B-25C Mitchell Bomber for sale.

[pwylie]

For Sale. Used WWII bomber, Low Hours, Some water damage. "Skunkie", a B-25C Mitchell bomber that ditched in Lake Greenwood in SC on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) and recovered in 1983 is for sale. Any takers?

[donwon]

B-25 crash Lake Greenwood

I know this is off topic but...

Dan I found a scrap of info on Google about that B-25 near where I live and watched as it was brought to the shore.

"Rossman, now 81 years old, was involved in five B-25 crashes and emergency landings during World War II. The first one, on June 6, 1944 (D-Day in Europe), was in South Carolina during a flight practicing single engine procedures. "The instructor pilot decided that we should also practice combat type low-level flying," explains Rossman. "Flying over Lake Greenwood, South Carolina, we got too low and the props touched the water. We had to ditch the airplane and it took 24 stitches to close the rip in my chin when the seat belt opened." Rossman was allowed to continue with his training after a reprimand and a fine. He signed an I.O.U. for the lost B-25 and kept flying."

http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.co...25/walk125.htm

http://www.meredithprice.com/articles/rossman.html

[donwon]

B-25 C (or D)

Raised from a lake in the USA after 39 years.

The B-25 in these photos was raised in 1983 from Lake Greenwood which is just east of Greenwood, SC. north west of Columbia. It crashed on 6/6/44 while on a training mission. One story is that the plane was on a secret training mission for the Doolittle Raid, but considering the date of the crash, this story seems unlikely but no doubt evolved from the fact the Doolittle Raiders started out in Columbia. Another story is that the plane was buzzing some topless bathing beauties at the time and clipped a wing. The guy at the FBO said that the pilot had a girlfriend in Columbia. She was at the lake (can't remember which one) and he buzzed her to show off, but flew into the lake. It's not known if there were any casualties besides the pilot's career. It was brought to Columbia, SC and cursory restoration began. The name of the aircraft is Skunkie and this was visible when it was pulled from the lake. Eventually it is to go in the state museum most likely as a Doolittle's raiders exhibit as they started out here in Columbia. It was towed downtown for temporary display when the Raiders had their 50th Anniversary reunion here in 1992. The airplane is in terrible shape. They just sheet-metaled the belly to look sort of like a B-25. They found new engines and props from somewhere because the originals were just corroded lumps. Not a good restoration, but they didn't have a lot to work with anyway. Just going by the individual exhaust stacks, according to the Squdron B-25 in action , would indicate a late model B-25 C/D with the uprated engines. Also according to the same source....just the fact that it has a fixed gun port in the lower right hand side of the nose glazing would also indicate a C/D version. Where as the C/D versions where identical , the C or D designation being determined by which plant it was manufactured at , the B was the different of the three and as far as I know...did not carry a fixed 50.cal nose port. Another factor indicating a C or D is the astrodome, visible in the last photo.

Special thanks to Nelson Abbott, Ben Brown, Mark Houpt, Hub Plott, Randy Roddey, Tim and Alex LaBrecque for sending in the pieces to help us discover the whole story behind this B-25.

These photos were taken by Steve Hawley

(click on the image to load the full size photo)

[pwylie]

For Sale. Used WWII bomber, Low Hours, Some water damage. "Skunkie", a B-25C Mitchell bomber that ditched in Lake Greenwood in SC on June 6, 1944 (D-Day) and recovered in 1983 is for sale. Any takers?

This sale appeared in the Post and Courier newspaper this morning here in Charleston, SC

[donwon]

I had wondered what had happened to that plane.

[SamMcGowan]

B-25Cs are pretty rare airplanes. They were the first model used in combat and few of them survived the war. Nearly all of the B-25s that are still around started out as B-25Js.

[Dan Wilson]

I know the one they pulled out of the lake was a C model and still had its belly turret, which made it the only surviving B-25 belly turret