[Milsurplus] Those P-39s Still in the Crates...

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

Not long ago we had a chat on here about surplus property disposal
post-WWII and I mentioned a friend telling me about new, never uncrated
P-39s still sitting. Someone had asked where and said that it was a myth
that had circulated for years and likely not true. I said I'd check into it
when time allowed.

Well, I just got off the phone with oz ex-pat and friend Gary and got more
details. The call was about old cars but eventually drifted to warbirds,
radio gear, and so on. I asked him again about the P-39s and he quickly
replied "Oh - those are on Goodenough Island, Papua New Guinea. Just north
of Ferguson Island. Still there. That whole area is stinking with stuff,
still"

He then told me some stories about a friend of his named Charles Darby who,
along with another fellow, organized the retrieval of a large number of
airframes from the area for a fellow named David Tallichet in the 1971-72
time frame. Charles wrote the book 'Pacific Aircraft Wrecks and Where to
Find Them'.

Now, it seems Charles likes WWII aircraft and their associated gear and
ended up with some 70-90 tons of it from gov't auction which Gary helped
him sort and store. Some interesting pieces he mentioned from IFF gear to
the radar equipment used in the B-24M, of which apparently only a couple
dozen were made. A special model used for Radar bombing, he said. Was news
to me. I'd only ever heard of the small number of ferret aircraft B-24s.

Gary ended up with about a ton of the equipment too, including some IFF and
radar gear. He also mentioned having owned and seen numerous....TR5034(?)
radio sets from WWII with service tags from the 70s & 80s on them, the
latest being 1984 and apparently fitted to F-111s flown by the RAAF. Sounds
crazy, I know. And I probably messed up the set number, too.

He told me about working at a restoration center on an airbase in or just
outside Brisbane where they brought in a A-20 Boston (Havoc) bomber
retrieved from a swamp in New Guinea still in good shape. And about a place
off Sydney where the military dumped some 3000 aircraft after the war in
very deep water. He said an expedition to the site in the early 2000s with
an unmanned submersible yielded video inside cockpits in which he said the
gauges were still easily readable.

Then he mentioned another dumping site off Brisbane with about 700
aircraft, mostly Hellcats and Corsairs. He said occasionally some vessel in
the local fish fleet will snag one and rather than cut their expensive
nets, they drag it back and leave it on the shore. Water is warmer and not
as deep, so corrosion is bad - except for steel parts, which he said often
look like they could be plucked off and used on another plane.

We discussed exploding sodium-filled exhaust valves from Roll Royce Merlin
engines (the Packard variant didn't use them) and other fun stuff like the
Sperry automatic sighting system for the Martin upper turret. Our 15 minute
phone call that started around 7:30 ended just after 9PM. The wife and
daughter are in Florida visiting family, so I'm off the leash for a few
days. It was a fun call.

Figured I should share as much as I could before I sleep and forget 90%.

~ Todd/KAQ
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