Washed Up

Shifting and eroding sands caused the wreckage of the P-38 Lightning fighter to suddenly reappear in mid 2007 on a North Wales beach where it crash-landed during World War II. The International Group for Historic Aircraft Recovery, or TIGHAR, learned of the plane’s existence in September and sent a survey team to the site. TIGHAR plans to collaborate with British museum experts to recover the nearly intact aircraft next spring. Fuel exhaustion during a training mission forced 2nd Lt. R. Frederick Elliott to land the P-38F (USAAF serial number 41-7677) in the shallow water near the beach on 27 September 1942. Although Elliott survived the crash unharmed, he was later killed in action in North Africa.