B17 Flying Fortress

[aralves]

We spent a week diving around the island of Vis exploring wrecks and walls. It was the first time I've done a liveaboard in Croatia on the MV Vranjak. I can only recommend this, they have some great wrecks and every night we went to other (port) location so we could enjoy the different villages.

Here is a first video of the trip when we dived on the "B17" at a depth of 72m.

[silent running]

Thanks for posting, nice footage. And thank you for using symphonic music instead of the generic new age synth stuff so common in dive videos.

I dived on a B17 in Papua New Guinea, still had the nose cone and all the guns. It's amazing they put 10 people in those planes. Always a strange and beautiful sight to see a plane wreck underwater.

It looks like most of the guns were removed, who could've salvaged that in 72m back in the 40's?

BTW, that's a P38 in my avatar from one of my PNG trips..

[silent running]

Mods, we need a "report" button...

[rjack]

Mods, we need a "report" button...

Lower left of the post, click the triangle

[michael-fisch]

The B17 off the southeast side of Vis is only missing the left nosegun, and the removable guns sometimes carried in the fuselage. Since the plane ditched on the way back from an bombing mission to Vienna, (actually dropped its bombs over Maribor) after it ran out of fuel, it stands to reason that the crew dumped everthing they could to lose weight and get a few more miles. Unfortunately the RAF emergency airfield on the Vis plateau was blocked when the plane wanted to land and the crew did a very good job of setting the plane down in the water.

I can't say for sure, since if I asked I wouldn't want to know the answer, but I probably know who has the missing left nosegun
BTW the nose is at 65M, Tailguns are at 73M and the hole in the fuselage on the right side is just big enough to enter.


Michael

[aralves]

The B17 off the southeast side of Vis is only missing the left nosegun, and the removable guns sometimes carried in the fuselage. Since the plane ditched on the way back from an bombing mission to Vienna, (actually dropped its bombs over Maribor) after it ran out of fuel, it stands to reason that the crew dumped everthing they could to lose weight and get a few more miles. Unfortunately the RAF emergency airfield on the Vis plateau was blocked when the plane wanted to land and the crew did a very good job of setting the plane down in the water.

I can't say for sure, since if I asked I wouldn't want to know the answer, but I probably know who has the missing left nosegun
BTW the nose is at 65M, Tailguns are at 73M and the hole in the fuselage on the right side is just big enough to enter.


Michael

There is more info about this aircraft on following site. http://www.divernet.com/wrecks/p2983...-fortress.html

From the info I have read:
We were told to lighten the plane, so everything went that could be pulled, pried or jerked loose. This meant guns, ammo, flak vests - everything but the radios.

[silent running]

The B17 off the southeast side of Vis is only missing the left nosegun, and the removable guns sometimes carried in the fuselage. Since the plane ditched on the way back from an bombing mission to Vienna, (actually dropped its bombs over Maribor) after it ran out of fuel, it stands to reason that the crew dumped everthing they could to lose weight and get a few more miles. Unfortunately the RAF emergency airfield on the Vis plateau was blocked when the plane wanted to land and the crew did a very good job of setting the plane down in the water.

I can't say for sure, since if I asked I wouldn't want to know the answer, but I probably know who has the missing left nosegun
BTW the nose is at 65M, Tailguns are at 73M and the hole in the fuselage on the right side is just big enough to enter.


Michael

Thanks for the info!