Mark Sheppard, Staff historian of Allied Fighters, brings us the inside story on a rare combat veteran P-47 Thunderbolt; K4-S ‘Dottie Mae’ of 511FS, 405FG, 9AF during WWII.
On 13 June 2005, Republic P47-D-28-RA 42-29150, K4-S ‘Dottie Mae’ of the 511FS, 405FG, 9AF was recovered from the Traunsee in Austria by Sandy Air Corp. The P47 had been known about for sixty years and was often discussed at 405FG reunions. The loss had even been covered in a book on the 405FG in 1986 but it had still taken nearly sixteen years for someone to initiate a possible salvage.
Finally, in April 2005, nearly sixty years to the day since she was lost, ’29150 was finally located by sonar and the next day the pictures were finally seen from the ROV. The Thunderbolt had been located a third of the way up the lake and about 600 feet out from the Eastern shore 210 feet down, and she was lying upside down in the silt of the lake bottom. Having been protected by the depth, cold and silt, it still looked in very good condition, although some damage to the lower fuselage was visible.
After recovery, at the end of 2008, ‘Dottie Mae’ was sold by Brian Kenney who had stored her at his facility in Chino, California. Brian was the investor, who with Sandy Air Corp based in Austria, recovered K4-S from the Traunsee in Austria in 2005. Over the next three years spares and other equipment were sourced for the eventual rebuild and the airframe was turned the right way up for the first time in 62 years.
New owner
The new owner is Jack Croul of Newport Beach, USA who is better known for his collection of, and passion for, vintage race cars with history as well as being a B-17 Flying Fortress, 33 mission lead navigator in the 96th BG of the 8th AF at Snetterton Heath in WWII. Jack Croul and Jeff Harris also of Newport Beach formed Allied Fighters, a small warbird management organization to find, build, maintain and fly these warbirds, and since 2005 he has purchased an airworthy Lockheed P38L Lightning, 44-26981, and a North American P51D Mustang 44-73420. The airframe of another P51D 44-74202 has been completed and is currently having its systems installed at WestPac Restorations in Colorado.
Jack Croul and all of the team involved in the restoration of K4-S are acutely aware of the historical significance of this P47. It is the only known P47 Thunderbolt survivor from either the 8AF or 9AF in the European Theatre of Operations, as well as being a combat veteran with at least 90 missions under its belt, making it truly historic.
At the beginning of 2009, K4-S was transported up to Mike Breshear’s Vintage Airframes facility at Caldwell, Idaho where the strip down commenced in February 2009.
Vintage Airframes will be completing all of the airframe restoration, before the airframe is dispatched to Allied Fighters to complete the systems and certification. Everything that can safely be reused will be and hopefully repair patches will be retained on as many original skins as possible.
The plan is to restore K4-S back to stock condition though not to a ‘factory fresh’ condition. The plan is to try and retain the patina of operations picked up from operating during the winter of 1944, the ‘Battle of the Bulge’ and through to the end of WWII in Europe. This approach will require the ‘weathering’ of the few new skins required to match the original wartime, and give it a used look.
To remove the calcium deposits, industrial quantities of white vinegar and water have been used to clean the aluminium skins and airframe. Recently, a new chemical has been located that does the same job far better than the original solution, in fact, this substance has cleaned off the calcium without affecting the aluminium or paintwork. It was during this clean down that a significant discovery became visible. Under the pilot’s name ‘Lt L A Kuhl’ were two German victory crosses not known to exist. Not air-to-air victories, we know the date these ground victories were claimed.
Dottie at war
On 16 April 1945 405FG P-47s were returning from an attack on Magdeburg. On the outskirts of the city, Lt ‘Red Dog’ Reidel noticed something on the ground and found they were over an airfield with dozens of aircraft. The 405FG had a field day claiming 69 destroyed and 48 damaged, with the 511FS claiming 39 and 18 respectively. Lt Kuhl flying K4-S claimed 3-0-1 (3 destroyed and 1 damaged) and these were confirmed in the squadron records.
The aircraft types included He111, Ju88, Fw190, Bf109 and a single Me262. It is unclear why only two ‘victories’ were painted on K4-S, though it appears the pencil marks were there for the third to be added.
On 1 May 1945, K4-S undertook a mission to the South East of Munich. The twelve P47’s of 511FS flew between the deck and 15,000 feet. Although there was no recorded contact it seems K4-S was hit with a round to the rear fuselage, hitting the turbocharger. K4-S was laid up in one of the former Luftwaffe hangers at Kitzingen where she had her turbocharger replaced.
On 2 May Larry Kuhl took her on a 50-minute test flight on what was to become his last flight in K4-S. Six days later, after flying over Ebensee she hit the water of the Traunsee wrecking her propeller and ditched. Pilot Lt Henry Mohr managed to get out but the P47 was lost.
Restoration
Once the airframe of P51D 44-74202 was completed by Mike Breshears and his crew at Vintage Airframe in Idaho, it was moved onto WestPac Restorations new facility in Colorado Springs. In the spring of 2009, with a cleared hanger it was time to commence work on K4-S; the first thing to do was to manufacture the jigs and holding fixtures for the broken down elements of this amazing airframe.
The fuselage was the first portion to concentrate on. The engine was removed and then the engine ring. The tail cone was then separated and all sections including the main fuselage were fitted to construction jigs.
In a short amount of time the main fuselage was stripped of all the perfidious elements and stored waiting their turn on the restoration ‘conveyor belt’. During this strip down further flak damage and repairs were located along with a few chunks of flak/bullets that had collected in the lower fuselage from those combat missions of 1945.
The next job was to split the main fuselage along its factory seam, on the central horizontal axis leaving the fuselage with an upper and lower section. It is thought the only other aircraft whose fuselage is constructed this way is the German Junkers Ju88.
Such is the preservation of the airframe, that removed components cleaned up to an amazing condition including the turbo charger. During the cleaning and dis-assembly, it was noticed that a high proportion of the bottom skins on the fuselage as well as the wings have noticeable areas of corrosion. Though a few holes had been formed, a lot of the corrosion is in the mating surfaces between the structure and the skins.
The structure has less corrosion than the skins. These bottom skins were upwards and exposed to falling silt from the surface, whilst the inverted portion of the airframe was at the bottom of the lake and seemed to have been less affected. These other skins protected in the silt seem to have faired better.
Work over the last few months has been to the more damaged lower fuselage. The lower structure has been fully dis-assembled, cleaned and repainted with the authentic zinc chrome material. Vintage Airframes are now in the process of re-assembling the lower structure and most elements are 90-95% original.
Some new internal skins have been manufactured along with the carry through spars. The internal skins have been finished with June 1944 millworks stenciling. Any crayon writing and stamps that were written by Republic workers during 1944 have also been replicated. Over the next few months it is hoped to have the lower fuselage structure complete.
Work has also progressed on the wings, with the undercarriage structure and skins removed to assess the condition. There seems to be no problems with the castings or undercarriage legs. The magnesium wheel assemblies had dissolved.
The recovered rayon tyres will not be usable on the completed airframe but are suitable for display purposes. The tail cone has been completely dismantled and seems to be in good condition, though again the skins seem to have suffered.
Display or repaint?
There has also been a serious discussion on how to proceed with the painted panels. The engine cowling has already been removed and is on display. There have been discussions on how to preserve or replicate some of the other important skins; painted information like ‘Dottie Mae’ as well as the names of the ground crew. What is more important? The original skin on the restored airframe, or that the original paintwork is preserved and displayed?
The majority consensus from museums and historians is that the painted information is more important and if touched up or repainted on original skins would be lost for future generations. The agreement therefore seems to be to surgically remove these skins and put them on display, replicate the skins and artwork on the restored K4-S.
The original 18-cylinder Pratt & Whitney R-2800-59 engine has been dispatched to Ray Anderson of Anderson Aeromotive, who is based at Grangeville, Idaho and luckily only 200 miles from the restoration facility. The strip down of the engine confirms its core still contains oil and many parts, at cursory inspection, seemed in good condition though unfortunately there is a lot of pitting and corrosion. The magnesium nose case at the front of the power plant will need replacing.
This had degraded in the water and was the reason why the propeller separated from the engine during the recovery. Unfortunately the engine data plate fixed to this area was not recovered along with the Curtis electric propeller. How new the engine was, is currently unknown, though it probably did not have more than 300 hours time if it is still the original engine fitted in the factory. Due to the condition of the stripped down engine it has been decided to clean up the existing engine to display as static and replace with a new zero-timed Double Wasp.
The twin magnetos were recovered still attached to the engine even though the reduction gear had broken off. They will almost certainly be going off to Al Marcucci of Savage Magneto Service based at Hayward, California. Al has been working on all types of magnetos since 1951 and there should be no reason these cannot be overhauled and reused on the new engine.
Vintage Airframes have started to itemise all of the components they are looking for, to replace those either lost or damaged. Mike Breshears has managed to source a pair of original rudder pedals from Australia and there is a number of other items, many of which are listed on the Allied Fighters website, ‘need parts’ page.
The priority is to have New Old Stock (NOS) first, then second-hand and finally new manufacture parts. Allied Fighters and Vintage Airframes are in the enviable position that the vast majority of the work is taking apart, cleaning, re-painting and then reassembly. This process is much quicker than having to manufacture complex ribs and frames.
The recovery, history and restoration information is available on a new website, and restoration photos will be added at significant milestones.
Nick Newton has set up the website along with the first web based Newsletter which came out recently. Newsletter No 1 covers an in depth interview with Larry Kuhl who ‘owned’ K4-S during 1944-45 along with the Obituary of Henry Mohr who was the last squadron pilot to fly K4-S. There is a link to the website and you are also able to subscribe to the Allied Fighters newsletter. For more, see: http://www.alliedfighters.com/newsletter.html.
Thanks to Jack Croul and Jeff Harris of Allied Fighters Inc, Mike Breshears at Vintage Airframes, Larry Kuhl, Jim Raeder and Kjetil Aakra for the updated profile.