The Lost P-38 Fighter that was Frozen in a Glacier for 50 Years

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This is the story of P-38 Lightning Fighter "Glacier Girl" that was frozen in ice for more than 50 years. This was made using the World War II flight simulator IL-2 Sturmovik Great Battles series. Hope you enjoy! Please like, comment, and subscribe. #WW2 #WWIIHistory #WarThunder Have an idea for one of my videos? Submit it here! forms.gle/91xwbGKQsRCNZmwm9
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[@TJ3]

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[@lokiwiseyt8608]

Before finding glacier girl the team found one of the b17s but she was in a terrible state so I’m not sure if they recovered her or left her

[@mypl510]

They just pulled up some pieces, both B-17's remain on site.

[@thatoneperson0396]

@@mypl510 that sucks that they couldnt get even 1 of the B-17s out

[@mypl510]

@@thatoneperson0396 They are too crushed now, too much work for just parts.

[@thatoneperson0396]

@@mypl510 ya probably

[@TJ3]

Hope you guys enjoy this story! A very cool tale of some devoted warbird enthusiasts. Also, technically, the US insignia on the aircraft is incorrect in this video. I was unable to locate a more accurate skin to use, so I did my best. Thanks for watching and comment any ideas for new videos!

[@jamesdunn9609]

Roy Shofner was my first cousin. He was an inventor who made a fortune by creating a process for making PVC pipes without a seam. He was very intelligent. He not only funded the expedition that recovered Glacier Girl, he went along and is actually the one who figured out how to make a hole large enough to retrieve the aircraft once they had located it. He was also a pilot in his own right, and I have some fond memories of him flying me, my dad and my older brother over the Blue Ridge mountains when I was a kid.

[@mypl510]

I was lucky to see her fly at the Gathering of Lightnings at the Planes of Fame Air Show a few years back. Seeing 5 flyable Lightnings and one static in one spot was amazing.

[@scorpion19142001]

Lucky You! I would have appreciated it if I could.

[@jamesappling1212]

The Forked Tail Devil still flies! Thanks to volunteers and lovers of high performance aircraft 👍♥️

[@Drm99]

Growing up in Middlesboro, I remember seeing Glacier Girl flying overhead several times a year! It is something I will never forget!

[@e1ectricfee1]

It was my grandfather who was the first to land on the glacier and flipped his P-38. Brad McManus.

[@fishez17]

I’ve heard of the story before, but didn’t know the details. Great work!

[@TJ3]

Appreciate it!

[@kenthawkins2418]

You're bringing back memories. My Dad and I visited her in Middlesboro in 1999, and later ,( before kids) my wife and I along with another couple went back on Oct. 26, 2002 to see her maiden flight, after restoration. "GG" stands out for a number of reasons, but one is...she only had 72.5 hrs. on her when Brad McManus belly landed her on that ice!...she was NEW, without any actual battle damage from dog-fighting. I was SO disappointed when I heard Rob Lewis had bought her, and would be taking her to Texas. Middleboro was ALOT closer, and Texas already had so many warbirds...the south-east had lost a big one. But that occurred a few years before Gerald Yagen's Military Aviation Museum came...now the south-eastern warbird lovers don't have as far to go! Now if only he can find and restore a P38 to add to his collection.😁

[@francissobotka8725]

There are a few more still under the ice

[@jasonbrookshire9951]

The ball bearing company I use to work for actually restored the bearing for Glacier Girl. My mom and brothers were part of the restoration process of them

[@TJ3]

Cool!

[@tyleringle268]

@@TJ3 I actually remember watching a documentary about this P38!

[@kevinbowen8192]

Superb!!! That is one of my favorite WWII fighters but man, it would be scary to bail out of it, especially if you couldn’t safely invert it.

[@stevenhagebusch9561]

As a kid i loved to p38.....such a beautiful and graceful body.....i read books about the lost squadron and remember when the lost squad was located also remember when the ole bird was brought back up from the icy depths she had laid in for all those yrs.....and she has been returned to air worthyness just makes it all that much more amazing.....to bad they couldn't have retrieved more from the squadron...but atleast the squad was located and one of there birds has lived to fly another day.....only these days without being in a war theater......

[@JT-io9ii]

Traveled to Middlesboro Ky for my step mothers funeral, and while i was there i visited the small hangar Glacier Girl was being restored in. Used up a whole roll of film. Mayor of Middlesboro was Roy Shoffner at the time, and he funded the project. They were able to remove the air in the tires, and fill them back up with the original air they used in 1942. Roy stated that Glacier Girl was the oldest P-38 around today, and the most expensive, as over 6 million dollars has been spent on her recovery and restoration. Still have all the pictures i took back then.

[@gymshoe7123]

Where does one find 1942 air?

[@JT-io9ii]

@@gymshoe7123 they somehow drained the tires and re fulled with same air. There wasnt anything wrong with the tire pressure, after all those years.

[@AlanRoehrich9651]

Roy Schoffner helped fund the recovery, and ended up owning the plane. I sat with Mr. Roy at a couple of the air shows they had there, including the one held right before Mr Roy passed.

[@jamesdunn9609]

Roy Shofner was my first cousin. He was an inventor who made a fortune by creating a process for making PVC pipes without a seam. He was very intelligent. He not only funded the expedition that recovered Glacier Girl, he went along and is actually the one who figured out to how to make a hole large enough to retrieve the aircraft once they had located it. He was also a pilot in his own right, and I have some fond memories of him flying me, my dad and my older brother over the Blue Ridge mountains when I was a kid.

[@AlanRoehrich9651]

@@jamesdunn9609 He was a great man, I enjoyed talking to him a lot. I wish she'd have been finished before his health made it impossible for him to take her up. He used to sit on his scooter and tell me he was thinking about sneaking into the cockpit, just once, with a twinkle in his eye. He was sitting in his truck at the last air show, and said that again. It broke my heart when he passed without flying her. It was a dream he earned, but never got.

[@rileycpo]

Truly an amazing piece of Warbird History. It is unfortunate, however, that the one that started the project lost out to Cardin to see this aircraft fly again. The bottom line is that she is flying again, which is amazing. It's too bad the rest of the aircraft couldn't be retrieved.

[@MrBvbike]

Had heard of this story before, pretty amazing... Interesting to note that after 50 years it got covered with 250 feet of ice... yeah the ice caps are melting for sure ;-)

[@kurtmogensen4815]

stop using logic thats racist dude.....

[@frankguz55]

Ice is not rock and moves. Glaciers actually flow like rivers, although extremely slowly. The plane basicalky "sank" in the glacier, it was not the glacier growing over it...

[@thatairplaneguy]

I was able to see, touch and buy a piece of this plane just before it left Kentucky.

[@TJ3]

Very cool!

[@ianjones4071]

Hi this story made big news in Australia 🇦🇺 I watched it on Australian 60 minutes, loved it ,thank you for you had work great job mate

[@Flydarkside06]

I was able to see her at hangar and got into the cockpit coolest thing ever

[@griffn14]

Great video. Keep up the good work!👍

[@adamdelarozza1985]

So I thought because of the warmer climate of our industrial age, it would of thawed itself out but instead was buried in new ice of about 200 ft. 😄😄

[@vpreggie]

Let me get this straight - the glacier was “frozen”? Has this been verified? I need proof.

[@keithclements5148]

Just a small geographical point. The "British Isles" is not a small group if islands "off the North West coast of England". The group of islands, including England, Scotland, Wales and several smaller islands, making up the United Kingdom, is referred to, as a whole, as The British Isles.

[@stevemaynards.g.t]

Great video & story 😎👌

[@TJ3]

Thanks!

[@edbaldwin8736]

Amazing! Thanks

[@fishingmasterstudios9481]

if all of those aircraft are at that area, and ONE of them were found, maybe the other 5 Lightnings and 2 b-17s could still be out there waiting to be digged up! idk thats my hunch still cool that Glacier girl was brought back and restored!

[@russellmiller6609]

I got to see this plane when it was at Middlesboro Ky.I couldn't believe how big it was for a fighter

[@americanpatriot2422]

Great video!

[@malikgrind1808]

Early… Great video Keep up the good work TJ3 History

[@TJ3]

Thanks!

[@bobgreene2892]

At 0:26, "... would actually be discovered in a frozen glacier..." At 3:24, "Their specific destination was the British Isles, a small group of islands on the northwestern side of England..." ----------------- Who writes this stuff? All glaciers are frozen, even if they do move. And no, the British Isles is not a location to the northwest of England.

[@rogerlishman2532]

It's terrible. Excellent content mangled into pure drivel.

[@bobgreene2892]

@@rogerlishman2532 Absolute proof a good education is a prerequisite for any media employment. The publisher decided to "wing it" over troublesome narrative text, little realizing he was already in trouble.

[@BogeyTheBear]

6:56 See that propellor blade on top? That wasn't supposed to happen. Procedure for a belly landing calls out that you have to un-feather the props so the blades bend on impact-- a belly landing on feathered props cause them to dig into the ground and raises the risk of the engines being sheared off their mounts and spilling fuel. The pilot of this particular plane forgot to un-feather the props. It was for this reason this plane was singled out for recovery-- all the other planes had all their prop blades bent in the crash landing, but this one had two fully intact blades which could be recovered and traded off for their historical value.

[@supercat4539]

From the glimpse of the monitors I can you are a true gamer.

[@pd2865]

Thank you EPPS of Dekalb Peachtree Airport for retrieving the plane

[@timmy11toes]

That’s so cool

[@mchume65]

They cut the propeller blades off one of the B-17's four engines so they could run the engine driven generator to power an HF radio in order to call for help. It worked.

[@LeopardIL2]

Again very good job.

[@TJ3]

Thanks!

[@neilharbott8394]

Back in the late 90's I watched an archeology documentary on the flight and the start of the recovery of this aircraft - so hadn't seen the end of the story. They did tell that the first plane to land (wheels down) was flown by the pilot with fewest hours, his plane was lowest on fuel as he wasn't as well able to husband his fuel consumption, I believe he flipped the plane on landing and his circling comrades were relieved to see him crawl out from under the wing. The last plane to land was flown by the most experienced pilot, who had sufficient fuel to watch the others down, when he landed he feathered the engines, which reduced the propeller rotation, leaving the plane in the best condition - it was this plane that the recovery team managed to find, and when I saw the documentary, the one they were planning to recover. They also said that the plan was to restore the plane to flight worthiness and recreate the original mission, from the US to the UK.

[@mamarussellthepie3995]

You should do a film on the b29 trapped similarly which was rebuilt only once ready to fly home caught on fire on takeoff and sank through the ice. . .

[@01ZO6TT]

I had heard of this before but not in all the details. Great job. What about the B-29 Kee Bird?

[@martybaran5509]

Very coil. Good story

[@tirabuscione]

Great

[@derin111]

“The British Isles, a small group of islands off the northwestern coast of England.” OMG! 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@mchume65]

That was Steve Hinton doing the functional test flight after the restoration.

[@timf6916]

Way COOL

[@michaelusswisconsin6002]

The plane was so preserved that her ammo still worked.

[@jimbarth9859]

When did you serve, Michael? SH3 James Barth 88 to 90 on BB-64

[@kenkloiber2989]

Now they know the area & depth they should hunt the others

[@BogeyTheBear]

The reason Glacier Girl was chosen over the others was due to a mistake on the pilot's part. When you ditch for a belly landing, you're supposed to unfeather your propellors so they will bend on impact, reducing the chance you rip the engines out of their mounts during the crash. Everyone did this except one pilot-- he forgot and so his propellor blades were still turned 90 degrees sharp when he hit the ice... ...this resulted in two of the propellor blades on each engine digging in hard. But, as the propellors were not spinning at moment of impact, one blade on each engine remained undamaged. Every other plane had bent all their prop blades on landing. The plane that became Glacier Girl had two good blades. That's the reason she was picked over the others to be retrieved.

[@AlanRoehrich9651]

There are five left there. The B-17 was completely crushed. There have been expeditions planned, now that a recovery process was developed and perfected. However, it was extremely expensive the first time. And the cost to restore it exceeded $6,000,000. That itself was twenty years ago. My guess is that $15,000,000 wouldn't restore one of the other five. Further, they traded some non airworthy parts to groups who have non airworthy display aircraft. It would likely be necessary to try to do that again, for each of the five. However, it's not likely that enough airworthy parts are sitting unused, or used on non airworthy display aircraft. There are a few other "projects" around. But each time a project is made airworthy, it takes from the pool of available parts. Especially parts no longer produced, and cost prohibitive to reproduce, such as propellors.

[@robertomerced1184]

Lovely beautiful.

[@lexington476]

Awesome story. What was the source of the funding to go to Greenland to dig up the plane? That had not been cheap I'm sure.

[@TJ3]

Good question. I would guess some generous donations from history enthusiasts to be honest. But I'm not sure!

[@lexington476]

@@TJ3 same.

[@JT-io9ii]

At that time, the mayor of Middlesboro put up the funds. Over 6 million dollars has been spent on her recovery and restoration.

[@JT-io9ii]

Roy Shoffner

[@AlanRoehrich9651]

Pat Epps and Roy Schoffner funded it, and Mr Roy bought the plane during the project.

[@duanekalember297]

The plane was pretty well crushed up when they finally got it out of the ice, so took many years and lots of money, to basically build a new one

[@scottbatey3130]

I love a happy ending

[@alanrobinson2901]

In point of order, the group of planes wasn't "on a mission", they were being ferried to England, and became lost in poor weather.

[@scottorton482]

Actually they were àfter one of the B-17' s. They got to it and found it to be crushed by the ice, so they got one of the fighters instead.

[@mattheweagles5123]

The British Isles include Great Britain, Ireland, Isle of Man, the Hebrides and Northern Isles. Basically the islands off north western mainland Europe.

[@privatepilot4064]

There’s 5 more down there. Why don’t they retrieve a few more for parts?

[@tchoakim]

Wait what? I thought it took thousands of years to make 200 feet of glacial ice. LOL

[@hypercomms2001]

What happened to the other P 38 aircraft on that flight, why was the “Glazier girl” the only one retrieved?

[@samkangal8428]

Sleeping under the ice for 50 years ,and than she made it back to the air again . Sounds a bit like a fairietale .

[@justarandomguylol6481]

One word "Cool"

[@ferre4087]

Did they leave the other planes behind in the ice? Are they still out there?

[@ruthparker1140]

("Sgt.J.") 👍.🍻🍻🍻☕☕✌️🕊️😁. Thanks. The documentaries are good.

[@Red-rl1xx]

I've got a model of this plane.

[@user_Number5548]

It looks a lot like the vampire

[@jimstanga6390]

I wish Jeff Ethell could have lived to see that…

[@DarkGT]

For a second I thought this was one of the Mark Felton's videos.

[@TJ3]

Hopefully one day lol

[@Tiagomottadmello]

👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻

[@dovidell]

heart-warming - it would have been nice if the original pilot of the plane , if still alive , would have been able to reunite with his ' bird "

[@aaronmills4238]

Is this the one that burnt to a crisp after a group of people found it and fried to recover the plane

[@yezkaholic]

Can someone explained why it sank 200ft into the snow?

[@horatioyen256]

0:57 in other words you didn't actually read the source material

[@horatioyen256]

sorry if that was rude, but you really need to read the sources because referencing something you haven't read is not a good referencing practice

[@SuperDiablo101]

So well kept under the ice that some of the air was in still in the Tires when they recovered her....if airplanes could be chick flicks then glacier girl would definitely be a love story

[@bhendi317]

Captain America but realistic

[@joesbanjointerests9281]

So, the ice melted and is now back to where the ice was 50 years ago? Climate keeps changing doesnt it.....

[@ChrisS-fh7zt]

I know of about 500-700 Lightnings that are in pits and was buried after the war at Clark Airfield/Airbase in the Philippines after Japan surrendered the US declared them obsolescent since they was twice the cost of a P-51 and 1/3rd the cost of a P-47 to produce and to operate, but that is to be expected as the P-38 had twice the engines and systems over the other two single engine fighters. But the USAAF had dozers and cables with hooks and just hooked 4-7 planes together and dragged them to the makeshift pits put in and when they was full, push dirt over top and buried.

[@leprechaunbutreallyjustamidget]

Capitan America is that you?

[@joesbanjointerests9281]

The democrats will have youtube pull these videos as soon as they learn the vids dont fit their narrative.