Historic World War II Aircraft Pulled From Lake

This article is from the WBBM website but there are others on the web regarding the recovery of a WWII air craft from Lake Michigan last week. Our own Instructor Bruce Bittner and Paul Ehorn who has done presentations many times at Sea Lions participated in the recovery.

Historic World War II Aircraft Pulled From Lake

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (CBS) ― A vintage World War II aircraft was pulled from the depths of Lake Michigan Friday morning, some 65 years after it sunk during a training exercise.

The Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber was lifted onto a pier at Larsen Marine in Waukegan. It was rusty and covered in zebra mussels, but it will be restored for future viewing.

"I'd say it (was pushed) over the left side of the carrier," said Grant C. Young of Lanark, Ill., who flew bombers just like it out of Glenview Naval Air Station in December 1943.

"You see how the one propeller is bent backward. That tells me the engine was at idle -- if it was at full speed when it hit the water, they'd be bent forward."

During World War II, the plane departed from the Glenview Naval Air Base for a carrier qualification training exercise. It was supposed to land on either the U.S.S. Wolverine or the U.S.S. Sable, two paddlewheel steamboats that were converted to aircraft carriers for training exercises. But instead, it ended up in the lake.

The plane crashed in Lake Michigan during qualification training in the 1940s, and has been in 315 feet of water about 25 miles off Waukegan since then, said AT&T Recovery President Taras Lyssenko, whose firm is handling recovery efforts.

More than 17,000 pilots completed that training, including former President George H.W. Bush.

The Douglas SBD Dauntless was credited with winning the Battle of Midway and turning the tide of the Pacific Theater in America's favor.

"The recovery of this aircraft and others is the continuation of a program started in the 1990s to recover and preserve Navy aircraft lost in World War II," said Navy Capt. Robert Rasmussen, director of the National Naval Aviation Museum.

Over the years, the effort has recovered more than 30 vintage aircraft, Rasmussen said.

Many of the planes are on display at aviation museums or other public venues across the country, including O'Hare and Midway airports.

Agencies began recovering lost planes in the late 1980s, but the process was on hold for the last 12 years until Navy officials pushed for its resumption.

"This plane is an object that Americans built with American ingenuity that won a war in the face overwhelming odds," Lyssenko said.

Once the plane is extracted and eventually restored, it will be displayed at the National World War II Museum in New Orleans.

Complete restoration is expected to take three years, officials said.

"The only thing high school kids know about World War II is that Hitler was in it," Lyssenko said. "Through these planes, we want them to know more about the history of the war and the freedom we enjoy today."

Hundreds of lost vessels rest, rust on Lake Michigan bottom

Like the Douglas SBD Dauntless dive bomber salvaged Friday, hundreds of vessels are deep beneath the surface of Lake Michigan.

Especially during the 19th century, "every year there would be 15 or 20 ships go down, so Lake Michigan is literally littered with shipwrecks," said Perry Duis, a history professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Here are just a few of the most famous:

Le Griffon, 1679. Considered the "holy grail" by area shipwreck hunters, this French trading ship was among the first European ships to sail the Great Lakes. A 2001 expedition claimed to have found the wreck off the coast of Michigan.

Lady Elgin, Sept. 8, 1860. This steamer sank after another ship collided with it. More than 400 people, who were returning to Milwaukee after attending a political rally for Stephen A. Douglas in Chicago, lost their lives.

The Rouse Simmons, Nov. 23, 1912. Remembered as the "Christmas tree ship," it disappeared in a storm, carrying a load of the trees bound for Chicago.

Northwest Airlines Flight 2501, June 23 1950. Flying from New York to Seattle, 58 passengers and crew died when their DC-4 disappeared over Lake Michigan. The next day, an oil slick and floating debris were found about 18 miles north of Benton Harbor, Mich. The cause was never determined.


CBS 2's Kris Habermehl and the Lake County News-Sun's Kendrick Marshall contributed to this report.

(CBS 2 and the Lake County News-Sun are news partners covering stories in the north suburbs. Send story tips to tips@cbs2chicago.com. (© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting, Inc. All Rights Reserved.)