Find solves WWII mystery, says filmmaker
THE AGE Thursday February 22, 2007

Former shark hunter-turned cinematographer Ben Cropp says he's found wreckage of a plane carrying an American general which disappeared on a flight from Papua New Guinea to Brisbane in World War II.

US Army Air Force Brigadier General Howard K Ramey and nine other men were aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress bomber, nicknamed the Pluto, which went down without a trace in a storm off far northern Australia on March 26, 1943.

General Ramey had been preparing to take charge of the US Army Air Force's 5th Bomber Command in Papua New Guinea when he died.

Mr Cropp, 71, said he had found a wing with two engines in 2005 in a remote area 55km south of Albany Passage and 74km south of Cape York.
But experts had been unable to determine whether the wreckage was General Ramey's B-17 Flying Fortress or a B-24 Liberator named the Punjab.

"Because no-one could identify it from my film and photos, we went back there and this time I was armed with all the knowledge of how to identify a plane," Mr Cropp said.

"The tyre and landing gear was up inside behind the engine, showing that was a B-17," he said.
"If it was a B-24, it (the landing gear) would have been up under the wing."

After flipping the engine over to examine it further, he also found the round-shaped cowling and nine cylinders belonging to a B-17.
"The only B-17 which was lost in that area was the Pluto carrying the American general," Mr Cropp said.

"While I don't have 100 per cent (surety), I have 99 per cent," he said.
The wreckage was resting on the edge of a coral reef in five metres of water and the propellers were turned inwards, indicating the engines were stopped at the time and the plane may have been forced to ditch at sea.
Mr Cropp said the plane had been due to stop at Horn Island in Torres Strait, but the pilot may have lost his way in the storm and been unable to land and refuel.

The severe impact on the reef tore the wing not just off the plane, but right through the fuselage.
The fuselage containing the bodies of the dead men was not part of the wreckage, and therefore not a war grave, but still helped to solve one of World War II's longest-running mysteries, he said.

"It's one of them because no-one ever knew where the plane was."
"It was really a chance discovery and I'm yet to find the rest of it and that is proving to be very difficult.
"With so much coral reef around, it's very difficult to get in among the reefs and get an outline."

In San Antonio, Texas, General Ramey's daughter Margaret Ramey Watkins said an end to the mystery would mean a lot to her family. "It's been an awful long time since 1943," Mrs Watkins told The Cairns Post.
"(Finding the aircraft) would really make us happy, just so we could have closure."