A Coastal Warden Investigating This Wrecked U.S. Airplane Made A Sad Discovery In The Sand

This ill-fated B-17 was apparently on its first-ever mission when tragedy struck. Its fuel tanks punctured by anti-aircraft fire, the plane plummeted down into the water below. And the wreck of the bomber still sits in the English Channel, its secrets kept for generations – until now.

But around the turn of the 21st century, a bank of sand swept in and covered the remains of the B-17. Slowly, the wreck began to decay. And as pieces of the abandoned airplane started to drift towards the shore, a group of amateur enthusiasts banded together. They wanted to protect this piece of history from disappearing completely.

Then the story of this B-17 took an unexpected turn. And when coastal warden Tony Ovenden visited the site in May 2021, he spotted unusual activity out in the bay. Now, almost 80 years after the historic bomber crashed, its secrets are being uncovered – and not everybody is happy about it.

Surely some folks are ecstatic about the discovery, though? Particularly WWII historians. You see, the B-17 played a significant role in that conflict. Even today, the plane is seen as a symbol of the military might that helped the Allies to victory.

And although the B-17 was initially plagued by problems, it impressed observers from the start. One journalist even called it a “Flying Fortress,” and the name stuck. Unlike previous Boeing models, these bombers had flight decks and were equipped with powerful machine guns. They were fast, too. In 1938 one plane set a new transcontinental record of just under 13 and a half hours. Not so impressive today, but back then that was a remarkable feat.

Where B-17s came into their own, though, was in battle. Before the U.S. even entered WWII, the bombers were shipped to the British Royal Air Force and drafted into combat. Then, in December 1941, the Americans entered the fray – bringing their Flying Fortresses with them, of course.

Throughout the war, the Allies’ B-17s played a critical role in many battles, including ones in the Pacific and Western Europe. And in 1944 a fleet of the bombers conducted a raid on German factories, crippling the mighty Luftwaffe for good. Some even believe that the planes were instrumental in the Allies’ victory the following year. 

But what was this particular B-17 doing over England in 1943? At that time, the tide of World War II had turned in favor of the Allies. The Axis powers fought on, though, and Germany prepared to launch a series of devastating offensives across Europe.

In the face of staunch opposition, Adolf Hitler had shelved his plans for world domination and shifted to safeguarding German-occupied territories. The onslaught continued, however, as the Allies fought to reclaim Europe. And amid this chaos, one Boeing bomber – known by the not terribly catchy B-17G 42-31243 – entered the fray.

The mission on December 1, 1943, was the first time that this B-17 had flown on a military assignment. With a crew of ten men, the bomber headed for Solingen, a city in western Germany. Located on the outskirts of an industrial complex, it was prime territory for an Allied attack.

The British government had approved the use of extensive aerial bombing to destroy the morale of the German people. With that decision, Solingen’s fate was sealed. In fact, the city eventually sustained so much damage that little of its old town is left today. That B-17 off the coast of Kent, though? It didn’t actually play a role in the destruction.

Before take-off, the crew of this B-17 would have been prepared to fly into the eye of the storm. At the controls was Alan Eckhart, who was on the 25th mission of his combat tour. A member of the U.S. Air Force’s 303rd Bomb Group, he had started the war in Oregon – but he now found himself flying many miles from home. 

Alongside Eckhart in the B-17 were his co-pilot Elton Jenkins, gunners Michael Musashe and Edward Madak, and George Arvanites, who was responsible for navigating the craft. Operating the radio was Fred Kuehl, while the man in charge of launching the bombs was Second Lieutenant Robert Meagher. In the turret, meanwhile, Angelo Tambe manned the guns. But that crack team of men weren’t enough to save the B-17 from disaster.

The rest of the crew, according to reports, was made up of Nyle Smith, a tail gunner, and Francis Nuener, a flight engineer. And together the ten men set off to join a raid on Solingen – but they never made it. Instead, their B-17 ran out of fuel somewhere over southeast England.

History enthusiast Tony Ovenden blamed flak damage for the fateful incident, according to a May 2021 interview with The Isle of Thanet News. But whatever the reason, records tell us that Eckhart’s B-17 was forced to ditch in Pegwell Bay, a small inlet on the coast of Kent.

That was the end of the war for the B-17. And less than two years after Eckhart and his crew crash-landed in the English Channel, the brutal conflict finally came to an end. Slowly, the scars of battle began to fade – but the bomber in Pegwell Bay remained where it’d crashed.

Over time, the landscape of an area known as the Sandwich Flats shifted, smothering the wreckage in a layer of sand. And by the time the remains were uncovered once more, the B-17 had severely corroded. But the site remains one of pilgrimage for amateur historians – especially ones with a passion for WWII aircraft.

Recently, though, this particular wreck has been giving up the secrets that it has kept for generations. As the fuselage continues to decay, the tide has been carrying parts of the plane back to shore, where folks like Ovenden collect them. And on one such excursion, Ovenden uncovered a heartbreaking truth about the historic remains. Could it really be?

So what happened to Eckhart and the rest of the B-17’s crew? Thankfully, unlike many of their fellow airmen, they did not meet with an unfortunate fate. Instead, they were plucked from the water and taken to the nearby RAF Manston by a British Air Sea Rescue team.

Then the ten men who set out for Solingen were assigned other missions and duties. All the while, their faithful bomber was left to rot in the English Channel. Now it appears to be little more than a few scraps of metal half-buried in sand. But Ovenden and his fellow enthusiasts know that all manner of treasures lie just beneath the surface. Even if someone’s done their best to spoil them...

Yes, someone took it upon themselves to strip the wreck of these treasures. Speaking to The Isle of Thanet News, Ovenden said, “A few days ago I saw someone out by the B-17… He was in the water pulling at something in the fuselage area. Nearby was a small four-wheel trolley. When he saw me, he walked off.”

On closer inspection, it seems, the man had been removing objects from the bomber and was about to take them away from the site. Ovenden added, “Looking in his trolley, I could see B-17 items and lumps of concretion he had been picking up from the debris field.” So, the concerned coastal warden reported the incident to the authorities.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time that the wreck has been ravaged by scavengers. Back in 1999, according to The Isle of Thanet News, an official excavation was planned to study the remains of the bomber. But before it could take place, looters struck.

Although reports do not cover exactly what these looters took, it was the beginning of a decline for this historic wreck. And while the authorities were able to recover some of the stolen objects, others were seemingly lost for good. Before more opportunists could move in, however, the sands of Pegwell Bay swept in.

That meant the wreck was effectively given protection from looters – if not from the ravages of nature. But it soon reemerged from the sand. Speaking to The Isle of Thanet News, Ovenden said, “About five years ago, the sand uncovered the site revealing what was left of the structure. That being the wings, two remaining nacelles without the engine, and a debris field in the area where the fuselage once was. In fact, it resembled a demolition site.”

And that wasn’t all. Ovenden added, “The elements started to take their toll on the site, with items coming ashore and also appearing in the intertidal zone.” Concerned about the state of the wreck, the coastal warden acquired an official permit to collect any rogue artifacts that might wash up in Pegwell Bay.

But Ovenden had his work cut out for him. Keen to get some assistance with his self-appointed mission, the warden started the Sandwich Bay B-17 G Group on Facebook. And as of July 2021, it boasted almost 600 members – all dedicated to preserving the history of this historic plane.

“I started the Sandwich Bay B-17 group to get more people involved – both locally and internationally,” Ovenden told The Isle of Thanet News. “The networking proved to be a great help, especially with identification.” Yes, thanks to the assistance of members around the world, several artifacts have been cataloged and preserved.

What happened after those precious treasures were discovered? Well, Ovenden’s revealed all. “As I found items, I would start the conservation process by soaking them in a light solution of citric acid,” he said. “I would inform the Receiver of Wreck of my find who would issue paperwork for the reported items. Once I had the correct paperwork, I would then transfer them to the RAF Manston History Museum [to] complete the conservation process.”

But Ovenden recently began to notice that items were disappearing from the wreckage of the B-17. He said, “At first I thought this was due to the tide, but it was after two Covid lockdowns that I noticed something didn’t seem right, as visits to the site were not as regular.” What on Earth was going on?

“I noticed areas of solid structure were missing around the right wing,” Ovenden continued. “Two Tokyo tanks have gone along with pipes and wiring. There is evidence of tampering and disturbance of concreted items in the debris field. I was coming to the conclusion that someone had taken items off the site in a big way.” Had the looters returned to Pegwell Bay?

Ovenden believed that he caught someone red-handed while he was keeping an eye on the remains of the B-17. He initially believed that the suspicious man was a member of his group – until he spotted him tugging away at the fragile fuselage.

But the man left the scene when he realized that he was being watched, according to Ovenden. He’d left behind a trolley loaded with items from the B-17 – suggesting that the coastal warden’s suspicions were correct. And history enthusiasts are concerned that the wreck could face even further damage.

“There is now enough evidence to suggest the site is at risk – not so much from small souvenir hunters but collectors motivated by greed,” Ovenden explained. “The area may not look much, but there are still some very significant aviation archaeological items remaining, like a perfectly preserved tire and landing gear of the left wing.”

“Some more Tokyo tanks have been revealed due to the break up of the right wing,” Ovenden continued. “It is at risk from looting as it is probably one of the few remaining B-17 sites in western Europe where someone can just walk up to and basically help themselves to a piece.” So how can we protect this historic wreck from even further damage?

Well, according to Ovenden, the right approach is to raise awareness of the crash site rather than leaving it neglected and vulnerable to damage. He has also made the authorities aware of the worrying incident that he witnessed in Pegwell Bay.

An investigation into the looting is ongoing. And if caught, the perpetrator could be in real trouble. According to the Services Archaeology and Heritage Association, the crash site is classed as a protected place. That means it is illegal to enter the wreck or tamper with it in any way.

But there is some good news. You see, the police may be a step closer to catching the man responsible for looting the B-17. On June 20, 2021, they released a photograph of an individual wanted for questioning in connection with the case. 

And Ovenden may yet see justice done. In a June 2021 interview with the Daily Mail, he said, “It’s just so wrong, it’s stealing our heritage. For your typical B-17 collector, that site is an Aladdin’s cave… When I find things in the bay, I conserve our heritage. He [the suspect] is stealing it, taking it for personal gratification.”

Will the perpetrator strike again? Ovenden hopes not. Maybe they’ll head to another wreck, just 40 miles or so from the B-17’s final resting place. But any looters hoping to get their hands on the SS Richard Montgomery’s treasures should really think twice. They may not escape with their life.

The SS Richard Montgomery was an American cargo ship that was constructed back in 1943. The following year it was sent over to Britain, where it was then due to travel towards France. It never made it that far, however, because it ended up getting stuck in a sandbank in the Thames Estuary.

This was a calamity with immediate and severe consequences. The ship began to break apart, meaning that it quickly became clear it couldn’t be saved. So an operation was launched to remove the ship’s cargo in time before it sank. But the team charged with the job was unable to clear out the vessel before parts of it became submerged.

The ship soon sank, eventually coming to rest at the bed of the river. But a great deal of its cargo had stayed on board, and now nobody could retrieve it. It would stay there, stuck in the Thames Estuary, right up to our present day. In fact, if you looked out at the right spot, you’d see the vessel’s masts sticking out from the water.

You might wonder why nobody’s ever made an attempt to salvage this old ship, given that it’s been there for so many decades now. But the truth is that retrieving the ship is far too risky for anybody to attempt. And that has everything to do with the extraordinarily destructive cargo that remains on board to this day.

The SS Richard Montgomery was built as World War II continued to rage across the globe. It was produced by a company in Florida, which also made more than 2,700 other vessels of the same class. These boats were intended to help with the Allies’ war effort by transporting essential cargo from place to place.

This particular vessel had been named after an Irish soldier who fought for the British Army. Richard Montgomery – the man – saw a lot of action in North America during his time, most notably in Pontiac’s War and the French and Indian War. He later took on a leadership role for the Continental Army as the Revolutionary War unfolded, which ultimately led to his death.

The ship that was later given Montgomery’s name left America in 1944, burdened with a significant cargo. It set out towards Britain, with the stop after that intended to be France. The first part of the journey went off without a hitch, as the vessel made it to the Thames Estuary. From there, though, things started to go badly wrong.

On August 20, 1944, the SS Richard Montgomery ran into some serious trouble. As it was sailing through the Thames Estuary, the ship’s anchor started to drag along the bed beneath it. This proved disastrous, and the entire vessel ended up becoming firmly trapped in a sandbank. And things weren’t going to get any better.

With the Richard Montgomery now totally stuck in the estuary, it was quickly decided that its cargo should be removed. Teams of people set about doing this, but the integrity of the vessel was always worsening as they worked. It soon started to crack open, allowing lots of water to gush in.

The salvage mission did have some success, however. Because roughly 50 percent of the load had been retrieved from the sinking ship by September 25. But that was the best that could be done. With the other half of the cargo still on board, the Richard Montgomery became almost totally submerged. So attempts to get any more stuff off the vessel were called off.

Thus the SS Richard Montgomery sits in the Thames Estuary to this day, not far from a town called Sheerness in the county of Kent. It’s even possible to see the wreck from land, as its masts actually poke out of the water. You’d imagine that all of the 12,000 inhabitants of Sheerness, then, are more than familiar with the sunken ship.

But those residents might be forgiven for feeling more than a little uneasy about their town’s proximity to the vessel. The SS Richard Montgomery was, after all, transporting a dangerous haul when it became trapped in the sandbank all those decades ago. In short, it was loaded with thousands of tons worth of explosives.

It might seem crazy that a sunken ship containing so many explosives would be left to rot for so long, especially without some kind of resolution. The thing is, though, there’s actually a pretty negative precedent for this sort of thing. In 1967 efforts were made to remedy a similar situation, but the meddling caused the sunken ship to explode.

The ship in question was the SS Kielce, which was transporting munitions from England to Germany in 1946. Along the way, the ship ran into trouble and ended up sinking. It remained in place for two decades, before efforts were made to finally remove all the explosive materials on board. But this move directly led to the Kielce blowing up.

And the resulting explosion was so intense that it actually registered as an earthquake as far as 5,000 miles away. Plus it left a massive crater, said to measure over 150 feet in length, almost 70 feet in width, and around 20 feet in depth. This gives you an idea of just how powerful that blast had been.

It turns out that this explosion was directly caused by those charged with dealing with the wreck. Because during that period in the mid-1960s, it was actually standard practice to blow up shipwrecks to clear them from waterways. But in this case it was underestimated how much explosive material was still on board. So the explosion was way bigger than those responsible had expected. Oops!

Thus the sheer impact that unfolded with the SS Kielce served as a stark warning to those trying to figure out what to do with the Richard Montgomery. This led to decades of inaction, meaning that to this very day the ship remains in place. And it still has all those explosives on board.

More than 75 years after it sank to the bottom of the Thames Estuary, the Richard Montgomery is still a huge threat. In theory, the ship’s load could go off at any moment, especially if it’s interfered with. So the wreck and the area immediately closeby have been clearly highlighted with warnings.

Estimates suggest that the SS Richard Montgomery is home to something like 1,400 tons worth of explosives today. This total is made up of different varieties of munition, some of which are presumably more powerful than others. Taken together, though, their combined destructive potential is extremely worrying...

If something were to spark these explosives, the resulting damage would be absolutely devastating. According to experts’ projections, the blast would initially cause a small tsunami that would sweep through the area at a height of up to 16 feet. As you can imagine, this would lead to severe floods on land.

Aside from the intense floods, the explosion would reverberate through any nearby urban areas, such as Sheerness. Windows would smash because of the vibrations, with potentially horrifying consequences for anybody standing close by. Plus shipping in the area would be severely disrupted, which itself would have an economic impact.

Naturally, authorities wish to avoid such a grim scenario from ever unfolding. That’s why the wreck is regularly monitored, with risk assessments trying to keep a handle on the situation. According to such evaluations, the main danger is that the Richard Montgomery could shift so dramatically that it goes off.

The wreck could move for a variety of reasons. For example, another ship sailing through the Thames Estuary could drift off course and smash into it. Or the vessel could move as it deteriorates further. After so many decades under water, the ship is hardly in the best shape these days.

In the immediate decades following the SS Richard Montgomery’s grounding, risk assessments were conducted by divers swimming around the wreckage. As the years went by, though, more technological solutions were found to help keep on top of things. This meant that it was less necessary to send people swimming towards such a dangerous wreck.

So with a few exceptions, the risk assessment surveys are generally carried out with the help of sonar technology nowadays. It means the authorities charged with dealing with the wreck are able to get a broad sense of how it’s holding up. Plus they can see the state of the wreck’s surroundings.

But in 2020 word started to spread that one of the assessments had come back with some worrying news. The wreck was really beginning to deteriorate now, with cracks opening up. Parts of the ship had even started to break apart and sink to the riverbed.

This was an alarming development, especially for those who live not far from the Richard Montgomery. Because if the ship was becoming less and less stable, then the chances of one of the explosives going off were much higher. And if one bomb goes off, it’s possible they all will.

Another worry for the authorities is the ship’s masts, which can be seen from land. It’s been argued that these are so tall that they’re actually putting a lot of tension on the wreck as a whole. A possible solution to this problem, then, would be to trim down these masts.

In 2020 the British Maritime and Coastguard Agency sought bids from companies willing to do this task. Yet such a move could inadvertently cause one of the munitions to go off, so the risk remains. The plan so far is for the masts to be removed come 2022, as reported by website Kent Online. 

Despite the dangers of reducing the masts, it’s actually happened before. Because back in 1999 the same issue about rising tension in the ship owing to the masts also arose. And on that occasion, the issue was dealt with and no disaster occurred. So maybe it would be safe to do so again...let’s hope! 

It’s definitely a risk, though, and few seem keen on interfering too much. The issue has also caused a stir in the British parliament. Yep, there are government officials who think it best to leave the wreck as it is. As one such politician remarked, “the cargo is likely to be stable if left undisturbed.”

The politician, Baroness Barran, went on to claim that the explosives inside the ship are now likely to be harmless. She said, “We believe that the TNT is likely to be inert because the fuses have degraded over time.” Critics of such thinking, however, have pointed out that inactive fuses don’t necessarily mean the explosives are no longer working.

Thus there are other politicians desperately calling for action to be taken. They see the Richard Montgomery and its cargo as an unacceptable threat that needs to be dealt with. In their minds, the odds of a calamity are just too high as things stand, while the ship deteriorates further with time.

But for the time being, it seems, the approach being taken remains a cautious one. It’s claimed that the vessel is unlikely to blow up any time soon, but it will nonetheless be carefully monitored. If drastic changes are recorded, it seems further courses of action will then be explored.

The signs aren’t very encouraging, though. In recent years it’s become increasingly obvious that the ship is, indeed, succumbing to the ravages of time. Plus its surrounding environment is itself undergoing some changes. Surely, then, the issue of what to do with the SS Richard Montgomery can’t be ignored forever?

Somebody will hopefully step up to the challenge of dealing with the aging wreck – though it won’t be a straightforward job. Because there’s no doubt how tough this task would be. Such an operation would take months to complete, plus the potential for an explosion would have to be considered carefully.

With the sheer amount of explosives still on board the SS Richard Montgomery, an explosion would be immense. Its radius would be so big, in fact, that it’s been suggested people within 25 miles of the ship would be affected. So if works were taking place on the ship, everyone in this area would have to be evacuated.

Given that the town of Sheerness falls into this area, it’s easy to appreciate how big a logistical nightmare it would be to evacuate. It makes it even clearer to see why the authorities have proven so reluctant to do anything about the old, rotting ship. But for how much longer can they ignore the issue?

Nobody really knows yet how the story of the SS Richard Montgomery will end. There’s a chance that the ship will stay where it is forever, rotting away but never sparking an explosion. Or, perhaps the ship’s condition will deteriorate so much that drastic action will be required. So this really is a “wait and see what happens” scenario, in the truest sense.