Lightning Buried on a Welsh Beach

Unusual weather in Wales has revealed a treasure from WWII. A P-38 Lockheed Lightning has been found buried in tidal sands on a Welsh beach. The plane was abandoned in September 1942 after its pilot had to ditch due to a malfunction with its fuel system. If recovered, it will be the oldest Lightning to survive the war.

I have special fondness for the P-38. My grandfather was a mechanic in the European theatre working on Lightnings and Thunderbolts (a regular Hephaestus). The twin-boom design was the work of 'Kelly' Johnson, who's famous Skunk Works would later create the U2 and SR-71 spy planes, as well as the first stealth fighter.

The P-38 is also notorious as the weapon used to assassinate Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. American 'Magic' code-breaking was used to determine Yamamoto's flight schedule to Solomon Islands. The Lightning was the only plane with the range to intercept the Admiral.

America's ace of aces (having the most kills of any American flier) was Richard Bong who shot down 40 Japanese enemies why flying a Lightning named Marge during WWII.

Trip to Washington D.C.

After a short family vacation to Washington D.C. it is time for that dreaded form of entertainment, the vacation slide-show!

I'll be nice and limit the photos to WWII-themed places I got shots of:


First comes the new WWII memorial on the Mall. My wife still thinks that it breaks-up the sight-line between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, but I feel it is a good addition.

While I had seen plenty of shots of the memorial, I had never noticed how it was designed to be handicapped and disabled friendly. Notice the gently curving ramps from the fountain level to the pavilions for each of the Theaters.

After visiting the Mall, we went out to the new Air & Space Museum Annex near Dulles Airport.
The star of this show, or at least the WWII section, is clearly the Enola Gay, the most well known delivery system for a WMD in the world. It was amazing to me how large and yet how small this bomber was in her shining aluminum.

And here's a little rarity, a Japanese balloon-bomb. It's the answer to the trivia question "What was the last military attack on the US mainland?" (I'm not counting 9/11 as military here).

And, the best thing about the Air & Space Annex? Room to grow. They're adding stuff all the time. That's my toddler daughter down at the end of the hanger in the space reserved for more flying wonders.