and Barney have made significant progress in finding new eyewitnesses. They tracked down one of the crew members of the third bomber, who was in formation with Hutchinson and Peace. Bob Goldsmith was a rifleman and actually saw the disaster, but he still has n't had a chance to tell his story. Well, I think three or four days after the incident, they went on a raid and were shot down. So they never had the opportunity to submit
their report for the accident investigation at that time. Well, did they become prisoners of war or something? Uh, yeah, some were taken prisoner, and I think the pilot actually died. So no one has heard their version of the story yet. So this can be quite instructive. Yes, yes. So, am I taking it? Hmm. Bob was talking to two gunners in the fuselage when the accident occurred. Our first signal in the plane, where the shooters were, was that we were knocked off our feet when the pilot, Jean St. John, was flying the machine and raised the right wing to avoid the debris, probably. So we ran to the window, the right window
in the back, and we looked, and there was one plane that had flipped over onto its back, and, uh, the entire tail assembly, the dorsal fin, and everything else was missing. He must have flown in a different direction. Do you remember, Bob, once the tail separated, what the, uh, flight path of the plane was? He was nose down but with his belly up, and it seemed to me that he was trying to straighten up. This is what it looked like. While we were watching, two or three shots went off, but never fully opened. They didn't have enough time. They were too close to the ground. Good. He just didn't have enough height, that's all.
Thank you very much for your help. Thanks, Bob. So, goodbye, Bob. Okay, thank you. What did he mean when he said that the plane seemed to be flying nose down and belly up? Well, what happened, essentially, was that once you lose the tail of the plane, it will pitch nose down sharply. And it will exceed the vertical. So, that's how it flies Good. This could change everything. We assumed that the plane was flying on its belly, and the bulk of the wreckage would be approximately below the surface. But if it falls vertically, nose first, the debris will likely be much deeper. And after 2 hours of
fruitless searching, we are almost certain that he is not in the dam. That means that if someone hasn't gotten ahead of us, they should be here in trench number one. And this is a problem. Because to get to it, we would have to penetrate through this stable layer of clay into the swampy peat beneath. If we do go deeper, what problems will arise? Well, first of all, the peat will collapse. Then the clay will collapse from above. And then you'll see the soil move back and forth and back. You can walk for dozens of yards, getting all sorts of materials in there. This sounds like a very strong argument in favor of not going there right away, but rather going deeper But Miku, if we just widen the trench there, would n't we get more scattered material like we
dug out of the top of this trench? Yes, but we get good materials from there, don't we? Oh, we get really good stuff, yeah. Yeah, I mean, we're going to be hurting the ability to get any more of that material if we dig a hole there now, because, you know, what Vic describes as a kind of engineering disaster, really is. We won't be able to do anything more there. So widen this trench. Yes. Get a lot more pieces out and then ultimately the analysis, then we'll go down. So, without much certainty, trench number one is continued along the side of the dam. But, after a few scoops, it becomes clear that the clay is
clean, and we decide to call it quits for today. End of the second day, and all our equipment is working today. Pumps, mechanical excavators, metal detectors, Phil, of course, and we went, went, and found some fantastic finds. But tomorrow is a big day, because tomorrow we are drowning. The 22nd comes in with a faulty left inner engine. 23rd with a feathered propeller on the left outboard engine. The 24th with a piece of the tail torn off. In the control tower, the group's CEO is still watching and waiting.
9:00 AM, day three, and we only have one day to figure out why our two planes didn't make it home. The answer probably lies deep underground, in the wreckage of Papi's B-17. But to get to it, we'll have to dig into unstable ground that could collapse our trench and end our search. Whether we get there or not depends on how wet the swamp is and how deep the plane has penetrated it. A fairly clear picture of a very high velocity, almost vertical impact is already emerging. How can you say that? Well, this part here, for example, is stainless steel, a pretty strong material. Hmm, you can see how badly it's wrinkled, which suggests a lot of energy went into it. Probably the most compelling piece of evidence is this piece of
equipment here. As you can see, it is quite heavy. This is part of the main wing spar, which is one of the strongest parts of the aircraft. Hmm, it takes all the major loads and you can see how it was just broken. So, how fast do you think it could have been flying at the time of impact? Certainly over 200 mph. So, how deep do you think he should go into this ground? It depends, uh, whether you're talking about the heavy pieces or the lighter ones. It is quite obvious that these fragments were pulled quite close to the surface. But things like the engine and, um, other heavy parts will penetrate quite
deeply, and in that kind of terrain I would start at about 15 feet. 15 feet? So, do we need to go that far? I think that's where we need to start. I think that's where we need to start, Tony. Right. Good. Sorry about that. So, without a trench barely 4 feet deep, it looks like we have somewhere to go. But at least the peat under the clay looks harder and drier than we thought, so we can dig deep. And we were lucky. Just a few buckets of peat is a rich layer of debris. There's a big piece of metal there, Joe. Here he is. Yes, so this all concerns the laminated bulletproof glass that we. So, what piece could this have come from?
It's right in front of the two pilots. Really? Yes. My God. What kind of plastic is this? What is this thing? It is layered between glass. So you had something like glass, plastic, glass, plastic, and that's to keep it from breaking? This is to keep it from breaking, right? The trench is now 10 feet deep, and the next few bucket loads confirm that we have reached what remains of the forward fuselage. So, this is a.50 caliber machine gun. Oh my God, you're kidding. This is great. Look at this. Smooth, in excellent condition. Where.Where could it be on the plane? Well, we just got evidence from one of the gun locations, and we think it's either a ball turret or a top turret. The upper turret is immediately behind the two
pilots. The bullet turret area, like what we were finding turns out. We are in the cockpit area with this armored glass that we have. And then this, I mean, look at this. This condition is impeccable. This is a fantastic find, but it is probably loaded. And the Royal Air Force team will have to make it safe before it takes pride of place in our memorial. Yeah, she's not very pretty, is she? Well, not yet, but let me take a look. She's not wearing any makeup, is she No, we need to put on makeup. Oh, her face is deformed.
Karenza and Annie attempt to transform the memorial's central figure, the Sleepy Girl of Time, from an ugly duckling into a dazzling swan. We want to make it beautiful. With Karenza as a model, they shouldn't have any problems. Turn your face a little towards me and a little more towards.That's all. Then it all goes like this. That's a little better, isn't it? Yes. Hello, is this Eugene St. John? Stuart called America again. He found another crew member who had witnessed the collision. As co- pilot, Eugene St.
John had the best possible view. He was actually flying the third bomber on Hatch's left wing as the formation descended into the clouds. I was standing next to, uh, Hutch, and, uh, really close, and I could see his face. I, uh, saw him smoking a cigar about a foot long because it was his last mission. When we got out from below, he and I were there, but, uh, Pisa wasn't there. I look back to see where the hell he is, and he's gone out of what was now cloudy to us and out of sight to him. He left there with the door open. Uh, I think his engines were running at maximum.
Good. And it passed under Hutchinson's ship, and for some reason it stopped and left its tail between the third engine and the fuselage of Hutchinson's plane. And then, of course, because of the sheer power, it pulled him right into the air. Now I'm talking about the P-38. Mmm. And, uh, and then when he got so high, why did they stop, flip over and fall, he came flying and crashed into Hutchinson, uh, he cut his plane in half. He went right through. Why do you think the P-38 behaved the way it did Uh, I don't know that. I never understood this, and I have often thought about it for 50 years. I don't know what was wrong with him when he did that, because, uh, he flew out of those clouds. I saw
him fly out of there. And, uh, he was running as fast as he could. Do you think it's possible that Pisa's plane was damaged by enemy fire? , I looked at it all the way from France before we went down there, and, uh, none of the three were damaged, as far as I could believe. If Eugene is right, and all three planes were intact when they began their descent, then something must have happened to Pease or his plane while it was in the clouds. Our best chance to establish for sure what Bernie said is to find the propellers. And to do that, we need to establish where they hit the ground. And, of course, it's Stewart who has the most promising theory.
We have one wing here There's a red pillar right across. Oh yeah, on the other side of the dam. The outline of the wing on the ground around the fuselage in the trench is one, and evidence from this photograph of the wreckage taken during the evacuation by the US Army suggests that the plane hit the ground like this. Which sheds new light on John's geophysics results. Stewart is talking about. The fuselage is here. And along this axis will be the wing line. Yes. Stewart has another wingtip about here.
We almost look at it from the back like this, it's true. Yes, yes. So if you look at the end of the wing line. Yes. It could be engines or something. Engine? What I meant, propeller? To find out, Mick opens our fourth trench here. And in a matter of minutes, it's terribly deep. He also decides to pierce the dam again, because if Stuart is right, there might be engines there too. But there is no sign of a large metal object in any of these locations, and we begin to wonder if the site has already been searched by enthusiasts. But
at least the first trench is still working well and has revealed another stellar find-a second machine gun, again with a chamber in the chamber. There's a cartridge there, look. So, stuck in a gap. It looks like these two are a pair from a nose turret or a ball turret. Perfect condition, look. But the first trench is now 15 feet deep, and the debris seems to have run out. When I threw them out at the far end, I didn't. It's such a sensitive situation. If there was anything in that area, it would have given me some clue, but there Right. So, after 3 days of digging, we opened four trenches and found a bunch of pieces of metal, but we didn't find anything that would help
us solve our mystery, and what we did find was hardly enough to build an airplane. So where is he? Well, I think the really logical answer would be that when they were looking for bodies, which is why the US Air Force came here, they probably dug up most of what was left, most of what fell to the ground, probably without the wings and everything else. And they probably removed most of it to get to the bodies. But it turns out that the US Air Force wasn't the only one removing debris from the site, and we still have a chance to solve our mystery. People here were quite cautious about what research was being done in our field before we arrived. Well, now it seems that a few years ago some people were rummaging around here and twisted two
airplane propellers. We managed to find them, and now they are lying on the back of my truck. So I'm taking them to Bernie to see what he'll do with them. We found the propellers at a local museum after an aviation enthusiast told us he had dug them up 20 years ago. He found them in the dam right where we were digging. But at least we have them now, and if they are indeed the key to the mystery, then Bernie should be able to solve it with his knowledge. It's time for Don and his boys to finally get rid of all the bullets we found, and since it's someone's birthday today, we'll let him push the button. Take this, birthday boy.
Okay, buddy. Back at the place, it seems we got lucky again. One of our two propellers apparently has an interesting history. It is actually in what we call a feathered state. This means that these blades, which normally operate at such an angle to the air, are now pointed straight forward and backward so as not to create air resistance. So they actually failed. Yes, they are out of order. The engine stopped. What probably happened was that while they were in the cloud, in this beautiful formation, the pilot had an engine problem. While distracted from flying and flying in formation,
while shutting down the engine and performing the feathering procedure, he lost orientation. Ahem. Good. Let the nose of the plane drop. It came out of the bottom of the cloud, as we know from witnesses, very, very quickly. I saw that it was approaching the ground very quickly, so I instinctively pulled very hard, pulled it up like this. And since he obviously got lower than the other plane, he probably didn't see it when it came out of the cloud, and it just stopped right in front of it. He actually lost control of the plane due to distraction. So, it seems that two crews died due to a cruel coincidence. If Pisa's engine had failed at any
other time, fixing the problem would have been a routine matter. But it seems the engine stopped in the cloud. The plane lost power, and Pease horribly lost sight of his colleagues. Without visual cues, he would not have noticed the tip of his nose when adjusting the propeller. Then, no doubt eager to catch up with Hutcheson and St. John, he probably opened the throttles on the three remaining engines, with disastrous results. After the first impact, Pisa's plane hovered on its propellers, stopped, then crashed into Hutcheson a second time, and both planes fell to the ground Well, that's the end of our last day. It was a wonderful day, was n't it? And we made some fantastic finds. Most of these finds will go to a local museum, with the
exception of one spa, a machine gun, and its painting, which will become a memorial to the men who died that day in February 1944.
