# WWII plane found in a river several years ago? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200 "2010-07-27T16:55:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/1 "2010-07-27T16:55:32Z")
Does anyone remember a story about a WWII airplane that was discovered in a river several years ago? It may have been in England. Or possibly The Netherlands or France. I have an idea it was a P-47, but it could have been a Lancaster for all I know. I don’t remember when I heard the story, but I think it was within the last decade. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 5:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/2 "2010-07-27T17:03:01Z")
Are you thinking of this one? [http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311724,00.html](http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,311724,00.html) ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 5:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/3 "2010-07-27T17:05:43Z")
Hm… I’m not sure. I do remember that one though, now that you mention it. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/4 "2010-07-27T17:17:47Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Does anyone remember a story about a WWII airplane that was discovered in a river several years ago? It may have been in England. Or possibly The Netherlands or France. I have an idea it was a P-47, but it could have been a Lancaster for all I know. I don’t remember when I heard the story, but I think it was within the last decade. Perhaps those found in a glacier in Greenland? ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/5 "2010-07-27T17:19:01Z")
Not the OP’s plane, but similar story: > **[The San Diego Union-Tribune - San Diego, California & National News](https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/)** > > News about San Diego, California ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 5:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/6 "2010-07-27T17:21:19Z")
No, this was in England (I think) or on the Continent. A friend thinks she heard about it on BBC about a year ago. Of course, memory is a tricky thing. I remember things from ‘about a year ago’, and they’ve been three or four years old. ---
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/7 "2010-07-27T18:09:32Z")
Sure you’re not thinking of [this bomb found in a river](http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/story?section=news/national_world&id=4176573)? ---
**Author:** ![Rocketeer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rocketeer/32/4437_2.png) [@Rocketeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rocketeer)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/8 "2010-07-27T19:59:27Z")
[Was it this?](http://www.thenoiseboard.com/index.php?showtopic=149287)😉 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/9 "2010-07-27T20:16:39Z")
No, it wasn’t a tank. I don’t know what she’s thinking of. Although I kinda-sorta remember another plane than the P-38, the P-38 is probably the one I was thinking of. ISTR some remains associated with a plane that was found, and something about a German plane being uncovered in England not too long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/10 "2010-07-27T20:25:52Z")
How about in a lake in South Carolina? I got one of them for you. ---
**Author:** ![Shagnasty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9dc877/32.png) [@Shagnasty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shagnasty)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/11 "2010-07-27T20:36:53Z")
> [@Zsofia](#): > > How about in a lake in South Carolina? I got one of them for you. No, I think he is talking about Bade Ruth’s piano that a group of people are looking for in a pond outside of Boston. They haven’t found it yet though. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/12 "2010-07-27T21:16:39Z")
From here: [http://www.sunjournal.com/node/102449](http://www.sunjournal.com/node/102449) “WW2 plane found in wales” was a P38. Article dated 2007. :smack: Sorry. Duplicated the work in post #2. ---
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/13 "2010-07-27T21:20:50Z")
> **[Plane’s remnants unearthed, and a pilot’s tale emerges](https://www.stripes.com/news/plane-s-remnants-unearthed-and-a-pilot-s-tale-emerges-1.100362)** > > BITBURG, Germany Bits of P47 found in farmland in Germany. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/14 "2010-07-27T21:38:22Z")
Interesting. I saw the episode of _Dogfights_. The pilot has a [wiki page](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_H._Dahlberg). ---
**Author:** ![longPath](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/bb73d2/32.png) [@longPath](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/longPath)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/15 "2010-07-27T22:07:16Z")
Perhaps you are thinking of the [Handley-Page Halifax](http://www.airforce.forces.gc.ca/v2/nr-sp/index-eng.asp?id=1463)bomber that was fished out of a lake in Norway? It is on display at CFB Trenton now. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/16 "2010-07-27T22:18:45Z")
Don’t know if this is the same one Quartz referred to: [_NOVA_ episode “Frozen in Time,”](http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2303b29.html) an almost-intact B-29 bomber, nicknamed the _Kee Bird_, became lost and crash-landed in Greenland while on a secret mission. [del]It was in a lake, though, not a river, IIRC.[/del] ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 10:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/17 "2010-07-27T22:55:55Z")
I don’t know what crash she is thinking of. I know it’s not the _Kee Bird_. (Man, it’s a good thing I knew what was coming before that show first aired. If I hadn’t read about it in one of the flying magazines just after the recovery attempt, I would have been devastated!) She’s certain it was a plane found in a river in England, and believes it was a Lancaster. I think if it was a Lanc I would have remembered it, so I doubt it was. Nice links in this thread, anyway! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/18 "2010-07-27T22:59:24Z")
[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_de_Saint-Exup%C3%A9ry), aviator and author of The Little Prince disappeared mysteriously in 1944. The wreckage of his plane was discovered in 2004. ---
**Author:** ![coremelt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@coremelt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/coremelt)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/19 "2010-07-27T23:41:04Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > Does anyone remember a story about a WWII airplane that was discovered in a river several years ago? It may have been in England. Or possibly The Netherlands or France. I have an idea it was a P-47, but it could have been a Lancaster for all I know. I don’t remember when I heard the story, but I think it was within the last decade. Did you by any chance read JG Ballards ‘The Kindness of Women’ his fictionalised Autobiography? He describes a spitfire being found with the remains of the pilot still in the cockpit in a riverbed covered with silt. As far as I can tell it wasn’t based on any real incident. ---
**Author:** ![Dave.B](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9f8e36/32.png) [@Dave.B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dave.B)\ **Post date:** [July 27, 2010, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200/20 "2010-07-27T23:49:00Z")
Not directly related to the OP, but there are several WWII era plane crash sites on Dartmoor in the south west UK, most with large amounts of wreckage still visible (most of the sites are far too remote for casual scavengers). There are at least 2 B-17s and 3 B-24s. I’m slowly working my way round them all. The most spectacular so far has been the crash site of a Royal Navy Sea Vixen that dived in from 28,000 ft in May 1965. Sites listed here: [http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/crash\_site.htm](http://www.legendarydartmoor.co.uk/crash_site.htm) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/wwii-plane-found-in-a-river-several-years-ago/548200.md?page=2)