Pacific Wrecks, a World War II aircraft recovery group, thinks it has found the wreckage of the P-38J flown by Major Richard Bong, America’s top flying ace.
Bong, born in Superior, Wisconsin, shot down 40 Japanese aircraft during WWII.
U.S. WWII Ace Richard Bong’s P-38 Believed Found
The fighter aircraft, which crashed in 1944, has been identified and verified in Papua New Guinea.
Key Takeaways:
- Pacific Wrecks has definitively identified the wreckage of "Marge," the P-38J flown by America's top WWII flying ace, Major Richard Bong, in Papua New Guinea.
- The aircraft, named after Bong's girlfriend and featuring unique nose art, crashed in March 1944 while being flown by Lt. Thomas Malone, who survived an engine failure.
- Identification was confirmed through a meticulous, months-long expedition into the dense jungle, locating specific serial number fragments and model identification on the recovered wreckage.
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