Europe First and Operation Bolero started out it is first segment in history as a large buildup and movement of Allied aircraft into the European theatre. It became only seven months because the assault on Pearl Harbor had thrust the U.S. Into the struggle.

Twenty-5 crew contributors took flight from the Presque Isle Air Base in Maine and headed for the United Kingdom. Piloting six P-38s as elite escort girls for 2 B-17s, the flight distant places required stops to refuel in Labrador, Greenland and Iceland at the manner to England. The path from Greenland to Iceland required the squadrons to fly over mountains at the east coast of Greenland, throughout the Denmark Strait and over the ice cap to Reykjavik, Iceland.

As the squadrons soared over the ice cap at twelve thousand toes, a heavy blanket of clouds obscured their view. They rose above the clouds to enhance visibility. Temperatures in the skinny ecosystem dropped to minus ten stages Fahrenheit. Still 90 mins from Iceland, the planes entered a huge mass of cumulus clouds and have been pressured to climb any other thousand ft. As one of the pilots misplaced feeling in his arms, he ripped the aircraft's defroster from it is mounting and used it to heat his gloves to cause them to warm sufficient to experience the controls. As the flight advanced, their ft became too numb to feel the rudder pedals.

The smaller P-38s struggled to hold touch with the B-17s as ice formed on their wings. Radio operators tried desperately to raise the airbase in Reykjavik or the climate plane that was imagined to be flying an hour in advance of them. As the climate became worse, and missing any out of doors conversation, the squadron decided to return to the airbase in Greenland and watch for higher situations. An hour later, as they approached the east coast of Greenland, the climate conditions have become worse.

After 90 mins of flying in dense cloud cover, the squadron started out to run low on gas and decided to look for a place to land. Brad McManus, pilot of one of the P-38s, determined to land with wheels down. He was hoping that touchdown on wheels would allow him to take off again after greater fuel become dropped for the aircraft. Everything regarded to head properly for the primary several hundred yards. Then , the front touchdown gear crashed via the ice and the aircraft flipped over, pinning the cockpit within the snow. McManus controlled to cut his manner out of his parachute harness and his safety belt as smoke filled the cockpit.

Watching the scene from above, pilot Robert Wilson retracted his landing equipment and slid to a smooth forestall at the ice. He raced the half of mile lower back to the website of the crash to check on McManus. Wilson's breath billowed in wispy white clouds at the back of him as he ran closer to the smoke from the crashed plane. McManus walked out from underneath one of the wings of the downed planes and stated, "Didn't think I'd make it, did you?" As the 2 pilots waved, the closing squadron answered with slow rolls and other aerial acrobatics.

One by way of one the opposite P-38s landed at the ice. The B-17s remained aloft for almost every other half hour, expending the closing gas earlier than becoming a member of the other planes at the frozen surface. Not a single group member became misplaced during the landings, however there has been no time to rejoice. The crewman turned their recognition to survival and rescue.

The Lost Squadron

Rations have been accrued and divided to last for 2 weeks. The men wore sunglasses always to save you snow blindness, and averted consuming too much snow as it'd result in sore throats. The team hack sawed holes into both ends of oxygen bottles and related them to engine manifold pipes, with oil drained from engines and wicked through the device on parachute straps the meeting became crude space warmers to combat the freezing temperatures.

After 3 days at the ice, one of the radio operators received a Morse code message to confirm their situation and role. Later that day, exhilaration set up as elements were dropped by parachute. The exhilaration waned as the team participants watched strong winds convey the parachutes and the materials far out of web page at the horizon. As additional tries to offer resources led to similar catastrophe, the stranded airmen created scavenging events to search for the scattered materials. When substances had been sooner or later amassed and organized, the team participants celebrated with a rectangular dance at the wing of one of the B-17s.

Back at the airbase, human beings coordinated supplies and devised plans to rescue the Lost Squadron. Meanwhile, on the ice, the men handed numerous greater days paying attention to radio broadcasts from England. Another favorite diversion was to sit down on burlap sacks and keep on to parachutes, racing one another as sturdy winds pulled their parachutes across the ice. Eventually a deliver, ski and dogsled team have been dispatched to retrieve the crewmen.

The P38 Pilots retrieved non-public affects, fired .Forty five slugs into electronic equipment to hold it from falling into the fingers of Nazi scavengers, and organized for the lengthy trek to satisfy their rescuers. McManus eliminated a clock from his tool panel as a memento. The men marched through knee deep snow and ice for hours, ultimately collapsing at the threshold of a cliff on the ocean's area. They took turns looking over every other as they slept. Once they were picked up by using a Coast Guard Cutter, the guys had been treated to showers, dry clothes and a pleasant meal earlier than being dispatched to new assignments.

Fifty Years Later

On July 15, 1992, 74 year vintage Brad McManus stood at the ice cap surrounded by way of the portions of a P-38 flown by way of his overdue buddy Harry Smith. The plane become buried beneath 268 toes of ice. The purpose become to rescue one of the planes from the Lost Squadron. Special equipment become used to dig a hole and melt the ice with the aid of circulating warm water and pumping it out. It took more than one month to finish digging the hole to the plane. It took twenty-five minutes to descend to the bottom of the hollow, where steam hoses carved out a cave across the plane. After any other four months, the plane became disassembled and punctiliously eliminated from the icy grave.

The procedure of restoring the P-38 has been said to be "the greatest recuperation of any warbird ever completed." Several specialists contributed understanding in items and services to the effort. Among these efforts, B. F. Goodrich Aerospace in England rebuilt touchdown gear and brakes. A Pennsylvania organization fabricated a new canopy. The Smithsonian Institution supplied 8 reels of microfilm and stacks of photocopies of technology aviation maintenance and handbooks, components and repair manuals.

At the time of this writing, Glacier Girl is currently on the Planes of Fame in Chino, California, in which set up of present day avionics includes a GPS navigation system, gyros and a radio. The Lightning's Allison V-1710 engines can be tested and additional fuel tanks connected. Once the aircraft is ready, it will likely be flown home to the Lost Squadron's domestic base in Middlesboro, Kentucky. Then it will retrace the original flight direction from Presque Isle, Maine thru Goose Bay Labrador, Greenland, Reykjavik Iceland, Prestwick Scotland and on to England for the 4th of July Duxford Airshow. The motive of the ride is to finish a journey started out in July 1942.