Beguiled
He could feel his heart racing as he thought back to the warnings, to all of the stories about what things haunted these parts of the jungle. He called over to his team to indicate that they could move to the land where it was dry.
Then, the metallic sheen of something finally came into view. It was still quite far but he could clearly see the rays of the sun reflecting off of the metal. He stared, beguiled, for what felt like ages. He was wondering what secrets it would have in store.
Fred Hagen
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When word first reached Fred that it had finally been found, he knew he had to be the first to reach it.
He was an archeologist, so naturally, he was always looking for the next discovery to be found. He was always anticipating something soon, he waited and waited, and finally, it had come to him.
Going Where None Had In Years
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Fred’s colleague was David Tallichet, both mean kept wanting to achieve great things. They wanted to go where no one had gone in decades. They thought they were ready, but nothing could have prepared them.
The two were circling over Papua New Guinea’s infamous jungle. They could just see the tops of green descending into the dark swamp where their roots would be. Then, amongst the swamp, Fred sees what they’ve been looking for. The people that lived near the swamp called it an omen. To them, it was the “Swamp Ghost.”
Metal Amongst Nature
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The men changed expressions once they spotted the metallic sheen amongst the jungle trees. The artifact had been hidden for decades, and they had found it at long last.
It looked very strange but it may have been due to how far away they were. They should have listened to their sensible sides at left with the extraordinary sight in their minds. But they couldn’t leave it there.
Having A Closer Look
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They pleaded with the pilot of the helicopter to descend even more. He was hesitant, he didn’t want his craft to become the next “Swamp Ghost.” But he reluctantly agreed. As they swooped in closer, the men couldn’t help but each have a wide grin.
They could now tell that the craft was had submerged in the swampy, murky water. The parts left above the waterline were covered in vines and obscured by grass. They now knew they’d finally found it.
Danger And Adventure
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The old aircraft from WWII looked more beautiful than the men had ever imagined. Just seeing her from the air was a sight to behold.
They quickly organized with some locals to get the right equipment for the job. They needed a team as well. They also decided to ignore all of the warnings they had received.
A Haunted Place
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The warnings they had received weren’t lighthearted. Other people caught wind of the expedition and they knew they had to go forward to get to it first.
They had heard stories from the locals about men before them who had tried to discover the secrets of the “Swamp Ghost,” never to come back at all. The locals believed that by worshipping the aircraft and marking the area as “hallowed land” that they would be safe.
The Legend
Wikimedia Commons
All of the locals respect the swamp. They know it has more crashed aircraft and bomb craters than they can count. With all of the death that WWII brought, they knew the swamp was cursed.
But of all the artifacts of a war that happened decades ago, they revered the “Swamp Ghost.” It was the thing they respected the most in the swamp. They still say they see strange silhouettes march from the swamp, like ghost pilots searching for their crashed planes.
The Expedition
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Fred and David weren’t going to back down, not for any legend, anyway. They saw an opportunity where the locals saw superstition. Even if the land was cursed, they thought of it as an adventure.
After they organized the rest of the equipment that they needed they got men who were willing to set out into the marshland. But nothing could have prepared the men for what they were going to find in the swamp.
Into The Swamp
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Fred and David were veterans when it came to their craft. They had been through a lot together and were excited as ever to trek through the swamp, in search of their treasure. Soon they found that their energy would fade with the rough terrain.
But their passion kept them going for far longer than most men. Soon encroaching on territory that hadn’t been walked through for decades, if ever. But soon they would find that there was more than superstition that presented dangers.
Heart Of The Jungle
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As Fred stopped to take a drink of water, he saw something move in the water from the corner of his eye. He froze and slowly looked towards the movement.
His mind raced with the stories he heard of crocodiles and giant anacondas that patrolled these parts of the jungle. He turned his head and saw nothing but it was enough to have him shouting at his team to move forward to the dry land ahead. Suddenly, their hearts raced.
Enticing
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The mysterious plane was in sight. From the distance, it reflected the light of the sun so bright that it felt like it was calling their name, enticing them to come over.
Their clothes were wet and dirty from the waist down after trekking through the swamp. But the humidity and sun prevented them from being cold. Their pace quickened.
The Discovery
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Fred, David, and their team had already conquered one of the most foreboding challenges of their mission. Now, all they had to do was keep walking towards the bright light.
They walked through the unforgiving landscape of the dense jungle for hours until they finally reached the site. Silence engulfed the team as everybody stood in awe at what they saw.
Face To Face With The Swamp Ghost
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No one knew the story behind this plane. That’s why Fred and David were hell bent on finding out more about its mysterious origins. Now, as they stood within arms length of it, they couldn’t soak in the details fast enough.
From its structure, they could tell it was a plane from World War 2. This wasn’t a surprise as Papua New Guinea was a war hotbed and major conflict zone during the war.
Land Of War
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Every year, war enthusiasts had flocked to Papua New Guinea to see for themselves the wreckage that lay strewn over parts of the islands. Because of its strategic location, it became the site of many clashes between the Australians, Japanese and Americans, all of which had set up military bases in different areas.
Fred and David expected to feel a deep sense of history here. But they never saw this coming.
Secrets Revealed
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What the swamp had been hiding for so many years was actually a huge WWII airplane in incredible condition, remaining largely intact.
Locals had been calling it the Swamp Ghost because it was so well hidden deep in the jungle as well as believing it to be haunted. Why was such a massive plane in the middle of the jungle? Who flew it, what happened? They were about to find out.
Salvage
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The plane’s location was probably the major reason why it was largely unexplored. The deep swamplands also made it almost impossible to remove the aircraft from the site for further study.
But that wouldn’t stop Fred and David from trying to find a way to salvage and study the plane, move it out of there and restore it to its old glory. First, they stepped inside.
Stepping Inside
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Their bodies shook with excitement as they entered the aircraft. Their hopes were high that a lot of its interior would be preserved just like it’s exterior.
Unfortunately, when they stepped inside, it was ransacked. All of the mechanics and weaponry inside of the aircraft had already been looted over the decades it lay here. Luckily, David was already able to identify pieces of its story.
Aircraft Expertise
Colin Crawford / LA Times
As a World War II veteran, David had lots of experience in dealing with all types of aircraft. He even has a business of collecting and restoring military aircraft. It was his main reason for coming on this mission.
His collection included amazing aircrafts such as a B-25 Mitchell bomber and a P-40 Tomahawk. But this find would top them all.
The Flying Fortress
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David quickly discovered that the type of plane stuck in the swamp was the exact same type of plane that he had piloted during WWII. It was a B-17E Flying Fortress.
Once they knew what they were dealing with, they began attempting to salvage the plane in the 1980s. But in true ‘Swamp Ghost’ fashion, they suffered setbacks, making it decades before they completed the extremely difficult task.
The Big Dream
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According to Fred, the restoration of the plane was their greatest dream. “Because for some reason it captured the imagination of people from around the world…” he stated.
The plane was first nicknamed the Flying Fortress. This happened when a journalist saw the plane during a test flight back in 1935 and remarked that it looked like a flying fortress. But what about its backstory? How did the plane get stuck in the cursed swamp?
The Japanese Attack
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Just one day before the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the Swamp Ghost was sent out on a special mission. Instead of flying with the Kangaroo Squadron that day, it was sent out on one of the earliest bombing missions of the Second World War.
But then disaster struck. The Japanese invaded the island of New Britain in Papua New Guinea. Swamp Ghost would be the first to the scene, and with that suffer disastrous consequences.
The Downfall
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In February of 1942, the Swamp Ghost was dispatched to attack Japanese ships on New Britain Island. But the majestic Swamp Ghost would tragically never return from its mission.
The plane started experiencing problems when the bomb bay doors wouldn’t open. They made second passes at their target before they were able to finally get them open. But now, they’d attracted anti-aircraft fire from the Japanese troops. It was the beginning of the end for Swamp Ghost.
Technical Malfunction
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A dogfight ensued after the Swamp Ghost made its second pass on its target, which luckily was successful as they were able to finally get the bomb bay open. The Swamp Ghost managed to take down three enemy fighters out of a dozen.
Then suddenly, the Swamp Ghost was hit by the enemy. Thankfully, the plane didn’t explode but one of its wings was majorly damaged. It was leaking fuel and crashing fast in the New Guinean wilderness.
Crash Landing
Omega Bio-Tek
The Swamp Ghost was due to return to the New Guinean capital city of Port Moresby, but the crew couldn’t make that happen with a punctured wing and the massive fuel leak. Then the pilot spotted a perfect place to make a crash landing.
He thought he saw a soft wheat field which would be a perfect place to make a crash landing. But what he thought was a large wheat field ended up being something far more treacherous.
The Middle Of Nowhere
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It was a swamp that was inhabited by deadly and ferocious crocodiles. The Swamp Ghost made its crash landing in the swamp and miraculously, none of the crew members were seriously injured.
However, the crew was now stranded in a dangerous swamp in the middle of nowhere. Not knowing where they were or where they were going, they set off to find civilization and help to get back to their base located in the capital.
A Brief Reunion
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The entire crew devastatingly all caught malaria while attempting to traverse the dangerous swamps. Fortunately, they came across a native that helped them and took them back to his village.
The kind local nursed them back to health, and they were reunited with US forces in the New Guinean capital of Port Moresby. The crew was welcomed back as heroes but their celebration didn’t last long. They were almost immediately sent out on a new mission.
Lost In Time
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While the crew of the Swamp Ghost was redeployed on a new mission, their Flying Fortress was all but forgotten. As time went on and the war ended, no one thought twice about the Flying Fortress, and it was time to go home.
For decades, the plane was only known to a few locals in the nearby areas. US forces completely forgot about the plane and no effort was made to recover it from the wreck site.
The Most Famous
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Then, it was rediscovered in 1972 by Australian troops flying over the area. The news hit international media and the Swamp Ghost became famous.
The Flying Fortress is one of only four other planes of its kind and of all the wrecks that took place over Papua New Guinea, the Swamp Ghost is the most famous of them all.
Battle Scars
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Located in the Agaiambo Swamp, the Swamp Ghost sat abandoned for 64 years.
The Pacific Aviation Museum in Hawaii explains that the Flying Fortress is “arguably the world’s only intact and unretired World War II-era B-17E bomber, a one-of-a-kind example of an aircraft that played an indispensable role in winning WWII. And it is the only B-17 in the world that still bears its battle scars”. But this wasn’t all.
A World War II Favorite
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Since its introduction in 1938, the B-17 was still the third-most massively produced bomber of all time. During the war in the Pacific, the B-17 bomber was used in raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.
The bomber was a strategic resource in the war and was responsible for dropping 640,000 tons of bombs (out of 1.5 million total) on Nazi Germany. But what did any of this mean for Fred and David?
A Vision Of Modernization
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The B-17 bomber was part of President Roosevelt’s vision to modernize the US military. But after the end of the war, the B-17 bomber was quickly phased out of use by the US Air Force.
Most of the bombers were returned to the United States where they were sold for scrap and melted down. Only a few bombers remained in use, mainly for secondary roles such as transport, air-sea rescue, and photo-reconnaissance.
Holy Relics
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Fred and David’s salvaging operation was finally completed in 2006, but only four years later would they receive permission to return the aircraft to American soil.
But to the local villagers, the bomber was a relic on holy land. They had to be persuaded to hand over the Swamp Ghost. They even performed a ceremony to appease the spirits in the swamp. Still, not everyone was happy with the chief’s decision to let Fred and David remove the relic.
Son Of A Local Chief
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Augustin Begasi, who happened to be the son of a local chief, set out to make sure that the B-17 bomber wasn’t removed.
He even went as far as to organize a group of people to help him intercept the plane before it could be moved to a barge offshore. Would the Swamp Ghost make it out?
Claiming Ownership
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The salvagers, Fred and David, claimed that the villagers wanted to extract money because the barge was in their waters. In any case, Begasi and his posse were dispersed by police — who they believe were bribed to help get the plane out.
But Begasi couldn’t have stopped it anyway. The Swamp Ghost was lifted out by a Russian-built military helicopter. He could only watch helplessly as it was lifted out to the barge.
Salvage Rights
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“They should have given us money, because it was our accustomed land,” Begasi said. “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.”
Many Papua New Guineans lamented that one bureaucrat had given up their local treasure. Especially since the U.S. Air Force gave up the salvage rights for any crafts lost prior to 1961, they believed they had legal ownership over the plane.
A Blow
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Aviation enthusiast and blogger Justin Taylan said that the removal of the Swamp Ghost was a huge blow for the area. It meshed itself into the island landscape until treasure hunters tore it away for profit, he claimed.
Speaking about the plane, he said: “It’s a ghost, and its spirit seems only to have grown.”
Pearl Harbor
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The first showing of the B-17 Flying Fortress was in Long Beach California. Surprisingly, many of the people in attendance were friends and family of the original crew of the bomber.
Everyone in attendance was thrilled to see that the long-lost plane had finally returned to the United States. The bomber remains as a memorial for a horrific war that claimed millions of lives.
A Full Restoration
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Now that the plane has been returned and is safely stored in the Pacific Aviation Museum at Pearl Harbor, the owners of the B-17 bomber plan to fully restore the plane back to its former glory.
In total, the cost to restore the World War II B-17 bomber might exceed $5 million. After the B-17 is fully restored it is due to be moved to the Hangar 79 on Ford Island.
Cargo Cults
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Today, many people of Papua New Guinea are still upset at the removal. The plane attracted tourists from far off places and some local cultures even formed spiritual beliefs surrounding the plane or a “cargo cult”.
This is a system of beliefs, generally formed in highly underdeveloped societies, in which its members hold superstitious beliefs about items that fall from the sky from more advanced civilizations, such as technology or cargo.
War Wreckage
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Papua New Guinea was a very important strategic territory in the South West Pacific theater during WWII. Over 600 US planes crashed over the country alone, not including other allied or enemy forces which would equal thousands of planes.
Due to the terrain in Papua New Guinea, many of the crash sites are located in near-impossible to reach areas due to its dangerous and impassable terrain such as tropical rainforests, rugged mountain chains, savannas, and swamps.
A Nation Divided
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One of the challenges of finding anything in the area is the physical boundaries of the area and population. The topography of the country renders a singular national identity almost impossible to achieve.
Currently, there are about six million people that live in Papua New Guinea, most of whom live in remote and secluded areas and are loyal to their local clans only. They live a simplistic lifestyle of hunting wildlife and growing crops.
Caught In The Middle
The Telegraph
When WWII came around, the people of New Guinea found themselves in the middle of the conflict due to their strategic location between the Japanese Empire and allied Australia.
The Papuans didn’t fight in the war, but they did help by acting as service bearers, mainly carrying supplies and the wounded across the rugged mountainous terrain and steaming treacherous jungles. The country quickly became a graveyard and a memorial for the war, as evident by the Swamp Ghost.
Baffling
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The three surviving crew members of the Swamp Ghost seem to be the only people who are totally uninterested in the plane’s future. “After so many years and so much discussion, I’ve got sick and tired of talking about it,” said George Munroe.
“A lot of people got taken with that plane, which baffles me. I’m just not very interested. To me, it’s just trivia. We certainly weren’t that heroic. None of us saved a maiden in a burning building.”
Final Resting Place
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Having made its way back across the Pacific, the B-17E, one of the rarest World War II bombers in existence, was moved to the Pacific Aviation Museum on Ford Island. Restoration is underway in Hangar 79, which guests can visit on a special Swamp Ghost tour.
The Pacific Aviation Museum has more than 50 aircraft in its collection, including The Curtiss P-40 Warhawk, the Mitsubishi Zero, and The Stearman Biplane. Now, The Swamp Ghost, in its final resting place, is also on display.