Italian Human Torpedo

Photo taken by the British of the first Italian human torpedo recovered after a failed attack on Gibraltar in 1940.

Spitefire 944

 

In 2005, an 83 year-old World War II pilot is surprised to see 16mm footage of his 1944 Spitfire crash for the first time. SPITFIRE 944 was put on YouTube as part of the Sundance Film Festival Memorial Day observance through from May 22 through June 5, 2013 (UPDATE, ShortsHD is allowing the film to stay on youtube for the moment.)

The Poseidon adventure: China's secret salvage of Britain's sunken submarine

A new book details how Mao's navy raised the wreck of HMS Poseidon, which went down with the loss of 21 lives in 1931

 

When the British submarine HMS Poseidon sank off China's east coast 82 years ago after colliding with a cargo ship, the dramatic underwater escape by five of its crew members made headlines around the world.

 

But the episode was soon overshadowed by the communist insurgency already raging on the mainland, the Japanese invasion of Manchuria, and eventually the outbreak of the second world war. The world moved on, the wreck of the Poseidon lay 30 metres beneath the sea, lost to history.

 

Until now. A new book reveals that China secretly salvaged the submarine in 1972, perhaps to abet its then-incipient nuclear submarine programme.

 

Steven Schwankert, an American author and diving-company owner in Beijing, spent six years obsessively piecing together the submarine's story; his book about the experience, Poseidon: China's Secret Salvage of Britain's Lost Submarine, was released this month.

 

"When you start something like this, you say I'm going to start at point A and end at point B. Then suddenly you realise that point B doesn't exist, so you have to go to point C," said Schwankert. "The challenge wasn't to find the submarine per se, but to prove that the story of the salvage was correct."

 

Although Schwankert never found the exact reasons behind the salvage, he has a few guesses: perhaps fishing nets were getting caught on its periscope, or China, then deep into the Cultural Revolution, simply needed the scrap metal. Or perhaps the Chinese navy's underwater special forces salvaged the wreck as practice.

"In 1972, China's nuclear submarine programme was just getting started," he said. "If you have that kind of a programme, one of the first things you need to know is: if we lose this thing, can we recover it?"

 

On 9 June 1931, HMS Poseidon – one of the Royal Navy's state-of-the-art submarines – was conducting routine drills near a leased British navy base off the coast of Shandong province when it collided with a Chinese cargo ship, tearing a hole in its starboard side.

 

Although 31 of its crew members managed to scramble off before the submarine went down, 26 were trapped on board. Eight were stuck in the submarine's torpedo room, and over the next hour, they used a predecessor to modern scuba equipment to reach the surface – the first time submariners had used breathing apparatus to escape a stricken boat; until then, crew members had been taught to simply wait for help. Five of the men survived.

 

The incident made the front page of the New York Times, inspired a feature film, and changed maritime practice – the Royal Navy began adding escape chambers to submarines and expanded its research into treatment of decompression.

 

Schwankert first learned about the Poseidon while planning an underwater expedition to wrecks from the 1884-85 Sino-Japanese war.

 

He was fascinated by the vague descriptions of the Poseidon and sepia photographs that he found online, and set out to learn more, believing that the wreck remained on the seabed near Weihai, a port city in Shandong province. After a year of investigating, he began to have his doubts.

 

By combing through Chinese-language Google search results, Schwankert began to find online articles mentioning the salvage, including one on the website of the Shanghai salvage bureau. On one online forum, he found testimony from a man who allegedly saw the wreck being hauled on to the shore while swimming in the ocean.

 

China's foreign ministry confirmed later that the submarine had been salvaged, but refused to provide any details. "Some people have suggested that I go out there and look at the site anyway. I said how can you do that? How can you prove a negative?" Schwankert said. "Every indication is that they brought up the whole thing."

101st seeking to save 'Band of Brothers' regiment

The flag of Easy Company, 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, who were made famous as the 'Band of Brothers' in World War II, is seen on a wall on June 27 inside the museum at Fort Campbell, Ky. The 101st Airborne Division is trying to save its storied 506th Infantry Regiment from being eliminated under the Army's massive restructuring. (Kristin M. Hall / AP)

The 101st Airborne Division is trying to save its illustrious 506th Infantry Regiment, whose origins date to World War II’s fabled “Band of Brothers,” from deactivation under the Army’s massive restructuring.

The Army announced this week that at least 12 combat brigades nationwide are to be eliminated by 2017 under sweeping military reductions, among them the 4th Brigade Combat Team at Fort Campbell, Ky.

The long-term reorganization seeks to reduce the Army’s size from a high of about 570,000 members at the peak of the Iraq war to 490,000 to shrink spending and reflect the country’s current military needs as wars in Iraq and Afghanistan end.

The brigade traces its lineage to the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, created in 1942.

The 506th was among several parachute regiments created to sneak behind enemy lines in the war. Nicknamed “Currahee,” which is a Native American Cherokee term for “stands alone,” the regiment parachuted into Normandy during the D-Day invasion in 1944. The regiment raced to liberate Europe amid bouts of fierce fighting in Bastogne, Belgium and then overran Hitler’s famed “Eagle’s Nest” in Germany.

The “Band of Brothers” book by historian Stephen Ambrose and the subsequent HBO miniseries about the men of Easy Company won national acclaim, propelling the unit to wide fame among the public. The 2001 miniseries was produced by Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks and followed the soldiers from paratrooper training through D-Day and the end of the war.

Brig. Gen. Mark Stammer, acting senior commander of the 101st Airborne Division, said the division wants to preserve the regiment’s two battalions, along with its flags and its historical legacy.

He said during a news conference Thursday at the post on the Tennessee-Kentucky state line that the regiment’s battalions should be transferred to two of the division’s three remaining infantry brigades.

The Army’s restructuring plan also calls for adding an additional battalion, which is between 600-800 soldiers, to its remaining infantry and armor brigades. Adding the battalion was a recommendation from commanders in Iraq and Afghanistan who said it would beef up the fighting capabilities of the brigades when they go to war.

If Washington’s defense and budget planners approve of such a plan, he said “the 506th will live, but it will just live in another brigade combat team.”

Following World War II, the regiment was deactivated and reactivated a number of times in its history and moved to other locations as the Army reorganized in the post-war era.

The 506th deployed to the Vietnam War for four years, winning a presidential unit citation for actions in the A Shau Valley. The regiment’s soldiers served in Iraq for a 2004-2005 stint before the regiment returned to Iraq from late 2005 through 2007 in Baghdad as the new 4th Brigade Combat Team under the 101st Airborne Division. The 4th Brigade is currently on its third deployment to Afghanistan.

John O’Brien, the installation historian at Fort Campbell, said the regimental flag with its battle streamers carries the history of the unit, marking the battles and campaigns from World War II to recent times. If the 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry Regiment were moved to a new unit, that regimental flag would continue to fly, he said.

“History, heritage and values … those things provide the glue that holds the unit together,” O’Brien said. “You can imagine how powerful it is to say, ‘I am member of the Band of Brothers.’”

Jim Martin is one of the few surviving World War II veterans from the original 506th regiment. At 92, he just returned from a trip to Europe to visit locations, including the coast of France, where he and fellow soldiers fought.

Martin, who lives near Dayton, Ohio, said the Army command needs to exercise care when it makes changes to special units such as the 506th. “If you disband them, you’re not going to get them back very easily.”

He said the regiment’s original commander, Col. Robert Sink, wanted his soldiers to stay together from their initial basic training through paratrooper training and on into combat to build trust among the soldiers. Although he admits he’s not one for emotion, he worried that splitting up the regiment’s battalions would be disruptive for the soldiers.

“The problem with doing that is you lose the unit cohesiveness,” he said. “Anytime you move around or change, you lose that.”

Joe Alexander, 67, of Lenoir City, Tenn., who was a second lieutenant in the regiment during the Vietnam War, said while he understands that the Army needs to cut down its size, but he was hoping they would be spared when the Army spread the brigade cuts throughout the country.

“We are competitive and we all want our regiments to be saved,” he said. “But it does seem like they could have picked another one that had less of a history.”

Axis Submarines WW2

RIN Acciaio

RIN Acciaio

 First welcome to the base. Kptlt. 'Ali' Cremer (left) of U-333

Kapitänleutnant Johann Mohr, commander of U-124 

Kptlt. Lehmann-Willenbrock (U-96)

Radio operator on board of U-124.

 

BombShop U-124 

Weapons Load U-124

Bombshop U-124

Galley U-995

Images of WW2

WWII vet who provided flag in iconic Iwo Jima photo dies at 90

Alan Wood, a World War II veteran credited with providing the flag in the famous flag-raising on Iwo Jima, has died. He was 90.

Wood died April 18 of natural causes at his Sierra Madre home, his son Steven Wood said Saturday.

Wood was a 22-year-old Navy officer in charge of communications on a landing ship on Iwo Jima's shores Feb. 23, 1945 when a Marine asked him for the biggest flag that he could find.

After five days of fighting to capture the Japanese-held island, U.S. forces had managed to scale Mount Suribachi to hoist an American flag.

Wood happened to have a 37-square-foot flag he had found months before in a Pearl Harbor Navy depot. .

Five Marines and a Navy Corpsman later raised that flag in a stirring moment captured by Associated Press photographer Joe Rosenthal.

Steven Wood says his father was always humbled by his small role in the historic moment.

In a 1945 letter to a Marine general who asked for details about the flag, Wood wrote: "The fact that there were men among us who were able to face a situation like Iwo where human life is so cheap, is something to make humble those of us who were so very fortunate not to be called upon to endure such hell."

In its story on Wood's death, the Los Angeles Times reported that over the years others have claimed that they provided the flag, but retired Marine Col. Dave Severance, who commanded the company that took Mount Suribachi, said in an interview last week that it was Wood.

"I have a file of more than 60 people who claim to have had something to do with the flags," he said from his home in La Jolla, California.

Wood went on to work as technical artist and spokesman at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge.

His wife, Elizabeth, died in 1985. Besides his son, Wood was survived by three grandchildren.

Submarine 'got a hammering'

John Bishop wanted to fly with the RAF but when he went as a teenager to volunteer he was told "sorry, we're full up at the moment".

He ended up as one of the first radar operators on a British submarine, his shore base in Malta, his 25 patrols from there helping to cripple the Axis supply lines to North Africa and hasten Hitler's defeat.

Sitting in his Richmond dining room, the still-dapper 90-year-old tells his war story in a matter-of-fact way and sprinkles it with the natural humour of a Londoner. 

He says he was "about 17" when he joined the Royal Navy and was soon being trained in Scotland and England. 

"Radar was just coming in and it was quite secret." 

Early in 1942 he was assigned to the U-class submarine HMS Ultor, one of 49 that served in World War II. 

Small at 58 metres - think of two railway carriages, Mr Bishop says - they carried a crew of 27 to 31.

Originally designed as training vessels for surface ships to practise their submarine attacks on, they were slow, could only dive to 80 metres, and had crowded living conditions, but their smallness proved suitable for the Mediterranean. 

"They had a lot of drawbacks . . . but they were quick diving, and easy to maintain." 

They had to surface at night so that their diesel motors could charge the batteries used for underwater travel and during that time it was Mr Bishop's job to share radar duties with one other crew member, each working one hour on, one hour off, watching for enemy ships and planes. 

He says the equipment was primitive and "I think the skipper had more faith in it than I did, actually".

Once submerged the radar was inoperative and he was assigned to other duties - maybe going on the ship's wheel or cooking the meal. Watches were four hours and "you didn't get much sleep". 

HMS Ultor was painted deep blue because on a calm day submarines were visible 20 metres under water to patrolling aircraft looking down on the clear water. It was part of the 10th Submarine Flotilla, which fought out of Malta during the legendary siege when German and Italian bombers relentlessly pounded the island in an unsuccessful attempt to subdue it ahead of an Axis invasion that never came. 

Sometimes the Ultor submerged at its berth to avoid bombing raids. Between patrols the crew lived in an old stone building close to the shore. 

"There were more bombs dropped on Malta than on London during the Blitz," Mr Bishop says. 

Having already experienced that bombing as a teenage Civil Defence volunteer before joining the navy, he jokes that "I think the Germans had it in for me". 

The Ultor could be at sea for as little as 10 days or as long as three weeks, depending on how long it took to find targets for the four torpedoes it had in its tubes, and the four it carried to reload with.

"When you'd expended those, you might as well go home." 

Its mission was to sink ships supplying the Axis forces in North Africa. It accounted for 28, more than any other British submarine, Mr Bishop says, and it was often under attack itself. 

Enemy warships would pass overhead, their engines thrumming like an express train, and then the submariners would wait for the sound of depth charges exploding. 

 That's the hardest part, to see if they've thrown anything over the side or not. Half the time they probably dropped the depth charges miles away." 

Nine British U-class submarines were lost in the Mediterranean. The Ultor escaped unscathed.

Mr Bishop says he was too young to feel much fear, except once. On his last patrol they sank a supply ship which had a destroyer and aircraft escort and then found there was another ship nearby also escorted by destroyers and planes. The two groups joined up to hunt the Ultor, which "really got a hammering" while it manoeuvred underwater. 

"I can remember thinking, ‘What the hell am I doing here?'." 

He is more at ease talking about living conditions: canned food day after day, with 12 tins of M and V (meat and vegetables) a standard meal for the crew, one toilet for 15-18 men, with no privacy and a view of the turning propeller shaft, not enough water to wash. 

After the war Mr Bishop trained as a compositor in London and, intrigued by the stories a Kiwi workmate from Canterbury told, brought his wife and daughter to New Zealand in 1953. He worked on the Otago Daily Times, went to Tasmania for a year, came back to New Zealand and was employed by the then Nelson Evening Mail for the rest of his working life. 

He's been an RSA member and has attended many Anzac Day parades. He says when he thinks about the war, it's the "wicked waste" that comes to mind. He's not sure about tomorrow.

"I'll see how I feel. I'm not good at standing for long periods." 

The interview over, a framed text on the sideboard catches my eye. 

Dated September 1944, it's a citation awarding Able Seaman John Bishop the Distinguished Service Medal "for courage and skill serving in war patrols on HMS Ultor". He went to Buckingham Palace with 10 of his shipmates equally honoured, to get his medal from King George. 

He hadn't thought to mention it.

Search Begins for Famous World War II Submarine

One of the most celebrated submarines of World War II could soon be located 70 years after she was scuttled to avoid falling into enemy hands.

On Aug. 14, 1943, the H.M.S. Saracen was deliberately sunk by her crew near the town of Bastia, on the northern coast of the French island of Corsica, after being damaged in a clash with Italian warships. She has lain undisturbed at the bottom of the Mediterranean ever since, but now a new operation to find her wreck is under way.

Naval Battle of Guadalcanal - Overview

During the fall of 1942, the Japanese made several efforts to capture Henderson Field and retake Guadalcanal Unable to move reinforcements to the island during daylight hours due to the threat of Allied air attacks, they were limited to delivering troops at night using destroyers. This method of troop movement, dubbed the "Tokyo Express" by the Allies, led to several night engagements, such as the Battle of Cape Esperance, as Allied ships attempted to block the Japanese. In November 1942, Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto, commander of the Japanese Combined Fleet, prepared for a large reinforcement mission to the island.

Organizing two groups, Yamamoto formed a convoy of slow transports and 12 destroyers under Rear Admiral Raizo Tanaka and a bombardment force under Vice Admiral Hiroaki Abe. Consisting of the battleships Hiei and Kirishima, the light cruiser Nagara, and 11 destroyers, Abe's group was tasked with bombarding Henderson Field to prevent Allied aircraft from attacking Tanaka's transports. Alerted to Japanese intentions, the Allies dispatched a reinforcement force (Task Force 67) to Guadalcanal.

To protect the supply ships, Rear Admirals Daniel J. Callaghan and Norman Scott were dispatched with the heavy cruisers USS San Francisco and USS Portland, the light cruisers USS Helena, USS Juneau, and USS Atlanta, as well as 8 destroyers. Nearing Guadalcanal on the night of November 12/13, Abe's formation became confused after passing through a rain squall. Alerted to the Japanese approach, Callahan formed for battle and attempted to cross the Japanese T. After receiving incomplete information, Callahan issued several confusing orders from his flagship (San Francisco) causing his formation to come apart.

As a result, the Allied and Japanese ships became intermingled at close range. At 1:48 AM, Abe ordered his flagship, Hiei, and a destroyer to turn on their searchlights. Illuminating Atlanta, both sides opened fire. Realizing that his ships were nearly surrounded, Callahan ordered, "Odd ships fire to starboard, even ships fire to port." In the naval melee that ensued, Atlanta was put out of action and Admiral Scott killed. Fully illuminated, Hiei was mercilessly attacked by US ships which wounded Abe, killed his chief of staff, and knocked the battleship out of the fight.

While taking fire, Hiei and several Japanese ships pummeled San Francisco, killing Callahan, and forcing the cruiser to retreat. Helena followed in an attempt to protect the cruiser from further harm. Portland succeeded in sinking the destroyer Akatsuki, but took a torpedo in the stern which damaged its steering. Juneau was also hit by a torpedo and forced to the leave the area. While the larger ships dueled, destroyers on both sides battled. After 40 minutes of fighting, Abe, perhaps not knowing he had achieved a tactical victory and that the way to Henderson Field was open, ordered his ships to withdraw.

The next day, the disabled Hiei was relentlessly attacked by Allied aircraft and sunk, while the wounded Juneau sank after being torpedoed by I-26. Efforts to save Atlanta also failed and the cruiser sank around 8:00 PM on November 13. In the fighting, Allied forces lost two light cruisers and four destroyers, as well as had two heavy and two light cruisers damaged. Abe's losses included Hiei and two destroyers. Despite, Abe's failure, Yamamoto elected to proceed with sending Tanaka's transports to Guadalcanal on November 13.

To provide cover, he ordered the Vice Admiral Gunichi Mikawa 8th Fleet's Cruiser Force (4 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers) to bombard Henderson Field. This was accomplished on the night of November 13/14, but little damage was inflicted. As Mikawa was leaving the area the next day, he was spotted by Allied aircraft and lost the heavy cruisers Kinugasa (sunk) and Maya (heavily damaged). Subsequent air attacks sank seven of Tanaka's transports. The remaining four pressed on after dark. To support them, Admiral Nobutake Kondo arrived with a battleship (Kirishima), 2 heavy cruisers, 2 light cruisers, and 8 destroyers.

Having taken heavy casualties on the 13th, the overall Allied commander in the area, Admiral William "Bull" Halsey detached the battleships USS Washington and USS South Dakota as well as 4 destroyers from USS Enterprise's screening force as Task Force 64 under Rear Admiral Willis Lee. Moving to defend Henderson Field and block Kondo's advance, Lee arrived off Savo Island and Guadalcanal on the evening of November 14.

Approaching Savo, Kondo dispatched a light cruiser and two destroyers to scout ahead. At 10:55 PM, Lee spotted Kondo on radar and at 11:17 opened fire on the Japanese scouts. This had little effect and Kondo sent forward Nagara with four destroyers. Attacking the American destroyers, this force sank two and crippled the others. Believing he had won the battle, Kondo pressed forward unaware of Lee's battleships. While Washington quickly sank the destroyer Ayanami, South Dakota began to experience a series of electrical problems which limited its ability to fight.

Illuminated by searchlights, South Dakota received the brunt of Kondo's attack.

Meanwhile, Washington stalked Kirishima before opening fire with devastating effect. Hit by over 50 shells, Kirishima was crippled and later sank. After evading several torpedo attacks, Washington attempted to lead the Japanese out of the area. Thinking the road was open for Tanaka, Kondo withdrew.

US Forces

• Admiral William "Bull" Halsey
• Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan
• Rear Admiral Willis Lee
• 1 carrier
• 2 battleships
• 5 cruisers
• 12 destroyers

Japanese Forces

• Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto
• Vice Admiral Hiroaki Abe
• Vice Admiral Nobutake Kondo
• 2 battleships
• 8 cruisers
• 16 destroyers

Naval Battle of Guadalcanal – Aftermath

While Tanaka's four transports reached Guadalcanal, they were quickly attacked by Allied aircraft the next morning, destroying most of the heavy equipment on board. The Allied success in the Naval Battle of Guadalcanal ensured that the Japanese would be unable to launch another offensive against Henderson Field. Unable to reinforce or adequately supply Guadalcanal, the Japanese Navy recommended that it be abandoned on December 12, 1942.

The Thursday Documentary

'No doubt' Nazi war criminal Heim dead: German court

A handout delivered by German police in 2009 and dated 1959 shows Aribert Heim, a former Austrian doctor, also known as "Dr. Death", who is wanted for killing and torturing hundreds of victims in the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen, Buchenwald and Mauthausen with his horrific medical experiments.

German judicial authorities today officially said for the first time that Nazi war criminal Aribert Heim, known as "Doctor Death", had died in Egypt in 1992 as reported.

A regional court in the southwestern town of Baden-Baden said it was abandoning an investigation because there was "no doubt" the body found in Cairo was that of Heim, who had changed his identity and converted to Islam.

"The criminal case against Dr Aribert Heim on suspicion of multiple murders has been abandoned because of the death of the accused," the court said in a written statement.

Heim, one of the world's most wanted war criminals, became known as "Doctor Death" and the "Butcher of Mauthausen" after performing medical experiments on concentration camp prisoners.

Besides Mauthausen in Austria, he also served at the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald camps in Germany.

In February 2009, German public television channel ZDF and the New York Times said that Heim, a former member of the Nazi SS, had died of bowel cancer in 1992 at the age of 78, citing his son and acquaintances in Cairo.

But his death was never confirmed and a report by Der Spiegel news weekly several months later said investigators believed the ZDF and NYT report did not provide "any proof of his death" and they were continuing to examine "every lead" on the Austrian-born Nazi.

The Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Jerusalem also said it did not believe the story.

The Baden-Baden court however said on Friday that it no longer doubted that Heim was in fact a man named Tarek Hussein Farid who died of cancer in August 1992 in Cairo.

The court said it had reached the conclusion after, among other things, the defence for the accused had presented it with documents, including a certificate showing his conversion to Islam.

Together with information provided by his son, there remained "no doubt that the accused is identical to the person Tarek Hussein Farid and died in 1992 after suffering from cancer", it said.

German authorities charged him in 1979 with having "cruelly killed prisoners through injections or unnecessary operations" at the Mauthausen camp in 1941, the court said in its statement.

The court had announced in August that it aimed to establish in the coming months whether Heim was dead after receiving the initial results of the analysis of original documents from Egypt.

In 1945 at the end of World War II Heim was arrested by the US military but he was let go after two and a half years, and he went on to work as a gynaecologist in Baden-Baden.

He pursued his profession in the picturesque spa town for around 15 years but fled in 1962 as the West German authorities were about to arrest him.

JPAC team searches for WWII pilot’s remains

Seventy years after his World War II plane capsized and sent him to his death, a storied Fremont pilot’s remains may finally be recovered from the wreckage near a remote Canadian village.

The Joint Prisoners of War/Missing in Action Accounting Command, a federal agency that works to recover members of the military who are missing in action, began an operation Thursday with Parks Canada to search the amphibious plane’s wreckage for the bodies of Fremont native Jack Zimmerman and four others who were aboard the craft, said Marc-Andre Bernier, chief of Parks Canada’s Underwater Archaeological Service.

Zimmerman, a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army Air Corps, was a local hero and a pioneer in the commercial aviation industry. He flew the first scheduled flight into LaGuardia Airport the day it opened in New York City, earned the nickname “Million Miler” and flew military missions in Northern Europe during World War II, according to Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center records.

The day he died — Nov. 2, 1942 — Zimmerman had flown military officials to a U.S. military base at the small village of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan in Quebec so they could assess construction on an airfield. The location was important because the Allies used the route to send troops, supplies and aircraft to Northern Europe, Bernier has said.

As the group got ready to leave that evening while snow was falling, the plane, a two-engine Catalina, sprung a leak after two failed takeoffs and sunk into the icy waters of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Divers and representatives from JPAC and Parks Canada plan to spend a month diving on the plane wreckage to potentially recover bodies and any personal items, like watches or military tags, that might have belonged to Zimmerman and the crew, Bernier said.

Remains recovered would be taken to JPAC’s base in Hawaii to be identified and ultimately returned to the families of the dead, said U.S. Army Capt. Russell Grigsby of JPAC. Any personal items the recovery team finds also would be returned to the families, said Grigsby, who was at the recovery operation scene on Thursday.

“It will be closure for some of the families and for the people of Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan,” Bernier said. “At that time, the presence of the American base had a huge impact (on the village).”

Back then, Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan had about 200 residents, and the base added a hospital and opportunities to go see movies, he said. There are 10 village residents still alive who saw the plane crash.

“They remember the accident very clearly,” he said. “To see the Americans come to recover their own is quite touching.”

The plane, lying on its wing and partially buried in sand, will remain at the bottom of the gulf. The agencies do not want to do anything that could compromise its interior, Bernier said.

“It would be quite the operation to try to recover that,” he said.

Parks Canada discovered the plane’s wreckage in 2009 while in the area looking for shipwrecks. Longue-Pointe-de-Mingan residents who remembered the crash discussed its location with archeologists and prompted the search.

World War II Marine vet finally gets diploma

Vincent (Jim) Giarmo missed getting his high school diploma when he enlisted in the Marines in 1942 to fight for his country in World War II.

Seventy years later, Giarmo, now 89, finally received the diploma during commencement ceremonies at Monroe High School. He received a standing ovation as Crystal Caldwell, an instructor at the high school, pushed his wheelchair up to the podium to accept the honor from Superintendent Randall Monday.

“This is a great honor for me,” Monday told a throng estimated at 4,000 people crammed into the gym and an adjoining auditorium that had a live video feed. “These men sacrificed their high school completion to join the military.”

Two other men also were to get diplomas, but could not attend. They will be honored at the next board of education meeting June 12.

Wearing his bright red Marines cap, Giarmo clutched his red diploma tightly as he and Gayle Patterfritz, his escort and friend for the past eight years, watched some of the more than 400 other graduates receive their diplomas. Joining them were his niece, Madeline Younglove of Monroe and her husband, James.

Jim Liedel, a member of the color guard from Monroe Post 1138, Veterans of Foreign Wars, carried the flag that Giarmo fought for. He congratulated Giarmo as he passed by.

“He’s like a second dad to me,” Liedel said. “His son, Jimmy, and I used to run around together.”

Other veterans in the audience also congratulated Giarmo, including Ted March from Flat Rock, a Navy veteran who came to watch his grandson, Tedd, graduate.

“The Marines couldn’t get along without the Navy,” Patterfritz noted.

Giarmo was one of five sons of Tony and Petrina Giarmo who served in the war. The younger Giarmo said he had no regrets that he didn’t finish his education. He wanted to join the Armed Forces as soon as he could.

“When they bombed Pearl Harbor (in December 1941), I wanted to sign up,” Giarmo recalled. “But I wasn’t 18 and my parents wouldn’t sign for me.”

In the spring of 1942, his parents relented and signed the necessary papers. Giarmo’s mother cried as she put her “X” on the line.

“She couldn’t speak English,” her son said.

He went to boot camp and wanted to parachute for the Marines, but weighing a mere 110 pounds, he was too small. So he joined the Marines’ “air wings” division and became a mechanic for Corsair planes that bombed and strafed the Japanese islands in the Philippines.

When he returned home after the war, Giarmo went to vocational school and became self-educated in woodworking and plastering crafts. He married and raised three children — Vincent Jr., Steven and Cecilia (Terry) McGreevy — with his wife, Ann, who died in 2000. He worked as a skilled welder at the Ford Motor Co. plant in Monroe for 30 years before retiring and building his own home. A longtime member of St. Joseph Catholic Church, Monroe, he built a baptismal font, candle holders, a cross for Lent and an altar for the Blessed Mother statue in the church, all out of wood. Among his favorite projects are Queen Anne- era chairs that he has made for his children and four grandchildren.

One of the chairs he made with wood from a former boys’ school in Monroe. The chair is on display on the first floor of the Monroe County Historical Museum.