The Greenland Expedition Society

On July 15, 1942, six P-38F Lightnings and two B-17E bombers left Sondre Strom Fjord in Greenland on a ferry flight to England. As they neared the Icelandic coast (their refueling stop) they encountered severe weather forcing them to turn back to their base in Greenland. When they radioed Greenland for a weather report they were informed that the field had been closed. Unbeknowst to the pilots however, the radio message was not from their base but rather from a German U-Boat. In fact their base was open. Running critically low on fuel they put down on the icecap. They camped out in one of the B-17s for nine days until they were picked up by a dog team which took them to a Coast Guard cutter. The planes were abandoned after removal of the secret Norden bombsights in the B-17s. They became known as "The Lost Squadron". In 1981, Pat Epps and Richard Taylor formed the Greenland Expedition Society to recover the planes, now buried under more than 200 feet of ice.

Recovery efforts on one of the P38s under the ice by the expedition.

For more information about the Expedition, contact Pat Epps, Epps Aviation, DeKalb-Peachtree Airport, Suite 1, Atlanta, Georgia 30341, (404) 458-0980.

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