The group were on a navigational and bombing exercise out of Fort Lauderdale on December 5th 1945,the ‘target’ area being a place called Hen and Chickens islands about 50 miles off shore to the East. They apparently made it to Hen and Chickens and performed thier bombing run,but it’s thought they overshot thier next waypoint and flew further east. After this the lead crew appear to have become disoriented and begun to believe that they had been blown over the Florida Keys,the other side of Florida. Atmospheric conditions meant that ground stations couldn’t obtain a radio-fix on thier position,and contact was completely lost when they made a turn to the East and flew out to sea (believing they would actually be flying towards land) It’s thought they would’ve run out of fuel and ditched many miles to the East out in the open ocean,in the dark. No trace was ever found despite a massive search. To add to the tragedy, a Martin Mariner flying boat blew up in mid-air during the search,killing all on board.
The guys in the programme the other night had first found these wrecks with primitave equipment in the 1980’s,and the aim this time was to take a submersable down to try and identify the wrecks conclusively. It was thought almost impossible that it could be co-incidence that 5 Avengers should ditch independantly in the same area,but that apparently is the case.
The wrecks appeared to bear the early blue and white star of 1942-43 and were painted in the earlier lighter blue camouflage (the preservation of the paint work was incredible,as Mark says). IIRC,those in Flight 19 were painted in later Midnight Blue with the modern star & bar markings. The one Beuro No. they did discover was of an aircraft that had ditched after engine failure in 1943.
Sign In
