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-   -   AAF AT-7/C-45 loss - Greenland - 5 Jan 1943 (http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?t=49679)

Leendert 11th November 2017 10:47

Re: AAF AT-7/C-45 loss - Greenland - 5 Jan 1943
 
Rolland,

Idea of confusing the story and fate of the Canadian lookalike with a possible AT-7 of 5 Jan 43 had crossed my mind as well.

One of the occupants (Capt. Moe) was USAAF, I believe.

Alex: report of 1946 clearly speaks of a crash on 28 Nov 1943 and not 5 Jan 1943.

Regards,

Leendert

RSwank 11th November 2017 16:02

Re: AAF AT-7/C-45 loss - Greenland - 5 Jan 1943
 
The navigator on the flight was probably Captain John G Moe, Jr., AAF. (Captain Moe, navigator AAF is mentioned in the link I gave).

I know he was a navigator, having received his wings in June, 1941.

There is a newspaper article, dated January 3, 1943 in the Philadelphia, Inquiry which states:

"Captain John G Moe Jr, 26, who recently was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross for a "hazardous flight in a bombing plane from Washington to the Netherlands (East Indies) on an urgent and vital mission has been found after being reported missing on a recent flight his father, a justice of the peace, of 450 S Orange Street, Media (PA) said yesterday.

It looks like the Army informed his father on the same day (January 2) he was found.

Update: found another newspaper article which confirms this. It states that John G Moe had an harrowing experience in late 1942 when he was forced down in Greenland while searching for some missing flyers. He spent Christmas of that year in a rubber boat amid the ice flows of the northern Atlantic.

Leendert 15th November 2017 20:16

Re: AAF AT-7/C-45 loss - Greenland - 5 Jan 1943
 
I received word from Capt. Donald M. Taub, USCG (Retired) about the possible AT-7/C-45 loss on 5 January 1943.
He is the author of the article “The Greenland Ice Cap Rescue of B-17 PN9E” in which a/the 5 Jan 1943 accident was mentioned.

Capt. Taub’s source was information from one of Colonel Bernt Balchen’s personal notebooks. The notes however were very brief and it merely said that the aircraft was lost between BW-1 and BE-2.

I further read that Col Balchen (also) had a YC-64 Norseman (42-5044 called “Yellow Peril”) which reportedly was destroyed when a nearby C-87 transport (41-11704?) burned out, late 1942-early 1943. But I still have to dig deeper here for confirmation of this.

All in all, the possible loss of a C-45/AT-7 on/around 5 Jan 1943 stays elusive. Unless a mix up in Balchen's notebook with the Canadian lookalike is in play after all...

Regards,

Leendert

Alex Smart 15th November 2017 22:38

Re: AAF AT-7/C-45 loss - Greenland - 5 Jan 1943
 
Hello Leendert,
From the JB site -

41-11704 Consolidated C-87-CF Liberator Express
MSN 200. Conversion from B-24D. Condemned overseas Oct 1943

42-5044 (MSN 76) Was RCAF 3532; to USAAF November 3, 1941; Bolling, DC October 2, 1941; shipped by sea to Bluie West 8,
Søndre Strømfjord, Greenland November 7, 1941; assembled by Bernt Balchen, pioneer polar aviator, navigator, aircraft mechanical
engineer and military leader; test flown by Balchen who later flew it frequently to oversee the establishment of the USAAF polar
airfields in Greenland. Destroyed by fire in the winter of 1942-43, it had been parked near a fully fuelled C-87 and fuel truck,
the C-87 was set on fire by an overheated heater in a hangar; to excess inventory list Narsarssuak, Greenland Dec 1, 1945


Alex


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