The Riveting Tale Of Recovering “Swamp Ghost,” A Living Relic Of Pearl Harbor
Through war, accidents, and disasters, more than one airplane, ship, and vehicle became the stuff of legends after it was lost. One such legend is that of a warplane, Swamp Ghost.
Among military circles, there was an extreme desire to see "Swamp Ghost" uncovered after the Pearl Harbor warplane went down in a mysterious area, one that wasn't found until years later in the most unlikely of places.
A hearty beginning
According to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, the plane that would eventually come to be known as 'Swamp Ghost' was originally just one of many B-17E "Flying Fortresses" that the Boeing company produced from a factory in Seattle, Washington.
But while its legend wouldn't be established for years, it is nonetheless known that it was completed on November 28, 1941. At that point, the United States had not entered World War II, but the nation was already preparing for it.
A quick change in venue
The aviation museum added that despite the plane's later association with Pearl Harbor, that's not where it began its military journey. That's because it was brought to Fort Douglas Army Air Field in Salt Lake City, Utah, after its completion.
That journey started after the B-17E was accepted by the U.S. Army Air Forces on December 6 of the same year and quickly transported away from Boeing Field. However, the plane would be used sooner than the American military realized.
A day that will live in infamy
According to the National World War II Museum, Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor came as a pre-emptive strike intended to prevent U.S. intervention as the island nation's military invaded Western colonies in Asia. Pursuant to this, their navy sent six aircraft carriers a few hundred miles north of Hawaii.
From those carriers, Japanese aircraft conducted a daring raid on the naval base that completely surprised American commanders. In 90 minutes, 19 warships were damaged, 300 were destroyed, and 2,400 sailors had lost their lives.
A holding pattern
Soon after landing at Fort Douglas, 'Swamp Ghost' was transferred to Sacramento, California. But as the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum noted, the sudden attack led to a sudden change in the plane's location and designation.
Ten days after Pearl Harbor, the B-17E Flying Fortress flew to Hickam Field in Hawaii. Given the aircraft's size, there weren't many other places that could have accommodated it. But while this new location still doesn't explain its association with Pearl Harbor, its next stop does.
A change in branches
From there, the plane that would later be called 'Swamp Ghost' was then assigned to the U.S. Navy, which then completed the thread of its American travels and explained what it had to do with Pearl Harbor. But while it wouldn't be long before it saw action, it had to stay grounded for a while.
After all, a Navy is not exactly ready to enter the fight once it loses so many aircraft and personnel at once. However, American industry and outrage flipped into overdrive, which led U.S. forces to rebuild faster than the Japanese high command expected.
First combat flights
By 1942, America's forces had stabilized enough that the B-17E Flying Fortress was ready to take to the skies. But while it would later take part in a historic mission, its first flights in action were a little more humble.
Throughout its time in Hawaii, 'Swamp Ghost' would take off from Hawii's Wheeler Field and patrol the area on the hunt for German submarines. After all, the last thing the last thing the nation's war effort needed was to see another attack on its bases in Hawaii.
A tour of the Pacific
On February 11, 1942, the Flying Fortress left Hawaii and conducted what the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum described as an "island-hopping flight" through the Pacific. However, this wasn't such a dramatic flight, as its only objective for this leg of the journey was to reach its new home base.
That would turn out to be Townsville in the Australian state of Queensland, where the plane arrived nine days later. And it would only stay there for two days before its nine-man crew played their roles in a historic engagement.
An American first
On the evening of February 22, Swamp Ghost was part of America's first strategic campaign that saw a coordinated attack by bombers. This mission involved flying over Papua New Guinea, which was one of the territories Japan had conquered in the midst of the Pearl Harbor attack.
Specifically, the B-17E Flying Fortress's crew was aiming for ships that approached the coastal town of Rabaul. In so doing, they sought to affect a key aspect of the war that casual observers often forget about.
Wars are fought with supplies as much as weapons
Alongside eight other bombers, Swamp Ghost was poised to attack Japanese merchant ships that would otherwise supply the forces occupying Papua New Guinea. If they were able to stop or at least severely reduce the number of ships reaching Rabaul's shores, they could ensure shortages among those forces.
The more supplies that the Japanese military saw running scarce, the harder it would be for them to fight against a better-equipped enemy. This is especially true considering how much ground Japan had gained and not had to hold.
Problems started before any explosives dropped
However, the severe setbacks that arose with this campaign don't exactly make it surprising to learn that it was the first time the United States had attempted something like this. After all, it didn't take any action from the enemy to take some of these bombers out of the fight.
According to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, this was because some found themselves out of commission before they had even taken off. Two B-17s collided on the runway and had to stay grounded, while another never made it into the air due to its engine's failure to start.
And then there were five
Although six planes out of the planned nine made it into the air, only five of them would end up making it to the insertion point over Rabaul. And once again, this loss of a plane didn't have anything to do with any enemy action.
This attack was taking place at night to make the planes harder to engage, but this shrouding effect backfired one of the B-17s involved. That's because it got lost in the night clouds and had to turn back.
And then there were two
The problems that plagued the squadron only intensified as the mission progressed. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, their pilots were largely inexperienced; they were working with incomplete maps, dealing with bad weather, and mechanical problems beset the planes themselves.
All of these issues converged to leave Swamp Ghost far less supported than its crew had expected during this campaign. In fact, only one other plane would be left flying alongside it when it reached the target area.
There were more than just clouds
Although the dark clouds had forced one of the other B-17s to disengage earlier, that was far from the extent of the dangerous weather patterns the unlucky squadron had to deal with. Swamp Ghost's engineer, Clarence LeMieux, described the scene in vivid detail to the Smithsonian Magazine.
In his words, It was dark as hell at night. By the time we got there, we lost all the other planes but ours and one more. We ran into tornadoes—three or four of them—and we couldn't even see the harbor."
Swamp Ghost wasn't immune to these setbacks either
The squadron's luck didn't get any better when they reached their target location, either. And this was particularly true for Swamp Ghost itself. When it was in the perfect position to drop its payload, its crew discovered they weren't able to open the hatch doors and let any bombs out.
Since their first pass over the target was more pacifistic in nature than anyone aboard Swamp Ghost wanted, they decided to make a second pass once they had stopped the doors from jamming. However, this didn't exactly go perfectly either.
A deadly trade
Although Swamp Ghost was able to drop its bombs on this second pass, it was also struck by an anti-aircraft shell during this run. Although the plane left the target area after this, returning to base would be a harder fight than its crew may have hoped.
That's because the plane was intercepted by six Japanese Zeros while it was leaving the area, which meant the B-17 had to engage in a high-speed dogfight. According to HuffPost, this fight would see the plane riddled with bullets.
Shot down by degrees
Although Swamp Ghost managed to make it through this dogfight without being shot down, it wouldn't stay in the air for long. And there appears to be some debate as to why. According to The Los Angeles Times, the plane had been hit enough that it started leaking fuel.
However, the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum instead suggested that the high speeds the Flying Fortress had to reach were too taxing on its fuel reserves. Either way, it was clear the plane wouldn't have enough fuel to make it back to base.
An emergency landing
As the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum noted, a more immediate concern for the crew was the fact that their plane wouldn't even have enough fuel to climb over the Owen Stanley Mountains as it approached Papua New Guinea. Since it's hardly ideal to land on the side of a mountain, they circled the area in search of a better landing site.
Although they soon found what looked like a wheat field, the pilot discovered that it was actually the Agaiambo swamp in which he had landed the aircraft. The Flying Fortress would end up settling in about four feet of water, thus beginning its legend as "Swamp Ghost."
A landing they could walk away from
Although all nine men aboard the Flying Fortress survived, the conditions of the landing were rough. As LeMieux told the Smithsonian Magazine, "We jumped off, and the damned stuff was up to our neck." He was referring to the swampy water they had landed in.
And while navigator George Munroe was the only one injured, his condition seemed worse than it really was at first. He said, "They pulled me out, and someone said: 'My God, your throat's cut.' That kind of shakes you up. But they had a flask, and they poured water on me, and it turned out I had little scalp cuts."
A rough journey back
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the crew's emergency rations had sunk when the plane landed, which meant they would have to start their journey back to Australia hungry. Although they had exhausted themselves cutting through the area's sharp kunai grass for two days, they didn't find sleep any easier to get.
That was because the makeshift mounds they tried to sleep on kept sinking into the swamp. And even if they had found a suitable spot, the mosquitoes were so merciless that they wouldn't have been able to sleep anyway. Some of the crew members began to hallucinate phantom mess halls.
Rescued at last
After roughing it like this, the crew came across some Papuans chopping wood. Although the crew was cautious around the strangers, they soon learned the group was friendly and let the airmen stay in their village for the night. The next day, the Papuans brought the crew downriver by canoe and left them with an Australian magistrate down the coast.
By this point, most of them were experiencing malaria symptoms, and by the time they were finally brought back to Australia, they were hospitalized for a week. According to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, it had taken six weeks for the crew to get there from the landing site.
A new landmark
After that week had passed, all nine men were sent back into combat. However, they were scattered among other units, which gave Captain Frederick C. Eaton a story to tell his new crewmates when the pilot flew subsequent missions.
Throughout the rest of the war, Eaton would fly 60 combat missions. Not only did these missions often take him back to Papua New Guinea, but they repeatedly saw him fly over the wreck of the famous B-17. Whenever he did, he circled it and told all his crewmates about what had happened before, further deepening the legend of Swamp Ghost (though the plane wouldn't have that name yet).
A graveyard of World War II vehicles
In the years that have followed the war, Papua New Guinea has remained littered with both Japanese and Allied vehicles that met their end in that leg of the conflict. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, freighters, submarines, and other ships dot their harbors and bays just as much as burned-out and rusted old planes are strewn throughout their old airfields and jungles.
This has made Papua New Guinea a popular destination for tourists retracing their respective nations' military histories, but it's an especially precious land for vintage war plane enthusiasts. But some aren't content just to see these downed planes up close.
Enter the salvagers
As the Smithsonian Magazine outlined, some of these visitors hunt for World War II wrecks so they can either take them out of Papua New Guinea or export pieces of them out of the country. These salvagers then hope to sell their finds to museums and private collectors.
The legality of this practice seems to depend on what branch of the military the craft originated from. While the U.S. Navy does not relinquish any rights to its lost vehicles, the Air Force considers any aircraft left on landed before November 1961 fair game for salvagers. However, that's not true for underwater wrecks like this plane. It's unclear which side of the equation a swamp falls under.
An unexpected rediscovery
Although Eaton clearly knew where his old plane was, it nonetheless went untouched and forgotten for about 30 years. And in that time, it just sat in the swamp it was left in. Finally, it was rediscovered in 1972 after it was spotted by Australian soldiers who were flying a helicopter during a training exercise.
The partially submerged plane's discovery made them curious enough to land the helicopter on the plane's wing. And when they examined it, they were stunned by how untouched it had been in the decades since the crash. For them, the effect was downright eerie.
It was loaded with artifacts
To better explain what made the plane seem so untouched, the Smithsonian Magazine outlined what the Australian soldiers found after they landed. For a start, the plane's machine guns were not only still in place but remained fully loaded.
Furthermore, the cabin still had a thermos with the mummified remains of coffee inside of it. Some accounts go as far as to claim there was an ashtray that even had the original discarded butts sitting in it undisturbed. Regardless of that detail's veracity, it was clear that salvagers hadn't touched this plane.
Why "Swamp Ghost?"
Shortly after the plane was discovered, the Australian press dubbed the plane "Swamp Ghost." Part of the reason for this nickname was to reference the fact that the plane seemed to exist outside of time, thanks to its uncanny preservation.
However, another major factor for why the name has stuck throughout the half-century after its rediscovery concerns how the landscape around it shifts. According to the Smithsonian Magazine, the kunai grass in the swamp periodically grew over it, concealing it under its 12-foot brush. What better way is there to describe something that's frozen in time and that frequently disappears than a ghost?
Not so hard to find
Although the discovery was a complete surprise to those Australian soldiers, it was uncanny that it had taken so long to find. Because when it wasn't shrouded by the tall kunai grass, the plane was visible for miles around.
Indeed, it would prove such a shining beacon that missionary pilots and others who passed over the wreck would use it as a navigational landmark for years after this "Swamp Ghost" name was first publicized. And how it came to be so visible is fairly easy to explain.
Time made it a bigger target
As the Smithsonian Magazine outlined, the plane had sat there long enough for the Sun to burn the green camouflage paint off the roof. Since this paint was the standard olive shade that would often coat military aircraft at the time, it effectively changed color once that happened.
After all, when that paint wore away, it left the plane's aluminum shell visible. And in times when the kunai grass wasn't concealing it, the sunlight would reflect off its silvery surface and make it a bright, easily spotted giant object to passing planes.
Word got around and hands got grabby
In 1979, a warplane collector named Charles Darby included multiple photos of Swamp Ghost in his book Pacific Aircraft Wrecks, which only further drummed up interest in the dormant plane. And as more people became curious about it, some of the Flying Fortress's new fans became more daring.
So, while it had all of its gear intact when the Australian soldiers found it during the '70s, the instruments they marveled at were slowly stripped away. Although the frame would remain well-preserved after this, the plane's guns, controls, and even its steering consoles (called flight yokes) were removed.
A salvager sought to preserve it
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, an American aviator and commercial builder named Alfred Hagen started traveling through Papua New Guinea to find the B-25 crash that claimed his great-uncle's life during World War II. But once he came across Swamp Ghost himself, he was compelled to buy it himself.
As he saw it, to leave what he described as "the holy grail of military aviation" would be "obscene" as it was both being blundered and in the process of deteriorating due to its prolonged exposure to the elements.
He wasn't being hyperbolic
According to HuffPost, Hagen's passion was based on Swamp Ghost's genuinely unique characteristics. For instance, it can arguably be considered the only B-17E bomber from World War II that's both intact and was never retired. Finding an original airplane of that caliber is one heroic task.
Just as intriguingly, Swamp Ghost is the only B-17 remaining in the world that retained the signs of the struggle it had been through. As Kenneth DeHoff from the Pacific Aviation Museum told the outlet, "This airplane was such a fortress. We counted 121 bullet holes in it."
At first, things went smoothly
According to the Smithsonian Magazine, Hagen was able to negotiate an export permit for Swamp Ghost through his company, Aero Archaeology. In essence, the deal amounted to him purchasing the craft and preparing to move it out of the country.
That's because he was able to obtain this permit from New Guinea's National Museum and Art Gallery in November 2005. In exchange for the museum's permission to do what he planned, Aero Archaeology paid them about $100,000. However, that permission wouldn't last long.
A heated debate arises
When Hagen had the plane taken apart and removed the following year, this caused an unexpected uproar. As the Smithsonian Magazine explained, the salvagers believed that they had cleared the plane's extraction with villagers thanks to a ceremony a local chief performed to appease the spirits of the swamp.
However, a group of other Papuans led by Augustin Begasi believed that Hagen should have paid more for it due to how its presence had affected ancestral lands. In his words, "They should have given us money because it was our accustomed land. The plane would bring tourists, but now there is nothing. That village has no name now. If they left it there, it would have a name by now."
The government stepped in
Although Swamp Ghost was brought to the coastal town of Lae and was boxed up in preparation for shipping to the United States, Hagen soon learned that it was blocked from going further. This happened in the wake of a special committee within Papua New Guinea's parliament determining that the National Museum and Art Gallery had no right to sell the plane to Hagen. Instead, they saw the museum's role as limited to monitoring it.
They also disagreed with the amount Hagen paid, arguing that the plane was worth between $3 million and $5 million. They further argued that Swamp Ghost was state property and should not be allowed to leave the country. Facing government pressure, the museum director asked the nation's director of customs to postpone the exportation pending a decision by the National Executive Council.
At loggerheads
According to the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum, Swamp Ghost would sit at a warehouse in Lae for the next four years. In the early years of this deadlock, Hagen and the government suspected each other of unscrupulous practices. From the government's side, they accused the museum of colluding with international collectors to sell 89 planes or plane parts illegally.
As their missive put it, "The trade in war surplus materials is clearly big business." For his part, Hagen believed he had made a fair deal that the government of Papua New Guinea was suddenly trying to go back on. In his words, "I bought it legally, I salvaged it legally, I own it legally."
An agreement finally reached
According to HuffPost, the fate of the B-17 Flying Fortress would be subject to intense negotiations over the four years that followed. However, the salvage team and the Papuan government finally came to an agreement that released Swamp Ghost for export to American shores.
And so, the aircraft was shipped back to the United States in 2010. As the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum noted, it was first brought to California and would apparently sit in storage there for an additional three years.
A 71-year journey home
In 2013, Swamp Ghost made the final leg of its long, globe-spanning journey. After its three-year stopover in California, it returned to Oahu island in Hawaii, where it had once patrolled for submarines. Obviously, it wasn't here to be recommissioned as a military plane in its state.
Instead, it was there to become an exhibit in the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. Indeed, it seems the Papuan government didn't have to worry about the plane ending up in the hands of a private collector after all.
A new spin on its old home
After Swamp Ghost was brought to the museum, The Los Angeles Times reported that it was moved to Hangar 79. Here, museum staff began painstaking restoration work. However, that doesn't mean that visitors had to wait until that work was done to see it.
As early as 2015, the newspaper reported that visitors would be allowed to see the plane up close as part of a special Swamp Ghost tour. This required an additional five-dollar fee on top of the $25 fee for general admission to the museum.
A long and winding road
Throughout its travels, Swamp Ghost's story presents it as both an absurdly lucky and an intensely unlucky aircraft all at once. On one hand, its only major mission saw it run out of fuel, which doomed it to decades of obscurity and yet more decades of languishing until Americans were finally able to convince the Papua New Guinea government to part with it.
However, it not only avoided destruction in Pearl Harbor but managed to survive being shot 122 times, including by an anti-aircraft shell. And when it did go down, all of its crew survived. Moreover, it was able to stay remarkably intact after staying put in a swamp for well over half a century.
Americans can share in its bizarre fortune
But while it's mind-boggling to consider the astronomical variables that all had to fall into place for this chain of events to happen, Americans nationwide now get to share in the plane and its crew's absurd luck.
After all, they're not just seeing a piece of history when they visit the Pearl Harbor Aviation Museum. They're seeing the only B-17 Flying Fortress in the world that has managed to survive combat to such a narrow degree and that has the bullet holes to prove it.