{"id":121948,"date":"2023-11-30T10:59:42","date_gmt":"2023-11-30T10:59:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uklevitrasupport.com\/?p=121948"},"modified":"2023-11-30T10:59:42","modified_gmt":"2023-11-30T10:59:42","slug":"ww2-mystery-solved-as-us-fighter-plane-discovered-80-years-after-vanishing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uklevitrasupport.com\/world-news\/ww2-mystery-solved-as-us-fighter-plane-discovered-80-years-after-vanishing\/","title":{"rendered":"WW2 mystery solved as US fighter plane discovered 80 years after vanishing"},"content":{"rendered":"

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A fighter plane that vanished in a daring raid on Italy just days before the Allies invaded, has been found, solving a mystery that\u2019s endured since the Second World War.<\/p>\n

Warren Singer, a US airman, disappeared with his P-38 Lightning on August 25, 1943, during an attack on Italian airfields near Foggia, in the east of the country.<\/p>\n

The mission was to take out Italy\u2019s air force and it was a great success, destroying 65 enemy planes, at the cost of seven P-38s.<\/p>\n

But 2nd Lt Singer never reached his target, and Air Force records show he was last seen flying near Manfredonia, a town 22 miles east of Foggia.<\/p>\n

Now, 80 years later, divers have found the wreckage of Singer\u2019s plane 12 metres (40ft) beneath the Gulf of Manfredonia.<\/p>\n

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Singer, who was just 22 at the time, was survived by his wife Margaret, whom he\u2019d married five months earlier, and who later gave birth to their daughter, Peggy, in January 1944.<\/p>\n

Reacting to the discovery of the plane, grandson Dave Clark said: \u201cWarren is a hero to us all, and we love him. He was a very young man with love, hope, and dreams. One of the really amazing things about the story is that Warren has 12 descendants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are all alive because of the very short time that Margaret and Warren had together. My mother recently realised there were three days between the wedding and him being shipped out.\u201d<\/p>\n

The diver who identified the wreck, Dr Fabio Bisciotti, couldn\u2019t believe the condition the plane was in considering it had been left underwater for 80 years.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe plane is in pretty good condition \u2026 it most probably had a mechanical failure and ditched in the water. It was not hit hard by anti-aircraft guns because it was very far away from the coast \u2013 we are talking about four miles, more or less.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dr Bisciotti, who leads the underwater study group at the Italian Naval League, said there was no trace of a body. He believes 2nd Lt Singer probably escaped the wreck but subsequently drowned.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cThe windows are open, so we are pretty sure that he managed to ditch the plane and then who knows what happened. Maybe he tried swimming or, due to his uniform, he went down. We are pretty sure that he drowned.”<\/p>\n

The diver was able to identify the wreck as a P-38 due to the plane\u2019s distinctive twin-boom design, and he was able to narrow it down to Singer\u2019s aircraft since records show it was the only P-38 lost at sea in the area.<\/p>\n

In Lightning Strikes, the in-house publication of the P-38 National Association, historian Steve Blake recounted the circumstances of Singer\u2019s disappearance.<\/p>\n

He said 166 P-38s had taken off from Tunisia that day, flying east, crossing the Italian peninsula, and then following the coast north to Manfredonia, before turning inland towards Foggia.<\/p>\n

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