{"id":185,"date":"2024-05-31T11:41:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T11:41:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ghosts-of-war.com\/?p=185"},"modified":"2024-06-02T12:46:11","modified_gmt":"2024-06-02T12:46:11","slug":"diving-the-ghosts-of-corsica-part-i-france","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ghosts-of-war.com\/?p=185","title":{"rendered":"Diving the Ghosts of Corsica Part I, France"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

P-47 Thunderbolt, Miomo<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

It had been 18 months since my last dive, and I fumbled clumsily whilst preparing my gear. I was sitting with two other divers in the spring sunshine, beside the picturesque little harbour at Erbalunga, Corsica. Our dive operator Rym, who took the task of conducting our refresher dive seriously, asked us questions about equipment and protocols as we fitted our kit together. Soon we were leaving the harbour in his fibreglass hull inflatable for a nearby spot, and rolling backwards out of the boat into the clear, chilly water. It felt good to be back diving, and whilst sitting on the sea floor, Rym took us through some of the basic exercises we had learned back in our qualification courses. It was a great way to blow out the cobwebs after a break from diving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next day I was back at Erbalunga, this time feeling more confident as I prepared my equipment. The water temperature may have been 16 degrees, but one of the distinct benefits of diving in Corsica in spring is there are no crowds, and today it was just Rym and I. Once again we motored out of the tiny harbour, but this time we headed south. Our short boat trip to the waters off the village of Miomo would take us to the site of one of Corsica’s World War II aviation mysteries – a United States Army Air Force (USAAF) P-47 Thunderbolt about which very little is known. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corsica was a substantial USAAF base during the War, with 17 active airstrips1<\/sup> and over 50,000 personnel2<\/sup> stationed on the island.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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P-47 Thunderbolts of the 65th Fighter Squadron, Alto Air Base, Corsica (photo by Lt. J.C. Hare, sourced from the official website of the 57th Fighter Group<\/em>3<\/sup>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Mishaps and air combat lead to many Allied and Axis aircraft crashing either on, or in the offshore waters off, Corsica.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pilot J.M. Eubanks\u2019 P-47, Corsica (source as above<\/em>)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The P-47 we were to dive on that day was certainly one of them, but who was the pilot, and how did it come to be lying in 20 metres of water just off the village of Miomo?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rym idled the boat, and whilst peering over the side, told me that sometimes the aircraft could be seen from the surface. Not so this day, and it took a little manoeuvring before he heaved the anchor overboard. I asked Rym if he knew whether the pilot had survived the crash. He told me there were two stories: one that the pilot had indeed survived (a conclusion also suggested by a couple of websites which cited the open cockpit as evidence of his escape4,5<\/sup>), and another that the pilot’s body had been recovered by residents of a neighbouring village. Wishing the former to be true, I secured my BCD (‘Buoyancy Control Device’) in preparation to roll out of the boat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Descending down the anchor line, it took a few metres before the Thunderbolt came into view. I first recognised the aircraft’s huge silver coloured alloy nose, the rest of the plane being camouflaged by a coating of marine growth. A few more metres and the rest of the P-47 materialised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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