Original subtitles

[dramatic music playing]

[Josh] I am walking on the edge of a volcanic island deep

in the Pacific.

But despite being 3,700 miles west of Hawaii

and nearly 6,000 miles west of the mainland United States,

I'm actually standing on U.S. soil.

Welcome to the Mariana Archipelago

and the exotic shores of Saipan.

[dramatic music playing]

During World War II,

Saipan is part of the Empire of Japan's absolute defense zone,

protecting essential shipping and supply routes

and acting as a crucial air base.

In June of 1944, the U.S. invades.

[explosions]

[Josh] The battle of Saipan becomes one of the bloodiest

in the Pacific.

After 24 days and a loss

of more than 40,000 soldiers and civilians,

the Americans capture the island

in a critical victory that leaves Japan shocked.

Their defense perimeter has been breached.

The U.S. begins building massive airstrips on Saipan

and her neighboring islands.

Soon, mainland Japan will be within striking distance

of U.S. B-29 bombers.

Flash forward, less than a year later, May 6th, 1945.

Tomorrow, Germany will surrender,

and the war in Europe will end.

But here in the Pacific, the battles rage on.

Japanese forces and supply ships continue to mobilize

at an island stronghold known as Truk Lagoon.

Located 700 miles southeast of Saipan is the atoll

of Truk Lagoon.

Truk has been the Japanese Navy's main supply depot

and operational center, but U.S. forces

had devastated the bases at Truk in 1944

in an offensive known as "Operation Hailstone."

And while their stronghold there is crippled,

Japan continues to rebuild and operate air bases in Truk

to help repel the advancing American fleet.

In response, the U.S. deploys 36 state of the art

P-47N Thunderbolts on a daring raid to neutralize the threat.

[engine whirring]

The Thunderbolt is one of the toughest planes

in World War II with unmatched firepower.

Now, a squadron of them flies over the vast, empty ocean

to strike Truk Lagoon.

The planes hit Japan's sea base and airfield on the island

of Weno before strafing nearby Dublon Island.

The attack goes off as planned, but not for everyone.

American pilot Lieutenant Gordon Beecroft

is hit by anti-aircraft fire

and is forced to bail out at high speed.

His chute turns to shreds in the wind, and both Beecroft

and his Thunderbolt vanish into the Pacific

and have never been recovered.

[dramatic music playing]

[Josh] Now, 80 years later, the historians

at Project Recover have taken up Beecroft's case

and are determined to find his lost Thunderbolt.

Recent testimony from an American hero is narrowing

down the search zone, and a next generation

autonomous sonar vehicle could finally pinpoint

the plane's location.

So, join me on a historic mission

to honor an American MIA hero

by searching for the lost Thunderbolt.

[propeller whirring]

-The past is all around us. -Oh, my God!

-It goes on forever! -[Josh] A world of mystery.

Come on! Look at that!

Danger. Hang on!

And adventure. It's just straight down.

I gotta get a new job.

[eagle cries]

[Josh] I travel to the far corners of the earth to uncover

where legends end... -We got it!

-Yes! -...and history begins.

-Whoo-hoo! -Here we go!

I'm Josh Gates, and this is "Expedition Unknown."

My search for the Thunderbolt begins where its mission ended,

in the remote Micronesian islands of Chuuk,

formerly known as Truk Lagoon.

This is the island of Tonowas.

Today, it is an utterly overgrown wilderness.

But back in World War II, it was something else entirely.

Back then, it was known as Dublon,

and it was one of the most important

Japanese military installations in the Pacific.

Truk was once a hive of military activity.

These islands are where the Japanese constructed five

airfields that supported 500 planes, not to mention

facilities for seaplanes and submarines.

And the lagoon itself housed as many as 1,000 ships,

including gunboats, minesweepers,

and supply vessels, all defended from the islands

with anti-aircraft guns, pillboxes, bunkers, and caves.

Eighty years later, the lagoon is quiet.

The crumbling remnants of war are slowly being absorbed

by the jungle.

[glorious music playing]

[swish]

To start my mission I'm linking up with an old friend,

and while I do love a reunion, he's asked me to meet him

at the highest point on the island.

Let's do it.

[action music playing]

It's 400 feet from sea level to the top of Tonowas,

and I get to see every one of them the hard way.

[foliage rustling]

Up, up, up.

Should be almost there.

OK, where is this guy?

-Hey, Colin! -[Colin] Hey, down here, Josh!

-[Josh] Where you at? -[Colin] Down here!

Oh, man, look at this thing!

Oh, my word! Where are you?

[Colin] All the way around here.

[Josh] Dude!

[Colin] Hey, what's going on?

[Josh] What's up? Look at this place!

Colin Colbourn is the lead historian with Project Recover,

which is dedicated to locating and documenting the over

80,000 American servicemen who are missing in action.

I've joined them on investigations

in California's Channel Islands, the Ivory Coast,

and we even located the very first U.S. plane

ever found in this lagoon.

[Josh speaking]

[Josh] Dude, look at this thing.

[Colin] Yeah, this is a Japanese

127-millimeter anti-aircraft gun.

Basically, like a five-inch gun, taken off probably

a Japanese destroyer, and hauled all the way up here

into the jungle. -Dude.

This is like something out of "Star Wars."

[Colin] It is. And like "Star Wars,"

this is guarding the "Death Star."

Every peak, every mountain had these guns shielding the area.

This was the epicenter of Japanese power in World War II.

Incredible. This place...

First of all, I just can't believe I'm back here.

Like, this place is so far flung.

Yeah, this is about as far as you can be flung.

Totally. But for as remote as this place

feels, you can't overstate

the importance of Truk Lagoon in World War II.

[Colin] No, absolutely you can't.

This was the largest forward operating naval base

for the Japanese Navy.

There were hundreds of ships, hundreds of aircraft,

submarine, cruisers, anything you could think of,

and we absolutely needed to take it out.

[Josh] In 1944, the U.S. launches "Operation Hailstone"

in an attempt to cripple the Japanese Naval Force.

Two waves of bombers converge on Truk,

successfully weakening Japan at a critical point in the war,

while sacrificing 40 planes and 200 crewmen in the process.

Even after Hailstone, the U.S. launches additional follow-up

bombing missions to prevent

Japan from reconstituting their bases in the lagoon.

And that's what brings us here today.

So tell me about this new case you're working on.

Well, it centers around First Lieutenant Gordon Beecroft.

Take a look at this news clipping.

[Josh] OK, so here he is, Gordon B. Beecroft.

-He's 22? -[Colin] He's 22 years old,

young guy from Bakersfield, California.

[Josh] Wow.

And he's a fighter with the "Vampires Squadron."

-Yeah. -Cool name.

Very cool name. 333rd Fighter Squadron.

A unit still in existence to this day.

Wow. And it says here that Beecroft

is awarded the Air Medal,

"Decorated for low-level divebombing, rocket,

and strafing attacks against Guam, Tinian, Pagan, and Rota."

So this guy's 22 years old,

and he is a decorated fighter pilot.

In early 1940, Lieutenant Beecroft was given the keys

to a brand new aircraft, right off the assembly line,

the Republic P-47 Thunderbolt.

This was the largest and heaviest single-engine

fighter plane of World War II.

Weighing in at roughly eight tons,

this beast could carry 2,500 pounds of bombs.

Then there are the wings, which sported eight

.50 caliber guns, capable of spitting out

3,400 rounds of ammunition.

Despite its toughness, the Thunderbolt was capable

of flying at a blistering 473 miles an hour.

And a first-of-its-kind turbo supercharger forced more air

into the engine, generating incredible power.

[propeller whirring loudly]

So what happens to Beecroft?

Well, the reason why I brought you up here is because Beecroft

gets hit by one of Truk's anti-aircraft guns.

In fact, it could even be this one.

Oh, it could literally be this one?

-Literally, this one. -Wow.

[Josh] The date is May 6th, 1945.

To tamp down the activity at Truk Lagoon, Beecroft

and his squadron take off in their brand new Thunderbolts

from Saipan, over 700 miles away.

The daring plan was for the squadron to fly into

the heavily defended lagoon, bombing first the seaplane base,

and then an airfield, before swinging around to bomb

this island, once called Dublon, and exiting the lagoon

to the northwest, back to the safety of Saipan.

But sometime after strafing Dublon, Beecroft is hit

and crashes into the lagoon.

[crash]

[Josh] Where exactly is a mystery, and one that might have been

forgotten, were it not for Project Recover.

Colin and his colleagues do the crucial work

of interviewing World War II vets to preserve their memories,

an increasingly challenging task.

In fact, less than 1% of the 16 million Americans who served

in World War II are still living.

There's this huge legacy from this greatest generation

that is just kinda going quiet, right?

[Colin] Absolutely. But in this case,

I actually managed to find a living

witness to the incident.

Someone who saw him get shot down?

Not just saw him, but was actually a part of this mission,

in the same squadron, and was a wingman

to Gordon Beecroft, a guy named Colonel Durwood Williams.

And so, what did Colonel Williams recollect

about this mission?

Well, Colonel Williams can actually tell you himself,

because I recorded the interview.

-You did? -Yeah.

-Oh, amazing! -Let's watch.

[Josh] Incredible.

I'm Colin Colbourn interviewing Colonel Durwood Williams.

Can you tell me a little bit about Lieutenant Beecroft?

[Col. Williams speaking]

These guys flew together for a while.

-They were buddies. -[Col. Williams speaking]

[Josh] So he's right there.

He actually sees the moment when Beecroft gets hit.

[Colin] Yeah, he sees the wing get hit, the fire starts.

He gets everyone to fly in formation underneath Beecroft

in order to sort of assess the damage

and see what to do next.

Amazing.

[Col. Williams speaking]

[Josh] Wow, so this doesn't happen in an instant.

Like, he's on fire.

He's literally flying in a ticking time bomb.

-[Colin] Absolutely. -Wow.

[Col. Williams speaking]

"Altitude means time," and the goal is to

get out of the lagoon.

You do not wanna go down in this lagoon.

-This is enemy territory. -Enemy territory --

and a lot of the guys that went down in this lagoon

ended up executed. -[Josh] Right.

Beecroft isn't receiving his wingman's pleas to climb

because their radios are jammed.

To make matters worse, the Thunderbolt isn't equipped

with an ejector seat.

Beecroft has to physically slide back the canopy

and bail out, a terrifying prospect given the speed

with which his burning plane is flying.

So Beecroft's going how fast at this point?

Well, they're coming out of their dive.

-Right. -And so they're about as fast

as that P-47 Thunderbolt can go

at this point, which is about 400 miles an hour.

Not the speed you wanna be going to pull a parachute?

[Colin] No, absolutely not.

[Col. Williams speaking]

[sad dramatic music playing]

Boy, it's just watching that, you get choked up.

It's like you can see him in that moment,

like he's in the past.

And you can see him, kinda, check himself.

And it's especially hard because you can tell he thinks

he could have done something to save Beecroft in that moment. -[Josh] Yeah.

If he could have talked to him.

He could have gotten through.

And he had to watch that parachute split.

Do you remember where in the lagoon

you were flying when that happened?

Where he bailed out and where his aircraft

ultimately ended up?

Do you remember if his aircraft went much further

after he bailed out of the aircraft?

This is potentially critical information.

Absolutely.

[Josh] Hearing Beecroft's story told from the perspective

of a pilot who was there and who has carried this memory

to literally his 100th birthday makes finding

the Thunderbolt feel even more essential.

Do you think this plane can be found?

I absolutely think it can be found,

but we have to be honest with ourselves.

-This is a huge search area. -Right.

There's a lot of water out there,

and it's gonna take a lot of work.

OK, should we try to find this plane?

-Let's do it. -Come on, man, after you.

[Colin] All right.

[action music playing]

[Colin] Now, I think a lot about how these guys are flying in here,

young guys, seeing these huge exotic islands.

[Josh] Totally, right?

I mean, how about Beecroft, 22 years old?

This is a long way from Bakersfield.

In the remote waters of Micronesia's Truk Lagoon,

I've rejoined the team from Project Recover

to locate the plane of a missing-in-action pilot

and decorated hero from World War II.

Recent eyewitness testimony from the pilot's wingman could

tell us where his P-47 Thunderbolt crashed,

and help us close the book on an 80-year-old mystery.

[Colin] And I think about their families too,

who got that letter you never wanna receive.

-[Josh] Right. -It said, "Your son lost in

Truk Lagoon." -Right.

-[Josh] "Where is that?" -"Where is that?"

Most people in America today don't even know where this is.

[Josh] That's right. Imagine losing a loved one,

half a world away, in a place

you've never heard of. -It really builds trauma.

And that's why we're trying to provide closure, 'cause even

80 years on, those families are still feeling that.

[Josh] That's right.

Truk Lagoon is roughly 40 miles in diameter and contains

almost 50 islands.

It's a hell of a haystack in which to find a needle.

But if anyone is up to it, it's the co-founder of

Project Recover, my old friend Mark Moline,

and the team's engineer, Erik White.

So I got the lowdown from Colin here on the new mission.

Lieutenant Beecroft. -[Mark] Yep, Beecroft.

And it sounds like from Colonel Williams' testimony,

he goes down somewhere in the middle of the lagoon.

[Mark] Yeah, and that's where we are.

Right, OK. So let's home in on it.

[Mark] So this is the wartime map of Truk Lagoon,

the whole atoll here. -[Josh] Yep.

[Mark] And based on the wartime action reports,

Colin's been able to recreate the flight path of Beecroft.

Wow, look at this. That's awesome.

So this is where we think his mission flew.

Yeah, I mean, essentially, in this after-action report,

they call out that the aircrafts,

they started strafing at the seaplane base, which is

actually just right over here. -[Josh] Got it.

[Colin] Then they flew up north to the bomber base.

And then they swung around through the East Lagoon

to attack Dublon.

[Josh] And then this line that carries on is where they're

meant to go, right? They're gonna exit the lagoon.

[Mark] Exit. Try and get the heck

out of here. -[Colin] Yeah, that's

our projection of where they went.

[Josh] And based on the eyewitness testimony of Colonel Williams,

the team from Project Recover

has narrowed down the search zone

to the estimated exit path of the Squadron

in the middle of the Lagoon.

So this projected line we need to search along

is roughly how long? -About 15 miles.

[Josh] Fifteen miles.

And we need to search how far on either side of it?

Because we don't actually know where he was flying.

Let's say about a mile on each side of the flight path.

[Josh] So we gotta search 30 square miles?

[Mark] That's what we're planning to do.

[Josh] OK.

To cover that absurdly large search zone,

we're not using masks and fins.

The team has brought along their newest member,

an advanced AUV,

or autonomous underwater vehicle.

This sonar drone will scan the 30 square miles entirely

on its own, finding targets that we can then dive on.

Because it's already been to both the Arctic and Antarctic,

they've lovingly named it "Bipolar."

All right, should we get it in the water?

-Yes. -Yeah.

-Let's do it. -Let's do it.

[Josh] We load out the vehicle, and because it retails just shy

of a million dollars, we do it carefully.

-Coming down? -[Erik] Yep.

Take off. -[Josh] We are in the water.

Here we go.

[Erik] Can you push it out a little bit?

All right. -[Josh] And she's away.

-Send the "run" command. -Roger that.

Three, two, one. "Run" command sent.

Acknowledged. -[Erik] OK, vehicle's underway.

And we're off.

[Josh] The AUV begins its work, scanning the vast seabed along

Beecroft's flight path, something that was literally

unthinkable in 1945.

For as space age and high tech as this is,

the one thing it doesn't do, though,

is give you that sonar data in real time.

You've gotta collect all that afterwards.

Correct.

[Josh] The sub runs through its pre-programmed route,

covering 30 square miles of ocean,

while leaving us with little to do except wait.

[dramatic music playing]

[Josh] And wait,

And wait.

We're getting there.

Yeah, we're about half done with our total area.

-Halfway done. -Half done.

'Kay, things are not looking up.

I use the remaining hours to work out a little jet lag.

Until finally.

[Erik] Looks like we're about to finish up.

We're gonna go pick up the vehicle and be done

with this mission. -Here we go.

The AUV, having completed its route, returns to us

alongside the boat, so we can pull it aboard

for a well earned rest.

-[Erik] And that is it. -That's it.

Thirty square miles done and dusted.

That's right.

That's a lot of data to review.

-To the dock? -To the dock.

-Let's do it. -Let's go.

[Mark] Let's go.

[dramatic music intensifies]

[Josh] We return to Project Recover's home away from home on dry land

to download the AUV's data and analyze the results.

OK.

Well, what do we got, Erik? How we looking?

Well, Josh, we have terabytes and terabytes of data.

That's better than zero data, I guess.

Because there's so much data, you remember last time you were

here, we used a machine learning model.

[Josh] That's right.

Brought some AI to bear on this.

[Mark] Yeah, to go through all.

We've done that for the 30-square-miles of data.

And this is, like, witchcraft to me.

This is basically the computer is able to distinguish between

man-made wreckage that's down there and just natural

undersea formations. -[Mark] Yep.

Now, Erik, it would take you how long

to go through this data?

-A week -[Josh] A week.

And it will take the AI how long?

-A couple of minutes. -[Mark] It's crazy.

[Josh] The many anomalies seen in the sonar data can lead to

hundreds of potential targets. Let's turn it on.

Whoa! Oh my, those are all targets?

Yes.

[Josh] Now, specially designed AI is about to use a powerful

algorithm to discriminate and keep only targets

with a high likelihood of being wreckage.

And just like that. -[Mark] It's done.

It's insane.

What do you need humans for anymore?

Lucky for us and our jobs, humans are still required

to review the targets and investigate them.

OK, so how many targets we got?

We have about four solid targets.

[Josh] Four targets.

So, four targets out of 30 square miles is not much.

No, but these are the high scores from

the machine learning model. -OK, let's see the first one.

Oh, wow!

All right, so we got something there for sure.

[Mark] Yeah, that's a definite debris field right there.

Right, we have these very weird angular things

sitting down there in the sand.

So that's almost certainly man-made, right?

Yeah, because they're casting shadows, they're above

that sand layer. -Right.

[Colin] And Josh, take a look at the shadow over here.

-[Josh] These two lines? -[Colin] Yeah, it kinda looks

like two lines. We call it rabbit ears.

-Yep. -It's something we see a lot

that could be propellers. -[Josh] Right.

Plane goes down, the engine's down there,

and then maybe there's two propellers just sticking up

from the sand. -[Josh] OK.

At first blush, you look at this target,

you don't immediately think, "Oh, that's an airplane."

-[Erik] No. -No.

And, in fact, that's what we deal with a lot here.

When an airplane hits the water at high speed, it breaks into

a lot of pieces. -[Josh] Right.

And think of Beecroft, right?

He was last seen going 300 plus miles an hour.

-Plane's on fire. -Plane's on fire.

-He bails out. -[Josh] Yep.

And that plane's just uncontrolled going

into the lagoon at high speed.

Chances are it could be in 100 pieces.

Right, so that may be a plane. Absolutely, it could be.

So that's going on our list for sure.

What else we got?

Oh, that looks like wreckage.

Two pieces, there.

[Colin] It's definitely man-made.

[Josh] I could believe that's part of a fuselage.

I mean, I would love it if we saw something wing shaped

there, but whatever it is, it's a mystery.

-Yes. -And it shouldn't be there.

[Mark] It definitely should not be there.

[Colin] No, it shouldn't be there.

[Josh] OK, so we gotta see what it is.

-[Mark] We'll document it. -OK, next up.

Oh, look at that! That's an airplane!

-[Mark] That's 100% -That is an airplane!

-Yeah, that's an airplane. -For sure.

[Colin] I mean, it's intact. You can see the shape.

[Josh] Dude, that's amazing.

That's a well intact plane right there.

Can we measure this one wing that's showing?

-How long is that? -[Erik] It's about 18 feet.

And the full wingspan for the Thunderbolt is how long?

-[Colin] It's 40 foot. -[Josh] So we're in the money.

[Colin] Yeah, we're not far off right now.

I mean, that could be it, right?

[Mark] Absolutely could be.

That's really promising, beyond promising.

Oh, well, we'll put this one up...

-[Josh] Yes. -...to dive.

[Josh] For sure. OK, last target.

Oh. -[Mark] Oh, wow!

[Josh] What is that?

Oh, I don't know what I'm looking at there.

Does that look like aviation to you?

You can't tell on the surface, but what you can see is that

there are scour marks, like halos around

the individual pieces.

And a lot of times we see that with fish living

around wreckage. -Right.

Wrecks in Truk turn into artificial reefs,

supporting sea life, including sharks, which are

known to cruise the deep waters of the lagoon.

[Colin] That's a promising hit right there.

It's hard to tell if that's a plane or not.

No, it's a very concentrated site.

I mean, there's definitely --

Everything's gonna be kinda compacted in together.

-[Josh] Right. -[Colin] Which is indicative

of a plane that might have hit the water

at high speed. -[Josh] Sure.

We have to eliminate a target like this.

-[Colin] Oh, absolutely. -[Josh] Right.

OK, so that goes on our list. So we got

four compelling targets here. -We do.

And remember, whatever these targets are, nobody's seen it

in 80 years. -Well, let's change that.

-Let's do it. -Come on, let's go, guys.

[action music playing]

[Josh] The next morning, we load back out onto the boat

and motor out to dive on our targets.

Not surprisingly, everyone wants to start

with this one.

All right, let's talk about this target.

This is as promising as it gets, right?

It is. It's a fully intact plane.

[Josh] We approach the target coordinates and prep

a weighted shot line.

It's critical that we throw this marker as close

to the coordinates as possible to give us the best chance

of finding the target on the bottom.

[Erik] Three, two, one, drop.

Neutral, neutral.

[Josh] Once we're hovering over the first target,

Mark, Colin, and I suit up and dive in.

-[dramatic music intensifies] -[splashes]

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh, Mark, and Colin speaking]

[adventurous music playing]

[Josh, Mark and Colin speaking]

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] A hundred feet below the surface

of Micronesia's Truk Lagoon,

the team from Project Recover is searching

for the downed plane of missing American pilot

Lieutenant Gordon Beecroft.

His P-47 Thunderbolt was shot down over these waters

in May of 1945.

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] I quickly consult laminated schematics from

the Thunderbolt's manual to see if we can match

any of the parts from the wreck.

[Josh, Mark, and Colin speaking]

[Josh] Torpedo bombers are large and designed to fly low,

releasing torpedoes which glide through the water

to their targets.

Since Lieutenant Beecroft's Thunderbolt was a high-speed

one-man fighter, this is clearly not his plane.

However, there were other American torpedo bombers lost

at Truk, like the Avenger, which have never been found --

meaning this could still be an enormous find,

Perhaps an undiscovered casualty

from "Operation Hailstone" in 1944.

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] The Nakajima B6N Tenzan was a carrier-based torpedo bomber

with the allied code name "Jill."

The Japanese started using them in 1943,

replacing the older B5N known as "Kate."

This was the plane armed with 500-pound torpedoes that was

responsible for destroying several American battleships

on December 7th, 1941,

a day which still lives in infamy.

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] This moment right now is the first time anyone has seen

this plane since the day she crashed in World War II.

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] Project recover will notify the local and Japanese

governments of our discovery so that they have the opportunity

to catalog the wreck and repatriate any remains

that may still be inside.

In the meantime, to preserve the find in its place,

Mark carefully takes hundreds of photographs to be stitched

together digitally in a process known as photogrammetry.

The resulting three-dimensional image offers us a stunning view

of a plane unseen for 80 years.

And it reveals a seam in the wing, barely visible

to the naked eye, folding points that saved space when

these planes were placed side by side on aircraft carriers.

[Josh, Mark, and Colin speaking]

[Josh] Our first sonar target turned out to be truly historic,

but our mission is to find another aircraft.

We make our way back to the surface

to keep narrowing down our list of sonar suspects.

Once aboard, we motor to an area of the lagoon

where two anomalies mapped by the AUV

were grouped closely together.

The pilot navigates the boat toward the coordinates

of one of the hits.

OK, here we go.

And we endeavor to throw a shot line at the exact right moment

to put us on top of the target.

[Erik] Three, two, one, drop, drop.

[Josh] Then we splash in.

[Josh, Colin, Erik, and Mark speaking]

[Josh speaking]

[Josh] At the end of World War II, some military equipment

was viewed as too expensive to bring home to the U.S.

and so much of it was scuttled in the Pacific.

[Josh, Mark, Erik, and Colin speaking]

[Josh chuckles] -[Josh speaking]

[Josh] My jeep doesn't wanna start.

And in fact, it's hard to ignore just how creepy

this auto boneyard really is.

[Josh, Colin, Mark, and Erik speaking]

[Josh, Mark, Erik, and Colin speaking]

[Josh] I've joined the team from Project Recover as we search

for the P-47 Thunderbolt of Lieutenant Gordon Beecroft,

which was shot down here in Micronesia's Truk Lagoon

in the closing days of World War II.

We're investigating a series of sonar readings that we're

hoping could be the missing plane,

but hovering between them is this.

[Josh, Mark, Colin, and Erik speaking]

[Josh] Whitetip reef sharks often cruise near the seabed

and do not usually attack unless provoked.

Still, since this one isn't used to seeing humans,

we decide to give him some space.

[Colin and Josh speaking]

[Josh] We start swimming over to the second grouping

of sonar hits we found in this area.

One thing you learn diving in Truk Lagoon is to always

expect the unexpected. First a shark, now this.

[Mark and Josh speaking]

[Josh] These jellyfish have tentacles that fire barbed stingers,

which cause intense pain, so we cautiously

swim past them.

[Josh and Mark speaking]

[Josh] Soon, we reach our target zone.

Our eyes peeled for a large engine, propellers,

or the aluminum skin of an airplane.

[Josh and Mark speaking]

[Josh, Mark, Colin, and Erik speaking]

[Josh] With our bottom time up, we ascend to the surface,

admittedly disappointed.

We are left with a single target to investigate,

one final chance to find

Lieutenant Beecroft's Thunderbolt.

So we hit the throttle and motor to its coordinates,

crossing our fingers that this might be it.

The trouble is, this is also our most challenging dive.

OK, so let's talk through this.

We're in pretty deep water here, yeah?

-It is deep, 120 feet. -OK.

Yeah. We only have about 14 minutes

of bottom time, so around 10,

we should be kind of wrapping up the dive.

We gotta be fast and efficient here.

Very much so.

This target is a bit of a mystery, right?

I mean, if this is an airplane, it's gotta be in pretty bad

shape because it doesn't scream aviation.

Yeah, pretty mangled up, but it is isolated

and it has a number of chunks around it.

We have to investigate.

[Colin] We have a couple of scooters on board.

Josh, you, and I are gonna take those, try to maximize

our bottom time, and get down as fast as possible.

OK, let's see what it is.

[Josh] We splash in, anxious to get our eyes on the last viable

sonar target that we've got.

[Josh speaking]

[Josh] The scooters are small but mighty, propelling us

toward the sea floor in under 30 seconds.

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] Now we need to look for clues to determine if this is

the plane we're searching for.

[Josh and Mark speaking]

[Col. Williams speaking]

[Josh, Colin, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] The scooters we brought aren't just for getting around.

By directing their force downward, we can gently blow

sand away from the seabed, exposing whatever's beneath

the years of built up sediment.

[Josh, Mark, and Colin speaking]

[dramatic music playing]

[Josh, Mark, and Colin speaking]

[dramatic music builds]

[Josh speaking]

[Josh] Three months to the day after Beecroft and his squadron flew

from Saipan to attack Truk Lagoon,

another mission was launched

from Saipan's neighboring island of Tinian.

It's hard to believe, but at the time,

this was the largest airport in the world

built by the U.S. Military.

Today, very little remains, but there is this --

a bomb loading pit where a top secret weapon was hoisted

into the belly of a waiting B-29 Super fortress.

The pilot, Colonel Paul W. Tibbets Jr.

named the plane after his mother, "Enola Gay."

This is runway Able at Tinian's North Field,

and under cover of darkness, at 2:45 AM.

on August 6, 1945, the "Enola Gay" roared down

this runway and took off toward Hiroshima

and into the pages of history,

ultimately ending World War II

and igniting the Atomic Age.

[dramatic music playing]

[Josh, Colin, Erik, and Mark speaking]

[Josh] In the remote waters of Micronesia, we've just found

the lost airplane, of MIA American pilot

Lieutenant Gordon Beecroft, who was shot down

in the closing days of World War II.

-[plane roaring] -[splash]

[Josh] From that moment, no one in the world knew exactly where

his plane crashed until right now.

[Colin, Josh, Mark, and Erik speaking]

[Josh] We don't have enough air to stay,

so we head topside for a well-earned celebration.

-Oh! -[Colin] Oh, my God!

That's it!

That's it! -[Mark] See that?

General Tire. Made in America.

-General Tire made in USA. -[Mark] Yeah.

How about that?

You just don't get those kind of clues that often.

-[Mark] No. -What an unbelievable

mission to be a part of.

-[Mark] Yeah. -What a win.

I wish Colonel Williams could be here to see this.

Well, he shared his story, and you guys ran with it,

and it led to this.

You think about, you know, you can float out

here in this lagoon, and you just think about what

it must have been like on that day.

-[Colin] Yeah. -[Josh] And the noises,

and the smoke, and the gunfire,

You know, and that flight path ended right here, literally,

right underneath us.

So, here's to Lieutenant Gordon B. Beecroft

and his missing Thunderbolt, missing no more.

-[Colin] We got it, -[Mark] We got it.

-[Colin] Thanks, Josh. -[Josh] Amazing.

[Mark] Thanks for being here.

[Josh] Amazing! Woo!

Mission accomplished.

We have found the P-47 Thunderbolt

that Lieutenant Gordon Beecroft flew into Truk Lagoon

on May 6th, 1945.

He gave what Lincoln called

"The last full measure of devotion

to the cause of freedom."

Only three months later,

the war in the Pacific would end,

and men like Durwood Williams would return home

to live with what they had seen and lost.

Colonel Williams never forgot his friend,

keeping Beecroft's story alive for 80 years, keeping it,

in fact, until the day he died, only months after talking

to Project Recover at age 101.

It is this urgency,

the fading voices of the greatest generation,

that has fueled Project Recover,

driving them to find the forgotten and make sure

that no man is left behind.

[glorious music ends]

[Josh] Before we leave Micronesia,

we return one last time to hallowed ground.

[Colin speaking]

[Mark speaking]

[Josh] This wreck is also a reminder of the more than 200 Americans

who gave their lives here at Truk Lagoon and to the more

than 400,000 Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice

in World War II.

May they rest in peace.

[triumphant music playing]