A Legendary Missing World War II Plane Has Appeared in the Jungle After 80 Years

This story is a collaboration with Popular Mechanics

Major Richard Bong was the top flying ace of World War II for the United States, credited with 40 aerial victories against Japanese aircraft. For his heroism, General Douglas MacArthur presented Bong with a Medal of Honor in December 1944. As his citation noted, Bong undertook dangerous combat missions and downed enemy planes, despite being “assigned to duty as gunnery instructor, and neither required, nor expected, to perform combat duty.”

Bong, who was known as the “Ace of Aces,” took down all 40 of those Japanese fighter planes while flying the same aircraft: a Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter that he named for his sweetheart, Marge. And for 80 years, that historic plane was lost to time.

But now, Marge has finally been found, thanks to a joint venture between the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Centre and Pacific Wrecks, a charity that helps to “locate and document Missing In Action (MIA) personnel.”

Explorers located Marge, an iconic piece of World War II aviation history, in the Madang Province of New Guinea, according to Heritage Daily. The search crew found Bong’s P-38, serial number 42-103993, after just two days of trekking through the jungle. “The plane was found with two engines above ground level, and still coloured with Bong’s signature red paint,” Heritage Daily reports. Once the crew spotted an Army stencil on the wingtip reading “993,” the last three digits of Bong’s serial number, they knew they’d found Marge.

Lieutenant Richard Bong sits in his famous Lockheed P-38 Lightning fighter plane on March 6, 1943, in New Guinea. More than 80 years after this photograph was taken, the wreckage of that plane was discovered on that very same island.

Although Bong’s plane crashed in that New Guinea jungle 80 years ago, it wasn’t Bong who was actually in the aircraft when it went down. Instead, 2nd Lieutenant Thomas E. Malone took Marge—which wasn’t only named for Bong’s girlfriend (later wife) Marjorie “Marge” Ann Vattendahl, but even bore her face on the nose cone as well—for a simple weather reconnaissance mission over New Guinea on March 24, 1944.

During that flight, “the propeller failed to feather, followed by an electrical failure, causing the plane to enter an uncontrollable spin,” according to Heritage Daily. Malone bailed out and parachuted to safety somewhere south of Madang, but the plane crashed into the northern jungle and was lost.

Malone survived bailing out from Marge. But not long after the crash, Bong, the plane’s original pilot, wasn’t as fortunate.

About a year after Marge went down in New Guinea, Bong was in California to test out a Lockheed P-80A Shooting Star. Shortly after takeoff during his acceptance flight on August 6, 1945, a fuel pump malfunction occurred. Bong bailed out, but he was too low for his parachute to properly deploy. He was killed upon impact with the ground. He was only 24 years old.

Just six months before his death, Major Bong paid a visit to the set of the film The Harvey Girls along with Marjorie Vattendahl (left), the namesake of his plane. They are photographed here with actor Judy Garland.

For his remarkable career, Bong was posthumously inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame in 1986, and the Richard I. Bong Veterans Historical Center was created in his honor. The Center, located in Bong’s birthplace of Superior, Wisconsin, boasts a museum, a screening room, and even a replica of the pilot’s legendary P-38.

Now, through the Historical Center’s efforts, in tandem with the not-for-profit 501(c)(3) Pacific Wrecks that undertook the search, the museum no longer needs to only settle for a facsimile of the fame fighter plane.

“This discovery not only honors Richard Bong’s memory, but also serves as a reminder of the sacrifices made by all those who served during World War II,” said Briana Fiandt, curator of collections at the Bong Center, via Heritage Daily. “It is a tribute to their courage, their service, and their enduring impact on our nation’s history.”

Michael Natale

News Editor

Michale Natale is a News Editor for the Hearst Enthusiast Group. As a writer and researcher, he has produced written and audio-visual content for more than fifteen years, spanning historical periods from the dawn of early man to the Golden Age of Hollywood. His stories for the Enthusiast Group have involved coordinating with organizations like the National Parks Service and the Secret Service, and travelling to notable historical sites and archaeological digs, from excavations of America’ earliest colonies to the former homes of Edgar Allan Poe.