Need info. on PBM Mariners

[Revi16]

Is there any way to get some info. on PBM Mariners that were lost/sunk in the Aleutians?

Thats all I have to work with, a partial story about a PBM that sank in the Aleutians.

Regards,
Mike

[Leendert]

Mike,

Try this site: http://vpi.calgarywaterford.org/memo..._1page17.shtml

Haven't checked it completely, but there's a PBM Mariner crash in Alaska (Adak) on 2 Jul 1953.

(Of same VP-42 another crash in Alaska on 22 Sep 62, but this time with a P5M Marlin. Location Montague Island.)

Regards,

Leendert

[R Leonard]

Probably one of the post-war crashes noted by Leendert (nice link BTW).

Depending how you want to count, there were either 39 or 69 squadrons operating PBMs during WW2. The difference is that the 30 VP squadrons that operated PBMs were redesignated as VPB squadrons on 1 Oct 1944 . . . same people, same airplanes, different designation, one night they went to bed as VP-XX and awoke the next morning as VPB-XX. So, you can count the VP to VPB squadrons twice for 60 or you can consider them to be the same squadron for 30. And the remaining nine were
- VPB-91, in its VP-91 incarnation it was a PBY squadron,
- two PBM training squadrons, VPB-98 and VPB-99. Neither ever held the VP designation nor did they ever deploy, and
- six VH squadrons, VH-1 thru VH-6.

During WW2, as far as I can tell, none of the PBM operating squadrons deployed to the Aleutians, not even as a detachment (checked against deployment lists drawn from available squadron histories and the USN Aircraft Location Reports). The closest I can find are two PBM squadrons operating out of NAS Whidbey Island, VPB-91 (the former PBY squadron) from 15 Dec 1944 to the end of the war and VPB-212, from 27 Aug 45 thru the surrender. (My deployment list does not extend beyond 3 Sep 45 and the Aircraft Location Reports dry up after 7 Sep 45).

I count something like 385 PBMs lost in overseas operating theaters, including Alaska and the Aleutians, during WW2, from the first loss, a VP-74 PBM-1, BuNo 1248, near Bermuda on 8 Jan 42, to the last, a VH-6 PBM-5, BuNo 59176, on 15 Aug 45 near Okinawa. Again, as far as I can tell, none of the PBM losses were in the Aleutians, not even a vaguely worded NorPac type location. Looking at those two closest stationed squadrons, I see no losses for either of those squadrons during their respective sojourns at NAS Whidbey Island (at least up to 3 Sep 45).

Of course that is not to say that a PBM could not have, at some point during WW2, ventured into Aleutians airspace. Nor does it mean that a PBM having done so could not have crashed in the vicinity of the Aleutians, it just means I can’t find any reference to same.

Post-war is probably a better bet.

Rich