Everything is under control and we have gone directly to the proper channels at the National Archives to get what we need from them. Unfortunately, due the backlogs it takes this long unless you hire a professional to go there and dig it out for you. If someone wants to pay for a professional researcher I can get the cost and provide it to them.
In any case, it’s unlikely that this Route Map will be in these files. It’s just hypothetical and other Mission Reports I’ve reviewed don’t always contain them (see attached sample). But, you never know what’s in these files. So, you have to pursue them.
Bill Ellsbury works in the Congressional Library not the National Archives. Plus, I’ve already contacted him and he can’t help us.
We’ve narrowed the area where the plane should have crashed/landed in the water. So, a route map only confirms we are on the right path.
The next step is to go to Naples to try to find eye witnesses to the crash on February 15, 1943. That is if they are alive or if they are not alive someone they could have passed the story down to over the years.
Since the bombing mission was at 18:30 it was nearly dark and, as a result, even a possible witness might not be able to be found either.
We have also contacted all scuba diving services and clubs in the area to see whether or not they’ve identified any plane wrecks along the coast in this area. Problem is that the water drops off in depth very quickly from 50-150 meters to 150 to 3000 meters. Anything deeper than 300+ meters requires a sophisticated submersible with advanced mapping to begin a grid search of the area.
If you are lucky and have identified a possible crash site then you can present your case to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency who may contract a recovery team to begin a search such as this one in Italy in 2018.
Project Recover Searches For WWII Aircraft, MIAs in Italy
The cost is significant probably running into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
In summary, we’ve learned alot and collected massive amounts of data, reviewed it and come the conclusion as did the USAAF that the plane and crew crashed into the sea. Even the USAAF supposedly did a full search of coast of Italy sometime after the war was over between 1945 and 1949 and found no evidence or eyewitnesses.
As a result, we learned quickly and didn’t waste the time and resources other families have spent on other projects. While it’s like finding a needle in a haystack its possible and as a family we should try to do our best to bring Harold and crew back especially after I’ve seen the amount of sacrifice by these crew members – 10,000 bombers lost in WWII with nearly 100-300,000 crew and support people.
That’s it for now.
Regards,
Patrick Keating
Lyon FRANCE