Young Yakutians is setting off for searching wrecked American war-planes

On September 7—18, 2006 the Youth Search Expedition will work in the area of upper the Sartang river in Tomponsky district to quest the flotsams of lend-leased American warplanes down on the way from Alaska to Yakutsk during the WW II. The pilots of Ferry Operation Air Division holding the Order of the Red Banner Planes drove those planes.

According to the Republic Ministry of Youth Policy, there will be 20 members of the expedition. They are teenagers of the republic military-athletic club and riot squad privates of the Republic Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The main mission of the expedition is searching the places of warplanes' down, immortalizing the memory of deceased fatherland defenders, and attracting attention to the history of the legendary route Alaska—Siberia.

The first expedition of this sort was conducted last summer on the occasion of 60 th Anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic war. At that time boys discovered the wreckage of American bomber A-20 “ Boston ” in the Verkhoyansky Range . In particular they found two large-calibre machine-guns, one small-bore machine-gun, an air-gun, two vanes, a bomb holder, some details of pilot's console, crashed engine, armor plates, parts of fuselage, ammunition, pilot's personal stuff. On the spot of the discovery, finders set the memorial tablet.

According to local reindeer breeders, there are more two wrecked planes. That's the reason of expedition return.

The 1 st deputy minister of youth policy Dmitry Glushko said that there is information about a P-39 “Air Cobra” wrecked on the territory of Tomponsky district. Expeditors will have opportunity to fly around tributaries of the Nadya brook by a helicopter, and rafting along the Tukulan river.

// 29.08.2006

Written by Ruslan Basygysov,
Translated by YakutiaToday.Com

Resource: Yakutia-Sakha News Agency