![]() ![]() It represented very advanced technology for the time with a pressurized cabin and a remote, computer controlled fire control system to direct four machine-gun turrets to protect against enemy aircraft attacks. The plane was used from June 1944 through the end of the war and included missions to drop supplies to prisoners of war in Japan. Image courtesy of the United States Air Force. On July 9, 2016, we had the opportunity to investigate two sonar anomalies that we thought might be a B-29 aircraft lost in World War II near Tinian Island. Tinian, captured in 1944 as part of the U.S. “island hopping” strategy, became one of the largest airbases during the conflict and a center for B-29 operations. The introduction of the B-29 in 1944, featuring many advanced technologies, gave America the capability to carry out long-range bombing missions against Japan, often traveling more than 3,000 miles round trip. Many of these planes departed from Tinian’s North Field which is only about five miles from the Island of Saipan, just across the Saipan Channel. Between late-1944 and the end of 1945, several B-29s flying from North Field suffered mechanical difficulties or other problems and crashed in the channel or off the opposite side of the island. In April 2016, during Leg 1 of this expedition, NOAA Ship Okeanos Explorer mapped around the north end of Tinian, using the ship’s multibeam sonar. The seafloor on the west side of the island proved too rugged to find potential targets among rock outcrops and coral. Our efforts became focused on the channel between the islands where the deepest part is covered by sand. There were numerous discussions about which of several targets we should examine. Crash reports were pretty clear about how most of the planes that ditched or crashed off Tinian broke apart or even exploded. Additionally, wreckage that has been on the bottom for 70 years does not necessarily look like pieces of an airplane on a sonar image. One target, out of several in the area, stood out because it had a harder surface than the surrounding sand. ![]() Not knowing for sure if this was airplane wreckage or a rock, we decided to take a look. This site is one of many aircraft lost in the vicinity of Tinian and Saipan. ![]() The B-29 Superfortress, one of the largest aircraft flown by the United States in World War II, had a wingspan measuring just over 141 feet. The wing came to rest on the sea floor upside down with the landing gear and three of the radial engines still attached. Image courtesy of NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research, 2016 Deepwater Exploration of the Marianas. ![]()
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