Interesting narrative of a dive onto a B-26 wreck that has some similarities in what you would expect and, what they actually find...
B-26 Bomber
Type:
WW2 Plane wreck dive (scattered pieces)
Access:
Dive mooring at end, underwater buoy at beginning
Position:
Underwater start marker at 17° 39.910'S, 177° 14.946'E
Surface end marker at 17° 40.0'S, 177° 15.0'E
Depths:
75-30' (23-9m)
Date:
March, 2005
Visibility:
50' (15m)
Dive shop:
Yes, at Beachcomber or Treasure Islands
Snorkeling:
Yes, on the reef near the end marker
Features:
Old plane wreck from World War II
"The Allies built the Nadi airport during World War II so they could bomb Japanese positions in the Pacific Theater. The B-26 was a medium-range bomber with a pair of 2,000 horsepower radial engines. It carried an upper turret, waist, & nose gunners, and a crew of 6-7. The B-26 was made famous by Jimmy Doolittle as the first Allied bomber to attack Tokyo (that raid left from an aircraft carrier and was essentially a suicide/propaganda mission, as little damage was inflicted, none of the planes had enough fuel to land after making their bombing run, and many of the crew did not survive). The planes from Nadi apparently bombed Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands, 1,100 miles to the NW. We were told that the wrecked plane was one that ran out of fuel before it could return home.
Chris and I actually did this dive twice as we missed the second half the first time. The start location is somewhat secret (which is why we took our GPS to get an accurate fix). In fact, the dive mooring is actually about 6' (2m) underwater! The idea seems to be to go in at the "start" marker but to have your surface support person tie the dinghy back at the end marker (which is well marked on the surface).
The plane is scattered over quite a large area. Since visibility is often limited, the dive operators have connected bits of the plane together with a string on the bottom. What they didn't tell us the first time is that the string ends at the second engine but continues again about 20' (6m) off to the right. On our first dive we just continued on straight and never found the rest of the plane.
At the start-mooring, we splashed into 75' (23m) and started following the string at the bottom. We soon came to the nose-wheel, which is one of the more recognizable parts of the plane, followed by bits of the wing and/or tail. Then we found 2 big blobs of what we first thought were coral heads, but closer inspection showed them to be the huge radial engines, surprisingly close together. We found more bits of the wings and fuselage, but they weren't very recognizable.
The end of the dive gets to some big coral formations, which we (surprisingly) found more interesting than random hunks of old plane. The corals were bright and vibrant, with lots of fish. Since the coral climbed fairly close to the surface, we could easily make a pair of safety stops and still have interesting things to look at.
I have highlighted the parts of the narrative that appear significant. I don't necessarily agree with the statement that the Doolitle mission was "essentially a suicide/propaganda mission", I would suggest that it was more of a declaration of intent IMHO
Here's the image of the nose wheel, tyre deflated but still recognisable as a wheel underneath the marine growth.
