Two TBD-1s Devastators BuNo. 0298 and BuNo 1515; Fifteen Years of In Situ Monitoring, Documentation and Planning.

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Strides Towards Standard Methodologies in Aeronautical Archaeology" , at the 2020 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

"This is 5-T-7. 5-T-7 and 5-T-6 are landing at Jaluit. Are landing alongside one of the northwestern islands of Jaluit. That is all." That was the final message received aboard the Yorktown at 0811 from Lt. Harlan T. Johnson, ranking officer of two TBD-1 Devastators that were about to make water landings in a remote section of Jaluit Atoll Lagoon, Marshall Islands on 1 February 1942. All six members of the two aircrews survived the landings and subsequent Japanese imprisonment, but the planes sank out of sight, lost, until one was rediscovered during a cultural survey of the lagoon in the late 1990s, and the second, several years later. For the last 15 years, these two aircraft have been extensively studied in situ by a multi-disciplinary group of archaeologists, historians, engineers and material scientists. The results of the data collection, documentation, and future plans are the focus of this paper.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for Historical Archaeology 2020   •
• Strides Towards Standard Methodologies in Aeronautical Archaeology

Keywords

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Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology

Record Identifiers

PaperId(s): 1008