A diver looks at the wreckage of a B-24 bomber at the bottom of Gander Lake. (Submitted by Chris Power)
For nearly 81 years, its been sitting, undisturbed, on the floor of Gander Lake.
And now, a piece of a Second World War bomber is going to be taken from the cold, murky water and put on display at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum.
“To actually see a piece, or uncover something, in your own local area is exciting because you’ve seen the stories and movies,” said Dana Young, a museum director. “But growing up in Newfoundland, I never thought there’d be any World War II things here, but Gander is surrounded by it.”
On Sept. 4, 1943, the Royal Canadian Air Force’s B-24 liberator bomber was carrying a crew of four when it ran into problems just after takeoff, crashing into the nearby lake.
J.M. Young, John G. Mackenzie, V.E. Bill and G. Ward died in the crash. Only the body of Mackenzie was ever recovered.
Dana Young is a director with the North Atlantic Aviation Museum in Gander. (Troy Turner/CBC)
The bomber has been resting, upside-down, in about 130 feet of water, ever since.
“Some people thought it wasn’t really there,” Young said. “And there were all kinds of rumours going around. So I always assumed that it’s down there and maybe someday [someone would] bring it up and it would be nice to see it.”
The size and depth of Gander Lake didn’t make things easier. It’s more than 55 kilometres long and has a depth of more than 940 feet in places.
In the fall of 2022, however, divers located the bomber.
Last month, they returned to extract the bomb release interval control box — or bombardier’s box — in the nose of the wreckage.
WATCH | A giant war plane is at the bottom of a lake. Here’s how a team salvaged a piece of history:
Neil Burgess, president of the Shipwreck Preservation Society of Newfoundland and Labrador, was on both dives.
“I’d be honest and say it’s the spookiest diving I’ve ever done,” he said. “It’s stressful because we’re on a huge plane wreck. The wingspan of that plane is 110 feet, so it’s a really big plane wreck, but we can only see about six feet in front of us at a time. The water is so dark brown, it’s like really dark tea — that just eats light.”
This aircraft had the same design and markings as Liberator 589 “D” that crashed into Gander Lake. (Library & Archives Canada)
The bombardier box was still attached to the aircraft, but only by the electrical wires. When Burgess cut those loose, the box fell onto the lake’s floor beneath him.
“I accidentally dropped the box out of my grip and so it went down in the mud and I’d stirred things up,” he said. “So I basically had to use my hands to feel around blind trying to find this box again.”
Burgess said those were some anxious moments, but he eventually found the box again and passed if off to fellow diver Chris Power.
Neil Burgess is president of the Shipwreck Preservation Society of Newfoundland & Labrador. He’s been on two dives in Gander Lake looking at the sunken B-24 bomber. (Troy Turner/CBC)
Aside from the murky water, the crash site also carries the eeriness of a grave site, something that never left the minds of the divers, says Burgess.
“We treat the wreck with the utmost respect,” he said. “We’re not disturbing anything. We’re certainly not messing [around] trying to look for human remains or any of that kind of stuff.
“The cockpit where the pilot and co-pilot would have sat is actually underneath all the wreckage. It’s down in the mud. So we’ve never seen any human remains or any uniforms or any of that kind of stuff from the crew.”
The B-24’s bomb release interval control box was located in the open nose of the wreck. (Courtesy of Maxwel Hohn)
The aviation museum would like to look into the extraction of those bodies in the future, says Young, but it’s an extremely difficult process given where the aircraft lies.
Memorial University’s archeology department is cleaning and preserving the box.
Young says he’s looking forward to getting the box back, and telling the story of this Second World War crash to all those visiting the museum.
“You can talk about [it] all you want, but when you have an item in your hands that came up from there and you see the pictures … the quality, the condition of the aircraft, is great.”
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