[mavyalex]

Hello,

I kinf of have an eclectic question (as you know me by now...):

Were there any WWII planes flying over Antarctica or Groenland ?

I know there were German submarine patrolling in the Atlantic North and sometimes at high latitudes, but what about patrolling and reconnaissance planes?

Any skin for this would be appreciated...

I don't think we have the Antarctica and Groenland maps either :-)

Good day.

[MrOblongo]

German flyingboats flew over Groenland to keep weather or radio stations there.

http://worldatwar.net/nations/greenland/timeline.html
Some incidents:
1940: November 1 Norwegian warship Fridtjof Nansen seizes a German ship carrying 50 armed men who planned to seize a weather station in Greenland and supply advance forecasts to the Luftwaffe.

1941: March 27-28 German bombers sighted over Greenland

[VF101hawk]

there where several flights over groenland during ww2 from the USA and Canada. remember a program on discovery where some plain nerds doug out a couple of american fighters that had ditched on the ice as they had flown themselvs wild.
They usually flew over groenland then to iceland then to europa due to shorter then today flight distance(range)

[mavyalex]

I see. It would be cool to see whales, penguins, and other sea animals while flying low over the ice...Anyway I don't think anybody is going to make a Groenland's map (would be boring to fly, except if we can provide with strong winds and never rising (or setting) sun...

[ArcticViper]

Penguins in Greenland? Hmm... no...

Could be fun to fly there just as well as a snowy europe map, but it's so sparsely populated, that it'd probably be too barren to be interesting...

[RAFSpitfire]

The History of "Glacier Girl" says YES, WWII planes flew over Greenland

[Skunkmeister]

Yeah maybe, but very few of them were armed, and I really dont think any air to air combat took place over Greenland.

Aircraft were ferried from the states over to the British Isles via the northern route which took them over Labrador, then to Greenland, then to Iceland, and then land on british soil and be prepared for combat over mainland Europe.

[Davew]

there where several flights over groenland during ww2 from the USA and Canada. remember a program on discovery where some plain nerds doug out a couple of american fighters that had ditched on the ice as they had flown themselvs wild.
They usually flew over groenland then to iceland then to europa due to shorter then today flight distance(range)

That programme was about the P-38 Glacier Girl and the lost squadron. The weren't lost, they were on a ferry flight from the States. HIt some real dirty weather as i recall and the whole squadron force landed on the ice.

[chanklaus]

I read a report about the "Lost Squadron" some weeks ago - as far as I remember fall 2008, in a German magazine called "Geo", if I'm not wrong. They were on their way to Great Britain, some 6 P-38 or so, can't remember exactly, plus 2 B-17 to scout them. Half way on their way to Iceland they got a radio message that the landing strips on Iceland were closed due to bad weather - which was actually a fake message sent by a German submarine. They returned to Greenland, but the navigator made a mistake, and when they realized that it was already too late - they had to land on the ice. One of the P-38 tried it with the landing gear down, he ground looped, but the pilot made it without injury. The others belly landed. They managed to make a radio equipment work, and a few days later they were rescued by a ground team.

A few years ago an American wanted to recover one of the B-17. He found it some meters sunk into the ice, but the pressure of the ice had deformed the aircraft so much that it wasn't worth putting work into recovery. The much more stable airframe of the P-38, however, had resisted the ice pressure, so that the recovered one of them, which now as far as I know is that famous "Glacier Girl". The other P-38 stayed in the ice and are now sunken by several dozen meters into the ice. But there is someone - German, if I'm not wrong - who plans to melt a tunnel into the ice, disassemble the Lightnings and bring them back to life.

CORRECTION: It was not "Geo", but the "Stern", and the article ("Flieger unter Eis") was most probably based on the "National Geographics" documentation. Here's a link to a "Stern" web page including pictures and a film:
http://www.stern.de/computer-technik/tec...07942.html
The aircraft involved are 6 P-38 and 2 B-17.

[ColaBen]

Hi'
A Fagr 5 Junkers 290 A landed on the pack-ice off the East coast of greenland in 1944 to evacuate an weather station set up on the coast.
ColaBen

[VF101hawk]

you do know why ice bears dont hunt Penguins ???

[RAF_Magpie]

you do know why ice bears dont hunt Penguins ???

Because they got Happy Feet? Or they can Surf? (Ahh thanks Hollywood)

[fly_zo]

....cos they live on different poles

i guess

Z

[RAF_Magpie]

That too.

At anyrate, wouldn't it be much more appropriate to have the thread title say;

WWII Planes over the Arctic and Groenland? Historical?

Considering Antarctica is a little too south...? In saying that though, it did have some WWII Era aircraft fly over of course, during the early stages of Deep Freeze etc(DC-3's), and during a US Navy task force journey down there post war (Hellcats etc), not to mention god knows what else before or after, ie the 1938 German trip, with the Donier Wal's. So it wouldn't be too out there for perhaps "What If" stuff, but useless in a truly historical conflict POV

[RAF_Leigh]

ufos magpie and dont forget the UFOS