B17 Real or imitation ?

[Alex Smart]

Hello,
I have just watched the film "The Silent Enemy" , a WW2 war story about the late Commander Crabb. In one price the underwater team search the underwater wreckage of an RAF aircraft. To me it looked like a B17.
Was it a real B17, and was it a wrecked RAF B17 ?
If real aircraft, what was its serial number and how did it end its days underwater .
Thanks
Alex

[Revi16]

It's a P2V Neptune, seen at 1:09:38. RAF Coastal Command received 52 P2V-5's designated Neptune MR.1's.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5My2KyaZt60

RAF Neptune fates, http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/sho...-Neptune-fates

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Si...emy_(1958_film)
Inaccuracy - 3.In the film Crabb dives on the wreck of a recently crashed B-24 Liberator that had gone into the sea just after taking off from Gibraltar Airport. This scene was based on the accident in 1943 in which Polish general Władysław Sikorski was killed. In the film the submerged wreck of a Lockheed P2V is used as a stand-in for the Liberator.

[John Beaman]

Typical Hollywood (or "Horrywood"). The film editors/researchers assume the public is really ignorant about ID'ing types. Unfortunately, they may be right.

[Alex Smart]

Hello,
Many thanks for clarification of aircraft type.
Will have to search those a/c fates for serial number.
It was the rectangular port and quick shot of a glazed nose that misled me
However I liked those 224 Sqdn aircraft, were they Halifax's or Lancaster's
Thanks again for the YouTube link also it will take many hours of viewing all those war films
Alex

[Revi16]

Originally Posted by Alex Smart

Hello,
However I liked those 224 Sqdn aircraft, were they Halifax's or Lancaster's Alex

I didn't watch the entire movie, just skipped around through it. I did see some Shackleton's, those may be what you are referring to.

[Alex Smart]

Hello all,
Thanks for your input.
From AB's Serial number book, WA100 to WZ999.
Lockheed Neptune MR.1's.
WX547
ex - 51-15958
36/1453 Flt.
Undercarriage collapsed on landing, Luqa, 13/01/1956.
Sold for film use 30/05/1957.
May be the a/c in the film ?
Wonder what became of her after "film use" ended ?
Alex

[Col Bruggy]

Hello,

From my RAFCommands ref in Post #2:

http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/sho...-Neptune-fates

FlyPast. March,1986(No.56). pp.24-8
Disposal - A Series on the Fate of Aircraft Withdrawn from Service - The RAF Neptune.
Chinnery,Phil

(p.26).

On January 7, 1956, six Neptunes from 36 Squadron flew to Luqa in Malta for their annual 'Fair Isle' detachment. Due to the newer Shackleton squadrons being engaged in airlift duties to Cyprus and preparation for the Royal Tour of Nigeria there were plenty of submarines available for training missions and all the Neptune crews gained valuable experience in sonics, radar and ECM.

The detachment was marred by the crash landing at Luqa on the 13th of WX547 which landed with its undercarriage retracted and suffered extensive damage. The aircraft was removed to the nearby maintenance unit at RAF Sali where it remained until May 1957. It was then sold to Remus Films who pushed it into the sea off the cliffs by Hal Far airfield and used it for some underwater sequences in a film on the life of Commander Lionel Crabb, RNVR.

Col

[Alex Smart]

Thanks Col for completing the circle.
Alex