Hi everyone, ok i know there are plenty of these sorts of stories floating around but this is the first i had heard of this one.
I cant find anything online as to where it originated sadly.
It would be nice if photos actually existed…
On December 8, 1942, over a year after the attack on Pearl Harbor, radar in the United States picked up an unusual reading. What appeared to be an airplane was heading for American soil from the direction of Japan. Radar operators knew this bore none of the usual markings of some sort of aerial attack. The sky was overcast, it was late evening, and no prior attack had occurred in these types of conditions.
Fighters Scrambled
Two American pilots were sent to intercept the mysterious plane. As they approached the plane they radioed back to the ground to report that the aircraft was a P-40 and bore markings that had not been used since the attack on Pearl Harbor. When they pulled up alongside the craft they were shocked to find a bullet-riddled plane with landing gear blown away. Puzzled as to how a plane in this condition could even fly, they noticed the pilot was slumped in the cockpit, his flight suit stained with fresh blood. As they peered into the window the pilot raised slightly, turned in their direction, and smiled offering a meek wave towards his two allies. Moments later the mysterious craft plummeted from the sky smashing into the ground with a deafening roar.
Evidence at the Crash Site
American troops swarmed the crash site but found no trace of the pilot or evidence of who he may have been. Neither did they find identifiable markings from the plane. But, they did find a document which was assumed to be the remains of some sort of diary. From this diary, researchers were able to deduce that the plane must have originated from the island of Mindanao, located about 1,300 miles away. The rest of the story is a mystery.
Possible Explanations
Some speculated that the craft may have been downed over a year earlier and the pilot managed to survive on his own in the wild. He could have possible scavenged parts from other downed aircraft, repaired his airplane, and managed to somehow navigate his way back to his homeland over 1000 miles of hostile territory. What they could not explain, is how the heavy P-40 aircraft could have ever taken off without the aid of any sort of landing gear.
On Dec. 8, 1942, American forces in Kienow, China, spotted an unidentified plane heading toward them on a beeline from Formosa. Pilots Bob Scott and Johnny Hampshire approached it and discovered it was an old American P-40B Tomahawk bearing an insignia that hadn’t been seen since Pearl Harbor. The pilot would not identify himself.
Fearing a trick by the Japanese, Scott and Hampshire fired briefly on the plane, but it sought neither to evade them nor to counterattack. Scott moved to the plane’s farther side and saw that it had been badly damaged before they came upon it — the canopy had been shot away, the right aileron was gone, and part of the wing was missing. The pilot’s head was slumped on his chest. Strangest of all, the P-40B had no landing gear — the wheel wells were empty.
Scott and Hampshire lost the plane in a cloud bank and then saw it crash in a rice paddy below. Who was the pilot, and where had the strange plane come from? No one knows, but after years of research Scott evolved a conjecture that it had been assembled by a small group of Air Corps personnel who had retreated from Bataan to Corregidor and then to Mindanao. If this is true it must have flown more than 1,000 miles through enemy airspace to reach China.
Japanese records confirm that there was an American P-40 over Formosa on Dec. 8, 1942, but where it came from, where it was headed, and indeed how it even got airborne remain a mystery.
So has anyone ever heard this before?
By: Sabrejet - 4th October 2017 at 01:59
Link above cites Robert Scott’s book, so yes it has been written about and discussed.
By: sgt pilot andy - 3rd October 2017 at 22:05
This story is certainly fascinating and the first I’ve ever heard of it. And thereby lies the rub. As incredible a story as it is why then has it never been written about in any book? Author and pilot Martin Caidin did write a book called “Ghosts of the Air”, but I don’t recall this incident being featured. Anyone familiar with Caidin’s work would know that he would almost certainly have written about so incredible a story had he heard of it. And, as the story dates back to World War Two, then it would almost certainly have been recorded as a popular legend of the Pearl Harbor attack. If not by Caidin then by somebody.
By: D1566 - 3rd October 2017 at 13:30
Yes, it would be stretched to make a 90 minute full movie.
By: Sabrejet - 3rd October 2017 at 12:32
Indeed. Long time since I read it but I recall it being rather good. But more of a 30-minute TV drama than a film I’d think?
By: D1566 - 3rd October 2017 at 12:31
Still, a nice basis for a film maybe? Certainly better an idea than yet another remake of something.
‘The Shepherd’ (as previously mentioned) might be a better basis?
By: Sabrejet - 3rd October 2017 at 12:12
How surprised I was to read the same story 50 years late, and find out it was made up.
Well not at all I imagine. Looking at the text again, the suggestion that, “Neither did they find identifiable markings from the [crashed] plane” is daft beyond belief. Bearing in mind that we have many, many examples of aircraft which dived straight into the ground and were recovered decades later but still identifiable, that one assertion alone is enough to make you realise it’s a nice made-up story done by someone who doesn’t know their way round an aeroplane. And thus understand how many serial-numbered parts there are on an aircraft that would each allow identification.
And that’s without the ridiculous geographical references which assume we won’t be taking a close look at the map.
Still, a nice basis for a film maybe? Certainly better an idea than yet another remake of something.
By: TonyT - 3rd October 2017 at 10:22
buried in sandwich wrap on Moruroa Atoll
I’ve never heard of Moruroa Wrap?
A bit like a tortilla wrap but without the peppers.. A far east version of the Mexica sandwich we all know.. :eagerness:
By: CarlGurt - 3rd October 2017 at 01:08
For some unknown reason – I kid you not – about two weeks ago, I thought about this P-40 story. Out of nowhere. I hadn’t read or heard about it for over 50 years!! One of those absolutely outrageous co-incidences. So I searched on-line, and came upon this thread, and registered for this site so I could add my two cents.
I heard about this P-40 on the radio in the late 1950’s. The plane, with its dead or dying pilot was coming from the direction of Formosa, and it was almost a year after Pearl Harbor. There were no unbelievable parts, such as the plane being seen by US radar.
It was an eerie tale, one of courage, dedication, and mystery. I accepted it as fact, and as on of the mysteries of war far away and against an inscrutable enemy. I was probably 15 or 16 when I heard it.
How surprised I was to read the same story 50 years late, and find out it was made up.
CarlGurt
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October 17, 2016 at 4:10 am