The Flight of Glacier Girl

This program is made possible in part by the University of Arkansas. Nationally competitive student centered research university surveying Arkansas and the world by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting the National Educational Telecommunications Association. The Arkansas educational telecommunications network. And by the last squadron museum in Middlesboro Kentucky. New. Down in this valley of the Cumberland Gap where Kentucky Virginia and Tennessee converge. A World War II fighter plane is being restored to flying conditions. For 50 years. This P-38 lightning was buried in an icy grave until it was finally rescued by a team of adventurers. The plane was dug out of the ice. 268 feet below the surface of

Greenland where it crash landed in 1942. While on its way to fight Hitler's Germany. The recovery expedition was financed and captain by Roy Schaffner a former Air Force fighter pilot who fell in love with a chapter of forgotten history. In Schaaf news hangar in Middlesboro Kentucky. The plane is being rebuilt by. Piece. By piece. You know people walk in here. Small town of 9000 population say a project of the enormity that we've taken on the history that we're preserving. And then they say well why is it here. Why is it in Middlesboro Kentucky. And I have to say well because I'm here. Schaffner has nicknamed his plane glacier girl. It was one of six fighters and two bombers that disappeared while en route to Europe. The squadron flew into a thick fog ran out of fuel and was forced to land on the glacier. The

pilots and navigators were rescued but their planes were left behind. P-38 pilot Brad McManus was the first to crash land on the ice cap and right on end. Wow. I can't believe oh yeah this carefully. It doesn't look like it. More than a half century later McManus is the first squadron veteran to see the rebirth of a plane abandoned a lifetime ago. The original engine in there some old car with the final chapter of this historical journey has yet to be written. It is shovelers goal and McManus is dream to see the plane fly again over Greenland and onto the retracing the original mission. Lost. Is that. The. World War to witness the emergence of a third dimension of warfare

which became a primary theater of operation in addition to the land of mercy. Shortly after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the build up of American troops and aircraft in Europe. Even though the war for the United States started in the Pacific Roosevelt decided the European theater should get priority. This escalation of troops and weapons was known as Operation Volero And as part of this operation B-17 bombers and P-38 fighters began flying in formation to Great Britain with fueling stops along the way. It was about six months after Pearl Harbor and Things were chaotic. It was really a desperation thing for the British and I think they just felt we had to get fighters into action over there as quickly as good. At 3:00 in the morning on July 15th 1942 a squadron of six P-38 and two B-17 left Greenplum flying over the

icecap and then across the Denmark Strait to Iceland 90 minutes from its destination. The squadron flew into a mass of clouds about 12000 feet. So we turned back and tempted to go back to Greenland and return to the base only to find out when we reached Greenland that the base that we had left was now also socked in. That left no alternative. We were. In the air eight hours 20 minutes. We hadn't really seen the surface. Either the ocean or Greenland ice and all of that time. Suddenly on the left side the sun was shining and we could see the snow and ice I at that point spiritually out of gas I was the youngest kid in the flight.

I had used more gas than the others. And actually I just said I'm going in now I still have control of the airplane. So I dropped down and circled in a cloud. Has McManus began to descend for his emergency landing on the ice. He had to make a decision whether to belly land his fighter or try and touch down using his landing gear. He knew if he could successfully land with the wheels down the rest of the squadron the same they could fly their plane back to the ward after receiving. It was a courageous gamble only cost my fantasy life. I made my decision right then I'm going to die. Well. I'm. Coming down. I dropped my gear. And I leveled off

over the over the ice and just as the plane landed the nose gear imbedded in the snow and the plane went over on its back. The first thought I had was I've been very foolish. I made a big bust and then I I wasn't hurt and I was upside down and I couldn't see anything. The cockpit began to fill with P-38 pilot Bob Wilson watched from the air as McManus crashed and flipped his plane instantly. Wilson feared his friend had been killed and he rowed for quite a way and slowed down with one that knows where it went down. Most machine guns and cannon sticking out of the nose are just like the cleat on a football shoe. When that hit the snow that stopped him dead and flipped him right on his back

and we watched him real close. I was flying beside him. When he flipped out boy Oberoi. And then I saw. Fred. Get out stand up and I thought wow that's great. I was scared. I was afraid it was going to burst. Fortunately the lack of fuel that wasn't a risk. So I managed to get the window cracked open got my feet up and out and pushed the snow out. Came out tunneled out of the way. The others who had been watching all of this. They probably figured I'd bought it and when they saw me call out they started to do its magic circle with their land

gear up like this the last 30 to touchdown was flown by Lieutenant Harry Smith. He feathered his plane in without power so he wouldn't bend the problems 50 years later. It was Smith's plane that was dug out of the ice with the propellers still intact. Like come in trying to get his gun to be. Dropped other. Older off with the props just till she stalls the snow flies the old crate slides along and that's all. Another landing didn't even been the props Lieutenant Harry Smith the last squadron. We were so happy at that point to be on terra firma to be down again where we could feel the sun and know that we were safe because we were within 20 minutes of a major disaster.

We were gone through life and we weren't carrying ammunition and our machine gun bans. We had a lot of personal stuff stacked down in there and no spider but a bunch of whiskey down in here. And when we landed the tail both both booms broke off. He jumped out of the cockpit opened up the nose flipped it up and went thank the Lord I didn't break a bottle so we had a little emergency which there. Were three days. We sent out. So yes. And no one heard it. Magnetic North is such that radio signals don't transmit very clearly. And one of the interesting things was to keep the generator functioning. Canada saw the propeller of the number three and a spin

and keep the generator functioning and charge the battery. So for three days we send out a radio message and a third day they heard the squadron's S.O.S signals were received by an American weather station on the east coast of Greenland. When the men learned they would be rescued. Fear turned to relation. This is a Kodak camera that my dad gave me just before we left saying you might run into something interesting. And fortunately it took about 60 already pictures up on the ice after we landed.

We really were happy good. It was. Incredible experience. Gary didn't know it would make sense for that. In fact. They dropped some supplies in Pershing and we get the supplies out to sit on the burlap bag. There's always a window. And. We flip the cord on the shoe and we sit on the bag and ride it like we slid across Russia. No kid rode along to get him all day to get and on the tenth day. They came on the horizon we could see the dog teams coming toward us and we had visions that we would ride out on sleds. And as it turned out the dogs. They were much bigger than Chihuahuas. See they were very small

and we realized then you know we were going to walk out hard. Step on the snow and give about three inches. I swear when you get your full weight on it drop everything. We started out carrying her long trail this cash that was cash got everywhere. I remember one time I was so tired and I laid down in the snow and I began to feel warm and somewhere something clicked that I had read and if I felt warm and extreme cold you'd better get moving. So I got up and kept moving. After trudging across the glacier for 17 miles the exhausted man reached the shore. They boarded a Coast Guard cutter and were shipped back to the states and given a US. For the last squadron. This adventure

was over but new ones would follow. The war would rage on for another three years. They would all re-enter the fighting. Back to this post. For most truly forgotten this is just words. A lot of other world war to say. The Army Air Force never went back to recover the plane from the lost squadron decades of ice and snow blew across the tundra. The Greenland ice cap. And in case the bombers and fighters in a glacier hundreds of feet below the surface for nearly half a century the airman would continue to tell their stories. But their planes were believed to last forever trapped in one of the world's most

unforgiving climates. Treasure Hunters in World War II enthusiasts were intrigued by the possibility of recovering the planes since they were almost new when abandoned on the ice cap in 1983. The aircraft were located by radar and they had originally thought that these planes would be sitting there on the surface and they simply clear the snow and fly them there. But as it turned out they were two hundred sixty three feet below the surface of the Greenland ice in 1990 a group known as the Greenland expedition society melted down to a B-17 hoping to pull the bomber out of the ice. But the plane was too crushed to salvage. Two years later a new expedition was financed by Kentucky businessman Roy Schaffner. It was the 13th and final mission to rescue a plane from the lost squadron. This time the goal was to recover a P-38.

Since the fighters were covered with stronger arm than the bombers it was hope that this armor might have protected the planes from the pressures of the ice. Navigating with day be a financier of the project force when your own money you have to watch it. And I didn't want to see it go down and I saw it so I went with it. And to be there when they started the expedition on the Asgeir. We did camp out in tents and there was a lot of wind and a lot of snow and we did put down a piece of plywood as a floor and attached our tent to it. And there were times when the wind raised him up and let him back down. And when you get into a 50 60 70 Not situation you were subject to be blown away with a tan. But. Now we never we're scared about it seemed like we were always in charge of our own destiny and we were going for the object that we had down full.

Bore through the ice and into P-38. The expedition used a super go for a giant heated code that melted the ice and pumped water back to the surface in less than one month go up to the 268 foot tunnels straight down to the plain hot water hoses were used melted under ice came that revealed a surprisingly intact one. Harry Smith feathered in to save the propellers. To look down and swing over that hole of 268 feet that looked like a soda straw. And took 25 minutes to go down. It was out of place for somebody that that did not like top places but we had a string of lights that went down through there and we had cables and wires and chains to keep separated so we could have a clear passage down.

The first funny feeling I had was when we got there there was water covering the surface of the airplane and I could feel it with the cleats on the bottom of my shoes standing in about six inches of water and we call the surface to turn on a pump to lower the water level and then we can begin to see the rest of the airplane and then we decided that it was not totally destroyed that it should be rebuilt able and we would take it apart and bring it out. My first feeling when I get down to the plane after coming through that four foot diameter hole and I saw how big the plane was my very first it was a very sickening feeling and I said How in the world are we going to get this plane up that little hole. We were just inventing on a daily basis to do this. Thing. Down in the cavern. The plane was disassembled frozen together for half a century. The parts had to be carefully pried apart and then pulled up through the narrow shaft to the surface.

Shortly before noon on July 15 1992. 50 years to the moment that 24 year old Lieutenant Brad McManus crash landed his plane on the ice with his wheels down. 74 year old Brad McManus returned to the ice cap as the guest of the recovery team surrounded by pieces of his late friend Harry Smith's P-38 an emotional McManus took part in a ceremony that included the firing of a 20 millimeter cannon. That had been pulled from the plane. The. Very day. He. Was at. His service.

Say God bless America. Truth hurts. And each of us had something to say. Talk quite a very moving experience. It took four months to recover the parts of the P-38 the £7000 center section was the most difficult to get out of the hole. Once it had been pulled to the surface. A helicopter was brought in and with a makeshift sling the chopper carried the center section off the ice cap. The dismantled wreckage was eventually shipped to Roy's shop near his private hangar in the Cumberland Gap. These were supposed to be. In January 1993. The slow process of rebuilding the airplane began to manage the restoration. SCHAFFNER hired Bob cardan

the Vietnam vet. He had empowered to get his plane off the ice. First of all we did recover a complete airplane with the exception of three field caps so we knew we had all the pieces and we got the plane back here. When our plan was we'd just take it apart and we didn't find any more broken pieces. And from there I would go back together. Well after we took off all the broken pieces we had nothing left we didn't know it at the time but we went to Greenland and we cover the P-38. But it was a very early model P-38 and it was not the same model levels in production at the end of the war so therefore. The parts that are available. Didn't work on this particular model of. Our plan or our goal is to restore the airplane back to exactly the same condition it was when it left the factory in 1942. We are going to make the airplane 100 percent authentic. We've had to do a lot of searching and a lot of manufacturing in the parts of the plane when it's

finished the approximately 80 percent original and other which we've been able to save 80 percent of the pieces of the plane. We were able to purchase from the Smithsonian Institute a complete set of the drawings for the P-38 and we found out that each piece of the plane had a number and it corresponded to a drawing. And we've been able to use those drawings to ensure the each piece that we were fixing or making was right up to the specs. We found a lot of graffiti on the inside of the airplane that the factory workers had left. There we have it says half moon installed by rodders and Kirkpatrick and it has their employee numbers and they work swing shift. And then here we have a little Japanese guy with horns and great big ears and he everything he hears is right on this little scroll tablet you know where we point out our real fix.

Bob Rubin the restoration is a living working museum. Many visitors are World War II veterans who have been following the story of the lost squadron since 1942. Some of the most passionate guys are former P-38 pilots who get the chance to touch and feel a lightning for the first time since their glory days as fighter races. Well these guys just lost in the know where they were. Every time they fight a world war two pilot come in here I talk with them and explain to them what we're doing. And I think I have at least 75 bullets now signed by World War Two pilots or crewmen that died like you know those guys had and I'm pretty lucky to survive the war so we're going to make a band to live for each one of the machine guns and fly the airplane for the first time would take all the signatures and a good luck put in the machine guns and let them come out of war planes and World War to. One that has fallen this way. I can't

explain why except the guys it loved. It. Was. Greater. Than. Me. Nine months before the attack on Pearl Harbor the first P-38 rolled off the assembly line in Burbank California. By the time America entered the fighting the lightning was ready for mass production and ready for war. The plane with twin tails looked like nothing that had flown before or since. The Nazis called it the four tailed devils. To liquid cooled 12 cylinder Allison engines powered counter-rotating propellers that made the plane the fastest and the world's greatest speed. But better than four hundred twenty five miles an hour to have an airplane back in the early forties I would go 400 miles an hour was unheard of. Here's a plane that

looks very unique it's all metal. It has two motors and it goes very fast. Can you imagine any kid looking. I want to fly. The P-38 had for 50 caliber machine guns in 2010 when he began Canada another 20 millimeter cannon shot an explosive round. In other words that bullet hit something it would blow up. What made the P-38 so effective was the fact that the guns were in the know is quite clear from the pilot. That a 50 caliber hit on fire one time and they fired straight at him. But when they start firing those five guns there wasn't anything that could stand up in front of it. They just didn't Sollecito let him in. That. Fired lightning of heaven don't like them at all because they strike too hard. Usually all we want.

On Easter Sunday 1943 a squadron of P-38 changed the course of the war in the Pacific. After flying 400 miles across the ocean at low altitude to avoid radar. Lightning swarmed and shot down a bomber transporting Admiral Yamamoto. Killing the architect of Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. Days like pilots will take on any job because they are playing well. The top flying aces in American aviation history flew and fought from the P-38. Major Dick bomb shot down 40 Japanese planes. But the bomb was lucky. Lightning pilot Floyd Fulkerson was a squadron made of Dick bongs. He also flew on the wing of another legendary fighter ace with 38 kills major Tommy Maguire. Maguire was his superior.

Pilot written both took chances. He was a cock so bored and cocky up to a point. I mean we were all OK but Bono came back and went through gunnery school. And he was shot. He. Just didn't. Quite. Grasp the. On. Bullies. McGuire's daring ultimately cost him his life in an aerial dogfight trying to eclipse bonds record. McGuire you stayed up too long and was shot down by a Japanese fighter. McGuire Rufinus drop his drop tanks. Which is the first thing you do when you get in combat.

He just want that longer and longer and longer if you dropped off drop tanks at limited range and that got. After becoming America's ace of aces bhang was taken out of combat. He died at wars and while test flying an experimental jet. On Christmas Day 1944 after shooting down two Japanese planes on his one hundred twenty fifth mission the focus of his plane was hit by enemy fire and he was forced to crash land in the Philippines. I was conscious for just a second he was still in the house. She was screaming and screaming leave let go of me. And the Filipinos said Come along with us. Floyd joined a group of Filipino guerrillas and together they blew up a Japanese railroad bridge. Later Fulkerson carved a makeshift airstrip out of the

jungle and was eventually picked up by a rescue plane. He woke up in the hospital in a full body cast. The crash of his P-38 a month earlier had broken his back. When I had the bomb I started commuting to Berlin. It was P-38 to the way P-38 serve many functions during the war. They drop bombs on low flying high speed strafing missions. As dive bombers. They blew up enemy ships and trains. All my way to Blaster's plans and burned them and as it drove. On D-Day they flew up and down the coast of Normandy taking pictures of the battle helping chart the progress of the allied invasion. The reconnaissance version of others probably the most outstanding reconnaissance plane we ever had in World War 2.

We were the eyes of the 14:34. Ed Penick flew nearly 70 photographic reconnaissance missions over China never with any guns. Our mission was not to shoot. Our mission was to get pictures get back. He was shot at from the ground and in the sky but his plane always made it home. I was hit over 10 tall in China and had an engine shot out. I was at 30000 feet at Dombo for about 10000 feet. You know where the bailout or not. Finally got control the plane. Flew it home and had a hole this big through the engine to the right engine. Very few planes could have come through that kind of bad. It was easy to fly an airplane once you went you learn to get sick which is very easy to fly. Didn't have any part of the pilot recounted told him he didn't have the talk to contend with. He didn't have to tell you a wheel to drag the loop you just put it on the ground and you could disappear.

Just bad luck on if it was a started playing well. Well maintained ground to. Take all 10 men on the ground to keep one airplane in the air. That's primarily preventive maintenance he tries to find trouble before it happens because the guys don't exactly fall off the curb and do something that goes wrong. You train an engine automatically. I think it was 600 hours quite a long climb really airplanes life. And usually in combat. Most planes don't last that long. Our country was threatened. I don't think none of us thought we were brave or heroes or anything of that nature. We were given our job. And we were trying to do it and we had the equipment to do it. Two things you had to defend yourself with speed. And high altitude. It was a terrible supercharger. What makes it

possible to do makes it to a high altitude plane without the supercharger you simply cannot get to high altitude. While the lightning could fly fast. And high. Early in the war. It had the reputation of being a short range airplane in the summer of 44 divied or Charles who was recruited by the army air force to try and get gas mileage out of the planes. You just made it possible for us to increase everything you fish in that airplane. Easily Fordingbridge. During a mission to improve fuel consumption Lindbergh's shut down a Japanese plane in the South Pacific. A civilian pilot flying a military fighter. Well we were there for it. What do you think of these air force pilots. He said that to make it change and we did.

Say it was like being thrust back in history 500 years at least this coming out I was back in another era and we're sort of hearing no P-38 pilot story is more harrowing than Charlie O'Sullivan's a fighter race with five enemy kills. O'Sullivan was shot down over the jungles of New Guinea. So I went in there pretty fast and I clipped off trees six or eight inches in diameter just like a giant lawnmower. And it just drove straight ahead. And I came to a screeching stop and it was sizzling like a hot potato. I got out of the airplane immediately grabbed my parachute and took off without a backward look. I even wrote a poem about my airplane.

You were like a faithful gallant steed struggling on although mortally wounded marionettes riders to safety before the enemy you ran and ran as if your heart would burst and burst it did. I rode you hard. And finally when you could run no longer you lay down to die in the tall Kunai grass. You didn't let me down. It was I who let you down. It was high that let the enemy creep up behind us and send his cruel shots into your sleek body. You saved my life. Four days after he walked away from his plane Sally was taken prisoner by a blood drinking jungle tribe. They certainly could have been head hunters and they could be cannibalistic. They pointed to the moon and I got the idea that I had arrived at the wrong time of the moon.

It was just tough luck buster that you happened to come along at this time of the season. Just as Sally was sure he was about to be murdered. He shot two of his captors with his Colt 45. He grabbed both of my arms and pinned me back against the wall and I had the gun in my hand and I always say with my superhuman strength I forced the gun down on him and we're right at ease right on top of me and I shot him and blew him six or eight feet back. When I shot two of them. Then the rest of this appeared like scalded dogs. After all these years he still shudders when retelling the story of his escape. But I had thought about saving the last bullet. For myself. You know when when they closed in on me and I was hit and then I thought No that's not the way to do it. And so I made up my mind that I would. I would I would fight it out or

get away no matter what happened. And I crawled for two hours at least through the toughest jungle and brush and I could find. So then I eventually found a mountain stream and got into that and I got a good boy scout and I walked in the water and got to a bigger stream and cross that. And then that and then I took off barefoot. I lost my shoes. We were married two months. Before he went overseas. I received a telegram from Washington from the adjutant general stating that he was missing in action and that's all it said. That telegram was devastating. But I had a lot of hope. I was hoping that. She would realize I was still alive and still still out there and not to

know man but too concerned though when you get a missing in action message why did it. That's pretty grim. Sally wandered in the jungle for 30 days eating grass eating wild dogs and Japanese patrols. Finally after losing 40 pounds and contracting malaria and exhausted O'Sullivan was rescued by Australian commandos and sent home to the states. I was there and just said it time period. How long he could survive the jungle. And you know I said a month. And I wasn't going to give up the morning of a month on the 30th of October. My brother called up the stairway and said Let me hear the news this time. In 1993 50 years after his crash in New Guinea Sully's plane was found in the jungle with a palm tree growing through the boom. At

first he wanted to visit the crash site but he was warned by the men who discovered his plane to stay away. So then I got a letter and it's pretty shocking. He and he said I implore you. Not to come back. Among the tribesmen who still make their home deep within the jungle sadly remains aided and hunted man of mythical stature. I'm glad they found you. It seems to make our mission complete. The salvagers and souvenir hunters. Be kind to you as you so well is here. So farewell your faithful steed. My lightning P-38 fighter plane. Rest. Well.

There. You go. Since 1964 lefty Gardner of Austin Texas has been flying his own personal P-38 around the country at air shows. Lefty's White Lightning has been in the air more than any P-38 since World War II racing and competitions against vintage warbirds. He was a B-24 and B-17 pilot in the war flying bombing missions over Germany. At times he was escorted by P-38 squadrons. Older during the war had to fly.

Because the military decided for you what you're going to fly even though all the time I was going through kibitz look at the fighter and P-38 in particular opened and dream that I could fly a plane. The uniqueness I think is in fact to me. When Bill Clinton went into an airplane and one man sitting down now. So that was all he was in. There. To fight a war and nothing to it seemed like it might have an advantage over somebody. I was terribly upset. In fact my bomber instructor taught me how to fly B-24. Almost had to beat me over the head to. Get me to. Take that thing in flight. And all during that time I was very envious of the fighter pilots that were up there. I was saying it just.

Went on. For so long for four years or so or five that I just had to have a face you know. So I got out of the service started looking. Lefty is one of the founders of the Confederate Air Force a national organization that preserves and flies combat airplanes from World War 2. He's devoted much of his life to locating more birds and helping others get them back in the air. I was interested in. Preserving as many of the military planes we could show our. Grandkids our children our grandkids and future generations what we used to. Do when the big war against the Nazis and the Japanese. And if it hadn't been for these airplanes we wouldn't have one of them. But. Lightning. Was one of the last. It's off to.

The next in line. 38. So you. And the with design. I've never seen an airplane that looked like that it was the new concept of something that would take into the air. It was a thing of beauty. Lefty has been closely following the restoration of glacier girl. He's given the team many spare parts he's collected over the last 35 years. He's been a been a jewel for us. First of all he's just a wealth of knowledge as far as the P-38 he's had his P-38 for well over 30 years and Lefty Gardner I called him one day and he said well anything I've got the three of you can have two. I haven't said I like your product. Boy. That one is going to be a Bush a plane that

had been built up. Certainly. Not. The third world. It's going to be priceless. Joe one because the country. Here will. Last very long. The system. Is. Ever. More. Fun ever. It's so fun to get those all wrapped up. A lot of power to screw that up too. On a cloudy autumn day in the Cumberland a dozen years after she was dug out of

the Greenland ice cap glacier is finally ready for flying to. 20000 people crowded onto the airfield and lined the runway to see the old warbird take to the air. For the first time in more than 60 hours to. The most recent challengers were fine tuning what was already a pretty good airplane. Steve Hattan a pilot came and went over to play and we found some things that we know he thought we should know change or adjust and we were going there. We were intensely for four days and get ready for today. A lot of those judgments you don't even really need to do. But you know one engine might idle a little higher than the other and one might be a little richer than the other. But you try to make it as best you can. Then. Spend a little

time adjusting here and there so that the airplane will. Move will be as best it can be. Are. You. Ready go ahead. I never doubted it. Now I know it was a long road. It has been but I don't always call. And I had to fly. Just

turbinates. Persistence is consistent with it every day so nothing else ever was my major concern with the airplane rotate. And once I saw that I was very. Trying to. Come back. To. The nice people. Excuse me would you get some of the original. Somebody. To pass it over to Mr. Jacques. Well today was a very very special day. And. Extremely exciting. To see this very. Totally. Shocking group.

I can't tell you how thrilled I would. See this. Wonderful. Day. It's rather gratifying to see the veterans come here and see their reaction to what they say and thank you for the memory to. Do. You. Know.

I. Care. For. This program was made possible in part by the University of Arkansas National League competitive student centred research university serving Arkansas and the world. By the Corporation for Public Broadcasting the National Educational Telecommunications Association. The Arkansas educational telecommunications network. And by the law squadron museum in Middlesboro Kentucky. For more information and to order a VHS tape or DVD of the flight of glazier or girl contact the last squadron museum