The Greenland Ice Cap Rescue of B-17 “PN9E”
The Greenland Ice Cap Rescue of B-17 “PN9E”
November 5, 1942 to May 8, 1943
By CAPT Donald M. Taub, USCG, Retired
On November 5, 1942, a U.S. Army Air Force [USAAF] Douglas C-53 Skytrooper with five men aboard returning from Iceland, reported that it had made a forced landing on the Ice Cap on the SE coast of Greenland somewhere south of the radio beacon station located at the village of Angmagsalik, Bluie East-2 (BE-2). USAAF at the main airbase at Narsarssuak, Bluie West-1 (BW-1), called “O-No-To”, located near the southwest tip of Greenland, promptly began detouring aircraft, B- 17s, B-25s, C-47s, that were in transit from USA to Scotland, to search for the C-53. The B-17 “PN9E” was one of them.
U.S. Coast Guard Greenland Patrol‟s (SOPA-USCG: RADM Edward “Iceberg” Smith) ships and its assigned U.S. Navy VP-93 PBY-5As had conducted the earlier aircraft search & rescues since the start of the trans-Atlantic flights via the “Snow Ball Route” that had begun on June 26, 1942, with three B-17 crashes on the first day; but were now busily engaged in other activities. Winter was already beginning to set in, and daylight was getting shorter each day.
The establishment of additional sites on both coasts, including ship and air aids-to-navigation, weather stations as far north as Thule (BW-6), supplying the Sledge Patrol stations on the northeast coast, escorting Greenland convoys and conducting PBY anti-submarine patrols in the Greenland Air Gap continued during 1942. Following USCGC Northland’s rescue of the eight-plane “Lost Squadron” on the east coast on July 23, 1942, USCGC Comanche was sent to establish a USAAF weather-rescue station at that location. It was called “Beach Head Station” at Comanche Bay, located at 65° 04‟ North, about 85 miles southwest of BE-2. A small summertime weather observation shack was also added 17 miles due north on the Ice Cap at about 3,000 ft. elevation, called “Ice Cap
Station.” The abandoned eight planes of the “Lost Squadron” were about four miles due east of Ice Cap Station. The main station was a 16 ft. x 24 ft. wooden building and was outfitted with six small motorized sleds and 27 sled dogs. Its crew consisted of two officers (1LT Demorest & 2LT Eddy), seven enlisted men and a Norwegian civilian dogsledder, Johan Johansen. Meanwhile a new small airbase was being established about 90 miles northeast at Ikateq BE-2 called “Optimist”, near the weather and radio beacon station BE-2.
On November 6, the C-53 was in radio communications with Beach Head Station, and was told to fire flares. Its flares were seen twice on schedule that night, bearing due north and visually in line with closed Ice Cap Station, 17 miles due north. The station‟s CO, LT Max Demorest and SGT Donald Tetley set-out on two motorsleds with two other men (SGTs Hall and Linton) to man the radio at Ice Cap Station. On November 8, the C-53 was told to fire flares again, and the flares were seen bearing 350 degrees. The C-53 said that they could see the water. Due to the configuration of the coastline, this indicated that the C-53 was about five to 10 miles farther north. The Ice Cap there was essentially flat. On November 10, LT Demorest and SGT Tetley set-out toward the C-53 on their two motorsleds. LT Demorest reported his estimate that the rescue would be completed within three to four days; if the good weather continued.
On November 9, the B-17 PN9E was sent out from BW-1, assigned to the search grid that encompassed the location of where the C-53‟s flares were seen, and the brief east-west coastline there. This coastline included three fjords. Comanche Bay fjord was the easterly one, and larger Koge Bay fjord was the westerly one. The B-17 had a six-man ferrying crew, and had picked-up a passenger , PVT Clarence Wedel, at Goose Bay, and two volunteer observers at BW-1 (TSGT Alfred Best and SSGT Lloyd Puryear). The B-17 approached the approximate center of its search grid from seaward where it encountered a local low cloud ceiling. The B-17 reversed course to go around the weather and headed in again, going northward into Koge Bay fjord to the west, and flew into a visual “white-out”, which became an unseen three-sided trap. The pilot began to turn away to the left, and the left wing tip hit the unseen Ice Cap. The plane skidded for about 200 yards on the surface of the Koge Bay fjord‟s active glacier. The B-17 broke apart at the after bulkhead of the radio compartment aft of the wings. Volunteer observer, SGT Best was thrown out through the B-17‟s plexiglass nose. PFC Paul Spina was thrown out of the radio compartment across the left wing and broke his right arm. The three officers and the radioman were unhurt. Others suffered various cuts and bruises. The broken-off tail section was overhanging a large open crevasse, and another crevasse was in front of the plane. The B-17 was at about 4,000 ft. elevation and 29 miles northwest of Beach Head Station.
Fortunately the weather was good. They took stock of their situation, treated injuries, collected rations and made quarters in the cramped tail section of the plane. They used parachute shrouds to tie the two parts of the plane together, and used their parachutes for warmth. The three officers had been provided with jungle survival kits, each of which included a large bolo knife. These were later useful for cutting snow blocks to construct snow shelters. The radio compartment was badly damaged and doused with gasoline. The radioman made attempts to transmit SOSs using the portable 500 KC emergency radio with its kite antenna.
On November 10, the weather began to change. The snow lasted for three days. The motorsleds enroute to the C-53 were caught on the Ice Cap and had mechanical failures. And a RAF Douglas A- 20 Boston with a RCAF [Royal Canadian Air Force] three-man ferrying crew from Gander, Newfoundland, over flew its fuel stop at BW-1 in a snowstorm, and made a forced landing on the Ice Cap on the east coast. Its SOS was received at Gander. Now there were three planes on the Ice Cap on the east coast, and BW-1 was soon closed by the weather. The alternate airbase on the west side of Greenland, Sondre Strom Fjord, BW-8, located just north of the Arctic Circle, was basically shut-down for the winter, and had no planes. COL Bernt Balchen was its CO. SOPA-USCG had removed its three PBY-5As from BW-8 in about September, and now had only four PBYs at BW-1, which were primarily being used for convoy escorting and anti-submarine patrols in the Greenland Air Gap. In-transit search planes continued to be sent out from BW-1 when the weather permitted it. A civilian TWA C-54 arrived at BW-8 and was put to use.
Meanwhile the Canadian A-20 crew set-out on foot toward the coast. They had made snowshoes from materials on the plane and used an inflated liferaft for shelter. A strong foehn wind blowing down off of the Ice Cap caused the temperature to rise 54 degrees-F. On November 13, the 2 motorsleds that had been enroute to the C-53 returned to Ice Cap Station due to motor problems, and continued back to the main station for replacement motorsleds. On November 23, they made their way back to Ice Cap Station together with Johan Johansen‟s dogsled. Radio communications with the C-53 had already stopped.
Meanwhile USCGC Northland passed-by Comanche Bay twice on November 12 and November 15 going to and from the new airbase at Ikateq BE-2. It was transporting the season‟s last 80-some Army men to BE-2, and taking the last 80-some civilian construction workers out. On November 19, it transferred them to the troopship USAT Brooklyn Heights that was waiting far to the south outside of the coastal pack ice. On November 18, a search plane from BW-1 located the A-20, but not its crew. SOPA-USCG sent the Northland to try to rescue them. On the morning of November 23, the ship‟s Grumman Duck pilot, LT John Pritchard (CGA‟38) located their trail; but not the men. Later that night the ship fired star shells and rocket flares. One of the A-20 men responded by setting fire to his coat,
and was seen on the Ice Cap. The ship‟s rescue party went ashore by motorboat and located the A- 20‟s crew: Flight Officers David Goodlet and Al Nash, and SGT Arthur Weaver. They were to remain aboard the Northland for the next 43 days.
On November 16, the B-17 PN9E got its transmitter working and made contact with Beach Head Station, and its receiver working the next day. On November 18, 15 planes were sent-out from BW-1 and the TWA C-54 from BW-8. One of these located the A-20. Then the weather turned bad again at BW-1. On November 24, COL Balchen, the CO of BW-8, using the TWA C-54 located the B-17 PN9E. LT Demorest had returned to Ice Cap Station, and gave-up on the C-53, and on November 25 set-out to the B-17 PN9E with the two motorsleds and Johansen‟s dogsled.
On November 24, SOPA-USCG radioed the Northland after its rescue of the A-20‟s crew: “WELL DONE. SUGGEST Northland go” north again to assist USAAF at Comanche Bay. The 216-ft., 1000 SHP Northland, which was built in 1927 for service in Alaskan waters with sails on two masts for emergency propulsion (since removed) was not an icebreaking ship. It was outfitted with a Grumman J2F-4 Duck seaplane in 1941. The ship worked its way through the coastal pack ice and arrived in ice-free Comanche Bay at daybreak on November 28, and promptly launched its plane. COL Balchen had also returned and was making an airdrop to B-17 PN9E when LT Pritchard‟s Duck arrived, and landed with wheels down away from the glacier‟s crevasses about one mile from the B- 17. LT Pritchard and his radioman, RM1 Benjamin Bottoms walked to the B-17 using a broom stick to probe for hidden crevasses, and administered first aid. The B-17‟s pilot, 1stLT Armand Monteverde chose two injured men who were able to walk. The navigator, 2ndLT William O‟Hara‟s feet were black with gangrene and PVT Spina‟s arm was broken and his feet were also frozen, and they would need sleds to get to the Duck. The B-17‟s uninjured copilot, 2ndLT Harry Spencer accompanied LT Pritchard to the Duck to prepare it for take-off. RM1 Bottoms assisted the two injured men, observer SSGT Lloyd Puryear and PFC Alexander Tucciarone, both of whom had to make rest stops along the way. They cleared away the snow and raised the Duck‟s wheels, and turned the Duck around to take-off downslope on its incoming tracks. LT Spencer helped by pushing the Duck and it took-off toward the axis of the Koge Bay fjord and seaward back to the Northland in Comanche Bay, two fjords away. The Duck returned to the ship as it got dark, guided by the ship‟s search lights, and was hoisted aboard. The total flight time was 4 hours and 33 minutes. This was a historical event; the first intentional landing and take-off on Greenland‟s Ice Cap.
LT Demorest and SGT Tetley‟s motorsled party arrived near the B-17 later that night, guided by flares from the B-17. Johansen‟s dogsled had been forced to go back. They parked their motorsleds about one mile away outside of the area of the glacier‟s crevasses, and carefully skied to the B-17 in the dark, and then returned to their sleds and made camp until morning. COL Balchen had returned to
BW-8. Two B-17s had arrived at BW-8 to assist, and he released the TWA C-54; confident that the rescue of B-17 PN9E‟s remaining seven men was in good hands.
At Northland, the weather forecast predicted a change in the weather. LT Pritchard had the Duck further lightened and hoped to make two trips to the B-17 the next day, November 29. LT Pritchard returned to the B-17 and airdropped two improvised stretcher sleds, and proceeded to land again where he had on November 28. Soon after he left the ship, the weather began to change somewhat rapidly and started to snow there. At about the same time that Pritchard was landing wheels-up on the Duck‟s pontoon, LT Demorest and SGT Tetley were arriving on their motorsleds. Near the B-17, LT Demorest made a wide turn to turn his motorsled around, and disappeared into a snow covered crevasse. It was fatal. SGT Tetley stopped in time. Fog was seen coming in from the sea. The B- 17‟s uninjured radioman, CPL Loren Howarth was sent to meet Pritchard to inform him of LT Demorest‟s fall, and also advise him to take-off. Pritchard waited for Howarth to arrive, and took-off with him. By then the ship advised Pritchard that it had become unsafe to land at the ship.
Pritchard‟s last radio communication came nine minutes after he took-off; requesting “M.O.‟s”–the direction back to the ship. It was 115 degrees-true, and over land, rather than the route offshore.
The magnetic compass variation there was 40 degrees-West. At the ship, there was hope that Pritchard turned back to land again on the Ice Cap. (Months later, LT Spencer said that Pritchard had taken-off as he had on November 28, downslope toward the axis of the fjord and seaward, and not up over the coastal mountains and the Ice Cap to return to Comanche Bay.).
SOPA-USCG informed the ship several times that search planes would be sent from BW-1 as soon as the weather enabled it. None came. The Northland’s CO, LCDR Francis Pollard, replies said that local flying conditions were excellent at Comanche Bay, it was still free of sea ice and it was warm. He suggested sending a PBY. He also suggested sending USCGC North Star with its Grumman Duck from BW-1. It was soon on its way.
Things were getting desperate at the B-17. Their living quarters in the tail section was progressively sliding into the large open crevasse. They built a snow shelter under the right wing, and cut the ropes that held the tail section to let it fall into the crevasse. They made plans to use SGT Tetley‟s motorsled to get LT O‟Hara to Beach Head Station. On December 2, the ship transferred its hospital corpsman, HMC Gerald Hearn, to the station in anticipation of their arrival. On December 7, four men set-out from the B-17 (LT Spencer on snowshoes, SGT Tetley driving the sled, PVT Wedel on foot) with LT O‟Hara on a towed sled. The B-17‟s radio was no longer operable, and Tetley left his walkie- talkie radio at the B-17. They came to an incline about one mile from the B-17, and stopped so that they could all get on the motorsled. They were on top of an unseen snowbridged crevasse. Spencer was taking off his snowshoes and Wedel suddenly disappeared into the crevasse. It was fatal. They continued onward. About six miles from the B-17, the motor died, and they made camp and were stranded, unable to communicate. Spencer and O‟Hara got into a two-man pup-tent and Tetley dug a hole in the snow for himself. With added snowfall, they progressively increased the size of their snow shelter. They were eventually sustained by airdrops and remained there until they were rescued on February 5, 1943.
On December 4, ENS Richard Fuller (CGA‟43) volunteered to lead a four-man Coast Guard rescue party ashore [Fuller, AM1 Donald A. Drisko, BM2 Harold W. Green, and COX Stanley P. Preble] from the ship to search for its missing Duck. This was now ENS Fuller‟s third rescue on the Ice Cap since his one year early graduation from the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in June 1942, and newly married while on one week‟s leave. The expectation was that they would be ashore for no more than two weeks. On December 6, Captain Kenneth Turner‟s B-17 was sent from BW-8 to BE-2. The runway was still being widened at BE-2. On December 7, Turner‟s B-17 located the Coast Guard Duck, and reported it to the Northland: “Grumman located. No sign of life. Badly wrecked. 65-11 North, 40-37 West. 2,700 feet. One half mile from the (fjord‟s) water.” Turner soon added that the plane was on the fjord‟s seaward slope, about three miles from the ocean, and plane‟s wings had broken off, but the fuselage was intact.
Turner‟s B-17 was new to the east coast, and the navigator identified the wrong fjord located between Comanche Bay fjord and Koge Bay fjord. On the morning of December 8, ENS Fuller‟s party set-out on foot across Comanche Bay fjord to the next fjord, and climbed into the coastal mountains until December 11; four men with two sleeping bags. Daylight had reduced to three hours and 25 minutes. [Map location “D”.] Later on December 8, Turner‟s B-17 corrected their error on the Duck‟s location to BW-1 and BW-8 to the east side of the Koge Bay fjord at 65°-09‟ North, 41°-01‟ West. Also, they located the B-17 PN9E and a dogsled party six miles northwest of the B-17; but were not able to find the motorsled on the Ice Cap. Here too they were mistaken by informing BW-1 and BW-8 that they had located a dogsled party on the Ice Cap, apparently from Beach Head Station. That was good news, but it was false news. It was actually the stranded motorsled.
On December 9, Turner repeated their correction of the Duck‟s location, and this time specifically addressed it by names: “Turner to Balchen”. Meanwhile, the ship was avoiding pack ice and icebergs that were drifting into the Comanche Bay area and threatening to trap the ship there. SOPA-USCG ordered the ship to depart. On December 9, the Northland broke out through a five mile wide belt of pack ice to open water, where it lost radio communications ashore. The North Star also arrived offshore, but was not capable of operating in pack ice. On December 11, SOPA-USCG ordered both ships to return to BW-1. Later that night, ENS Fuller‟s search party returned to Beach Head Station, and remained unaware of the corrected location of the Coast Guard Duck……..
On March 17, Turner‟s B-17 and the two PBY‟s were able to return. LT Dunlop‟s PBY landed again with Balchen along at the motorsled camp, and off-loaded the three-man dogsled rescue party: Strong, Healy and Dolleman with their nine dogs, and the planes returned to BE-2. The rescue party went the final six miles to the B-17 PN9E and returned in three days with the last three survivors; LT Monteverde, TSGT Best and PFC Spina, to await the PBY‟s return. On April 5, the planes returned, and LT Dunlop and LTJG Waters‟s PBY-5A (93-P-20) made its third landing there, and the took the six men, nine dogs and sled aboard. This time they did not have a surface wind to assist their take- off. The right engine developed an oil leak and started a fire. Temporary repairs were made. COL Balchen ordered the rescue party off of the plane. On April 6, there was a wind again, and the PBY took-off down slope toward the water, feathered the damaged engine, and flew offshore on one engine to BE-2, and landed safely with the nose wheel still up.
On April 6, COL Balchen and the dogsled party set-out toward Ice Cap Station following whatever of Fuller‟s trail markers remained. It was now springtime with 15 hours of daylight; but there was bad weather again and they had their own difficulties. They failed to find Ice Cap Station. They arrived at Beach Head Station on April 16. Fuller now finally learned of the „actual location of the missing Coast Guard Duck from COL Balchen. Perhaps due to a misunderstanding; this location was also wrong. [Map location “E.”] On April 18, ENS Henderson‟s PBY (93-P-17) made a water landing at the station, and flew COL Balchen and the rescue party with their dogs to BE-2. On May 8, Henderson was able to land again at the station, and picked-up the five USCG men to BE-2. The 2 PBY‟s returned to BW-1 on May 13, 1943 with the five Coast Guard men.
The official USAAF accident report did not mention the five Coast Guard men but did say that an unidentified rescue party had reached within 1⁄2 mile of the Coast Guard Duck at the report‟s [December 9,1942] location on the eastern side of Koge Bay fjord, when in fact they had searched at the December 7 reported wrong middle fjord 11 miles farther east. The USAAF report on the missing C-53, which was never found, did not tell of the mishaps of the motorsleds and dogsleds. It is possible that the C-53 was seen, partly covered by snow and mistaken for one of the scattered eight “Lost Squadron” planes fairly nearby.
