A Curtiss P-40L, located some time ago in the sea North of Anzio has been successfully recovered!
The operation took place on Sunday 11th, January 1998 on the coast between Anzio and Latina and by the evening the P-40 was sitting on the shore. The plane is in amazingly good conditions and a restoration is foreseen in the next few years, thanks to the Gruppo Amici Velivoli Storici - GAVS, the foremost Italian historical planes restoration group. (More details about the recovery itself will eventually follow)
The P-40L Ser.No.42-10857, belonged to 86th FS, 79th FG. Coded "X49" and bearing the nickname "Skipper" on port side (maybe "Irvine" faintly readable on starboard), it was the personal mount of Lt. Edward E. Parsons (whose name can be clearly seen on the fuselage too). It wasn't flown by him however, on January 31, 1944. On board there was instead 2/Lt. Michael Mauritz who, during an armed recce mission over Anzio beachhead, apparently suffered engine troubles (no signs of enemy bullets has been found on the plane). The engine seized and the pilot was compelled to effect a perfect ditching very near to the shore-line, most probably right on the water-edge. Last time he was seen he was on the shore and was trying to hide in a bush with German troops heading towards him. He was listed as Missing in Action (presumably Prisoner of War).
The plane was most probably washed away from the shore by the tides and brought a few hundred feet from the shore. During the years the P-40 was slowly covered by the sand that acted as a sort of "protection" to the fuselage and wings.
