THE POST-STANDARD
SYRACUSE, N.Y., SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 1944
SALVAGERS BRING PLANE WING SECTION TO SHORE
IDENTIFIED AS PART OF LOST BOMBER, REST IS NOT FOUND

A coast guard ensign at Oswego last night identified the large wing section of a B-24 bomber, found floating in Lake Ontario nine miles east of Oswego, as the left wing of the lost Liberator, Gateway Gertie, which disappeared a week ago over the syracuse area during a blinding snowstorm. But the deep, expansive waters of the Great lake continued to hide the watery grave of the remaining wreckage of the big bomber and her crew of eight men, who perished when Gertie crashed and sank somewhere in Lake Ontario.

Ensign J.M. Hebert, commanding officer at the Oswego coast guard station, said, "There is no doubt that the wing came from the missing B-24 bomber," Adding that salvage operations were halted last night before identification could be confirmed.

FINALLY PULLED TO SHORE

The coast guard officer made the first positive identification after his crew os seven coast guardsmen, aided by army officers, state troopers and Oswego county deputy sheriffs and highway workers, struggled all day to beach the bulky piece of wreckage. They finally hauled the 30 by 35 foot wing section partly ashore and partly on a 10 foot ice barrier at Shore Oaks, about nine miles east of Oswego. Darkness halted salvage operations at 7 p.m., until dawn today.

Ensign Hebert said the wing was upside down and no markings or insignia were visible, altho two badly damaged motor mountings, where the engines were ripped out by the impact of the crash, show some figures that may confirm identification.

KEPT AFLOAT BY TANKS

Empty fuel tanks in the wing of the bomber, whose crew last reported by radio to municipal airport at 2:30 a.m. Feb. 18 that the gasoline supply was nearly eshausted, presumably kept the wing afloat until it was seen about 3:30 p.m. Thursday by a town of Scriba farmer walking along the shore. There is a possibility, however that the wing broke loose from the sunken plane sometime after the crash, because army planes searched the lake area thoroly last Saturday without sighting anything in the water.

When darkness halted the salvage operation several AAF officers from the Rome Air depot established a bivouac in a tent pitched on the windswept shoreline, about three miles east of Pleasant Point, popular summer resort section at the western end of wide Mexico Bay.

TROOPERS IN COTTAGE

State troopers, who have worked closely with army officers in the week long search for Gateway Gertie, were quartered in a cottage on the lake shore. Salvage operations will be resumed early today, when an army crash truck will be used to pull the heavy wing out of the water, over a 10 foot stretch of shore-ice and onto ground, where it can be studied for identification.

Army officers denied earlier reports that the fuselage of the plane was seen Thursday night near where the wing wreckage was first spotted. Altho army officers clamped down a rigid censorship for security reasons, it was learned that none of the official searchers has any idea where the remaining wreckage is, except "somewhere in Lake Ontario."

Oldtimers familiar with wind currents of Lake Ontario pointed out that the wing section drifted about two miles from the time it was spotted about 3:30 p.m. Thursday until it was hauled nearer the shore 24 hours later. They added that if the wing drifted two miles in one day, it may have floated many more miles since Feb. 18, if it was ripped loose as the big bomber crashed into Lake Ontario. Paul Donahue, 45, of the Lake Rd., town of Scriba, told of seeing the drifting wing about 3:30 p.m. Thursday, while he was walking along the shore.

NOTIFIES COAST GUARD

Donahue returned home and notified coast guardsmen at Oswego, "because I thought it might be part of the missing bomber". Later the Scriba farmer guided coast guardsmen to the spot where the wing was floating about 1000 yards off shore. About this time an airplane, piloted by A.C. Bailey, flight instructor for the 324th college training detachment at Oswego State normal College, where some 200 aircrew students are training, flew over the spot.

Baily was assisting in the wide spread search for Gateway Gertie in a plane from the Safair School at the Fulton CAA airport, when he too spotted the wreckage, according to coast guardsmen. Discovery of the wing started an intensified search from the air for additional pieces of the sunken B-24. At least six planes patroled the area yesterday, covering the entire southeastern corner of the lake.

The bomber was on a flight from Westover Field, Mass., to Syracuse when it became lost in the snowstorm. With its gasoline supply nearly exhausted, the crew of eight was ordered by radio from its base to bail out, but the palen apparently crashed before anyone followed orders. None of the eight men was from New York State.

THE POST-STANDARD
SYRACUSE, N.Y., SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1944

CRASH EXPERTS TO STUDY WING FOUND IN LAKE
TO SEEK OFFICIAL TIEUP WITH LOST LIBERATOR PLANE

AAF "crash experts" at the Rome air depot yesterday advanced a theory that the lost Liberator, Gateway Gertie, and her crew of eight men may have crashed and sunk in Lake Ontario near the spot where a B-24 bomber wing section was found floating Thursday off Shore Oaks, about nine miles east of Oswego.

WING NOT SEEN

They pointed out that army observation planes spent many hours thoroly criss-crossing the eastern end of the lake after the bomber crashed Feb. 18, and they don't believe they could have missed spotting the wing, it if was afloat then. They now give credence to the theory that the 30 foot wing section was so badly weakened in the crash into the lake bottom that it broke loose several days later and floated to the surface due to the boyance of empty wing gasoline tanks.

Under this theory, the wing section may have come to the surface only a few hours before it was spotted about 3:30 p.m. Thursday by a town of Scriba farmer walking along the shore. Or it may have come to the surface a day or two before, but not much longer, they opine. When army officials study the wing section today at Rome air depot, where it was transported last night, they will scrutinize it carefully in hopes it may provide some clue to substantiate this theory.

If the theory is finally accepted by army officers, who have conducted the eight day search, it will narrow considerably the large expanse of waater surface that must be searched in the itensified efforts to locate the bomber's watery grave. The search from the air for remaining wreckage was halted early yesterday when bad flying weather "closed in" and grounded planes from Rome. The planes will go up again as soon as the weather lifts an officer said.

In today's study of the wing section at Rome, the AAF experts also will attempt to confirm its identification as part of the wreckage from Gateway Gertie, whose crew radioed to municipal airport at 2:30 a.m. Feb. 18 that it was lost somewhere near Syracuse and had orders to "bail out." Army officers have all but abandoned the possibility that some of the men "bailed out," and believe the ship crashed before they had a chance to jump, or that the men decided to "sweat it out" in the pilot's attempt to save the plane in a crash landing.

HAULED ASHORE

The wing section was hauled ashore yesterday at a point about nine miles east of Oswego and three miles west of Pleasant Point, loaded on a crash truck and transported to the Rome air depot last night. An officer explained that the bulky piece of wreckage is only a part of the left wing of a B-24 bomber. Known as the inboard wing section, it is about 30 feet long and 12 feet wide, with internal gasoline tanks, he explained.

Attached to the section is one wheel of the landing gear, with one of the big tires still intact. From numbers on this tire and a few other marks, AAF officers hope to confirm unofficial identification of the wing section as being part of Gateway Gertie. There are no air forces insignia or large numbers on the wreckage which could have provided immediate identification, altho officers who have viewed it say there is no doubt that it came from the missing B-24.

WEATHER DIFFICULT

An army salvage crew with heavy crash equipment from the Rome depot pulled the wing section ashore early yesterday and loaded it on a truck for the journey to Rome. they worked in difficult weather conditions, with rain, sleet and snow alternately hindering operations, which were conducted by officers who bivouaced Friday night in a tent pitched near the partly beached wreckage.

The beach area was closely guarded by a detail of nearly 20 MPs, who kept curious persons from approaching the wing section or the surrounding area. State police, who have worked closely with army officers in the extensive search, guarded the wreckage thursday night with Troopers Nelson Guyderson and William Zapf on duty 22 hours before they were relieved by soldiers.

KEPT FIRE GOING

They spent the night huddled around a small fire, which went out about 2 a.m., and they they stamped their feet in snowbanks to keep warm. Because such a close watch had to be kept, they were unable to seek shelter in any nearby cottages coast guardsmen from the Oswego station, aided by Oswego county highway workers with a powerful snowplaow, pulled the heavy wreckage to the shore line Friday, where a 10 foot ice barrier prevented final geaching of the wing until the army crash truck arrived yesterday.