The Lost Squadron

On July 15, 1942, a squadron of six P-38 Lightnings and two B-17 Flying Fortress bombers was flying from Greenland to Iceland when they ran head-on into an Arctic blizzard. As conditions deteriorated they decided to turn back, only to then discover that the base there [Greenland] was socked in. Running desperately low on fuel the two bombers and six fighter planes crash-landed on the ice cap in the largest forced landing in history. The crews had been rescued but their brand-new warplanes were left on the ice cap. Pat Epps and Richard Taylor heard the story in August 1980. For the next twelve years, this story would lead Epps and Taylor into an extraordinary adventure that would prove more challenging then either of them would have dreamed possible. The planes lay 260 ft down, under the ice, the equivalent of a 25 story building. And no machine in existence was capable of digging hundreds of feet into solid ice to retrieve a ten-ton airplane with a fifty-two foot wingspan. Here, the story is grippingly told and lavishly illustrated with hundreds of fascinating photographs, paintings and diagrams.