Five Sides 2aTriangle

6 June 2023 NARROWING DOWN THE LOCATION

After a bit of a hiatus from my book research, I decided to make a follow-up trip down to the New England Air Museum (NEAM) in Windsor Locks Connecticut. Ever since my last visit to the museum with the grandkids a few years back I had been meaning to return for research purposes, and I just recently found the perfect opportunity to do just that.

Because I am both a veteran and a father, I decided to take advantage of the Open Cockpit event on the weekend of Father’s Day 2023. My intention was to get into the storage hanger where the museum’s TBM-3E Avenger is reportedly kept in an effort to identify and determine the provenance of the specific machine gun that was the focus of my post from 2017. My interest in the visit peaked as I was led to believe by a kindly volunteer over the phone the day before, that open access to the storage hangers wouldn’t be a problem.

Up to this point using *Avenger Walk Arounds’ or even the TBF/M-3 Pilot Manual **AN 01-190EB-2 had been frustrating giving me few advantages in matching specific parts and offering me no clues as to determining the specific origination of the gun on the plane, let alone how to identify it.

As you might remember my goal was to see if I could finally put to bed my theory that the .50 Caliber machine gun found in the Avenger wreck, by then future Judge Graham Stikelether in 1964 outside of Felsmere Florida: possibly a gun from ***FT-36, was from the plane’s turret and not one of the two wings. Earlier on, in my first post I had hoped to be able to trace the serial number from the gun and match it up to a specific plane, but my efforts turned out to be futile as there were tens of thousands of .50 calibers produced before and after World War II and I could find no record listings for the High Standard Manufacturing Company New Haven CT.

My overarching objective however was to simply identify the plane as a TBF/M and since it was the only naval aircraft of the period known to have a turret, if I could at least show that the gun came from the turret, the case making the connection to Flight-19 could be made just that much easier.

The desire to prove my theory had been recently reignited after watching the Tv show History’s Greatest Mysteries produced by Lone Wolf Media for the History Channel. Of all the shows I’ve seen on the subject of Flight-19, it comes the closest in its scientific process to fairly addressing not only the traditional questions but also some of the lesser-known aspects of the story as well.

If you haven’t seen the episode, I highly recommend it. To my surprise Season 2 Episode 1 Expedition Bermuda Triangle which primarily centered on the Flight-19 mystery had also featured the very same machine gun I have been trying to trace.

Halfway through the show, the two historians David O’Keefe & Wayne Abbott introduce us to Graham Stilkether Jr. the son of Judge Stilkether. Funnily enough both men had seemingly also tried tracing the gun’s serial number only to end with the same conclusion and at approximately the same time I had.

Graham Jr; who was very interested in displaying the machine gun and telling the story of how his father came by it, surprisingly doesn’t mention or refer to any other parts that may have been found by the Judge that day, only the machine gun itself. Whether that was a matter of editing by the show or not is unclear. Unfortunately, my communications with Mr. Stilkether were limited and unfruitful, so I was unable to interview him personally. To my knowledge, it was not the only item found.

The images previously sent to me by my late friend Jon Myhre, a Flight-19 expert showed the bent barreled gun and included photos of what appeared to be some sort of collar or gun mount and a serial number as well. I assumed that everything came off the gun itself. It was these assumptions and lack of clarity in the story that is the reason why my re-evaluation of the NEAM museum’s Grumman 150SE-2 turret was so important.

Needless to say, I was disappointed to learn at the main desk that access to the Avenger was unavailable. However: knowing how communications in large organizations with volunteer’s work, I was not totally caught unprepared, and I had a plan B of sorts set up just in case.

I decided I would look at any .50 caliber machine gun I could find to make comparisons with. After all, seeing is believing, and the first display to catch my eye was the B-25G series Mitchell Army Air Corps Bomber “Dog Daize’s “.

It’s four .50’s and 75mm howitzer sticking out the nose reminded me of a World War II version of the A-10 warthog. With its lethal punch mostly all upfront, the way the plane was used made it more of an attack aircraft than a bomber.

The waist-mounted guns in particular were of particular interest as they seemed to be in some kind of sled-like harness leading to a “H” pintle mount. Though the harnesses seemed to possibly be replicas, in my mind these K series .50 caliber mounts resembled what I remembered of the TBF/M Avenger turret gun support.

It was at this point that I realized my focus needed to shift from tracking the serial number to identifying the supposed mount. To make the final determination about the gun positioning I needed to positively identify the part and its location in the aircraft.

As I exited the rear door of the main hangar, I curiously scoped two open storage hangars in the bright daylight, and I went looking for an Avenger. I was hoping that maybe the desk had made a mistake? To my chagrin they were accurate. It was evidently in a third storage hangar farther back.

So, after almost giving up all hope of making my determination due to a lack of physical and empirical evidence, I approached a group of volunteers who were operating a very rare engine display from a pre-World War 2 Navy D-6 Blimp for the crowds. After explaining my situation and what I was looking for; the opportunity to view a similar AN-M2 wing-mounted gun from the era, preferably on a naval aircraft, one of the docents “James” enthusiastically offered his assistance with an idea for a parallel comparison.

I guess, it turns out It helps to ask the right questions of the right people because he knew of an F6F Bearcat and It was on display and accessible to the public. The Bearcat a Navy fighter aircraft that had been introduced later in the war flew alongside Avengers off the deck of aircraft carriers and also had wing mounted AN-M2’s.

Between shows, I managed to wrangle James into leading me to the plane. Though it was quite an effort to get back behind the aircraft, as it was tucked away tightly in one of the main hanger corners, I managed to get far enough and high enough to view the folded wing, with his assistance I was able to obtain a close-up video. There was just enough lighting to determine that the mount from the Avenger was more similar to that of a wing mount and not the turret. Upon closer inspection, the mount really didn’t look like the part I had seen. I began to question whether it was a mount or even anything associated with a machine gun at all?

James also returned with me to the 150SE-2 turret that I had been intently examining in my last visit to help me verify that its gun did not have a traditional “H” bracket mount but instead more of a sled style brace similar to that of the B-25 waist mount. What turned out to be a Mark 8-1-gun adapter connected to the power unit in the Avenger turret provided the elevation and traverse that would have been manually operated in the waist gunners position in the B-25G/J.

On my way out of the museum, I continued to look at other displays searching for any kind of information I could use to help my argument and discovered an Army Air Corps P-47. If you’ve ever wondered what the AN in AN-M2 stood for its Army/Navy and as in the Navy, the Army used the M2 or MA Deuce in its fighter aircraft as well. The Thunderbolt on display had a walled backdrop featuring photographs and stories from the pilot and ground crew. One section included the weaponry and loadout for the wing-mounted guns. The photographs showed the stacked mounts of three guns aligned similar to that I found in the Bearcat.

Besides the image of the MG trunnion bolt MK-1 located on page 510 of the TBM-3 Pilots manual the mount in question might also be from the undercarriage of the aircraft as indicated in the second photo in this post. It just might be part of the wing or landing gear but as of yet I have not pinpointed it.

Though I am getting closer to a final determination regarding the gun, to this point I have made no definite identification or conclusion. However, based not on the “mount” but on the trigger drive on the side of the gun receiver which according to the manuals indicates that the gun was electrically operated on its starboard (right) side it more than likely came out of a starboard side wing root mount. The gun was not from the turret after all.

No such picture that I know of exists showing the turret gun with this feature. Futhermore: the “mount” that is indicated in the photo above appears in actuality to likely be a collar for a piston associated with the fold in the wing just outside the wing machine gun location or as part of the landing gear construction.

Perhaps my final analysis will come with a visit to the American Heritage Museum outside of Hudson MA. They too have a TBF/M in their collection as well, and with any luck, I can get access to it on my next visit there someday soon.

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*Avenger Walk Arounds #25 & D&S Vol 53 From Squadron Publications

**AN 01-190EB-2 TBM-3 Pilots Manual US Navy

***FT-36 Bul No. 73209 had been allegedly pulled from the Everglades by the US Navy with two crew remains still aboard. The plane piloted by Captain Edward Joseph, Powers Jr. USMC, 09789, was crewed by Staff Sergeant, Howell Orrin, Thompson,  USMCR, 499181 &  Staff Sergeant, George Richard, Paonessa , USMC, 805639.