SECRETS OF THE DEEP

On May 16, 1944, two young British naval officers launched their two F-4 Corsairs from Brunswick Naval Air Station on a training mission over Sebago Lake. This—and perhaps only this—part of the legend is undisputed.

BY COLIN W. SARGENT

Thebodiesof the pilots who went down with their planes 50 fathoms below the surface of Sebago have never been recovered. But whether they

remain in their aircra , now deemed watery ‘graves,’ is murky.

CBS News reported in 1999 that the British government and U. S. courts ruled the planes are war graves and must not be disturbed.

“ e aircra are on the bottom of the lake at a depth of 325 feet and both pilots have remained entombed in them since,” according to Sub-Lieutenant Knott’s listing in the Grantham Matters news site’s Hall of Fame archives. Knott attended Grantham King’s School before ight training in Britain and Canada that led to his assignment in Maine.

Alfred “Fred” Hagen of Aero Archaeology disagrees. “I don’t think [Sub-Lieutenant Knott] was strapped in.” On impact or during descent, “He was probably catapulted out. ey never oated. He might have gone into a mummi ed position inside his ight suit.” e pilots, Vaughan Reginald Gill and Raymond Laurence Knott, are both commemorated on a Commonwealth War Graves Commission tablet in England. According to cwgc.org, “ e principal base of the Fleet Air Arm, Lee-on-the-Solent, Hampshire, was chosen as the site for the memorial to almost 2,000 men of that service who died during the Second World War

and who have no known grave.”

And yet it is well known that these heroes rest far from their homes and families in our own Sebago Lake (which provides 20 percent of the water for the population of Maine).

Following eyewitness stories and corroborating with side-scan sonar and underwater detection devices, Hagen, a commercial builder headquartered in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and an experienced warbird salvager, pinpointed the wrecks at the turn of this century with underwater remotes. He was on a barge on Sebago, prepared to recover the wrecked aircra and, most respectfully, anything that was le of the yers’ remains, but his e orts were thwarted by orders of the State of Maine, the United States, and Great Britain.

See Hagen’s compelling video of one of the Corsairs online: www.youtube.com/ watch?v=3yYNd6Msp9s.

A CLICK CLOSER

Sub-Lieutenant Knott, just 19 when he lost his life, was born in Walton Gardens, Grantham, Lincolnshire, England. His Corsair was part of a four—or possibly six—plane formation that li ed o from Brunswick Naval Air Station. We know from the Grantham yearbook that Knott loved athletics and electrical engineering. His father’s name was Laurence Henry Knott, and his mother was Matilda Rose Knott.

Sub-Lieutenant Gill, 24, hailed from the lovely waterfront community at Riverside House, ames-Street, Sunbury-on ames, Middlesex, the eldest of three siblings born to George T. Gill (1881-1963) and Annie Vera Gill (1884-1956). His brother David (1921-2004) was born in Middlesex. Vaughan and his sister Rosemary (19242011) were born in India, where we conclude that his Dad was stationed for a number of years. (See family photo, right.)

WHAT HAPPENED? “Astheformation was passing over the water, one aircra suddenly dropped and struck the lake sending up a large plume of water that was struck by the second, causing it too to crash. Both aircra , one containing Sub-Lieutenant Gill, and the other, SubLieutenant Knott, immediately sank in over 300 feet of water and disappeared. Despite a search conducted immediately a erward [by a U.S. Navy diving bell], neither the air-

planes or the pilots were found,” according to New England Aviation History.

Two other stories making the rounds here in Maine, however, are that during low-level maneuvers practice the two collided midair, or that one hit the water with a wing, and like a toy jack ipped up and hit the other. e pilots were declared MIA.

We were unable to locate any conclusion to an o cial accident investigation.

HIGHTECH CONTROVERSY A worldwideadventurerwho has proven he cares about lost warbirds and their crews, Hagen values not just the airframes but the crews’ backstories. He feels for the two lost pilots because he believes there is a fraternity/sorority of the air.

I get that. I’m a former U.S. Navy pilot. Gill and Knott aren’t just statistics or remains. ey had favorite playlists. What were their songs? Were they writing to someone special back home?

And why must they stay, without ceremony, at the bottom of Sebago Lake when what was perhaps not feasible in wartime seems doable now?

LAW & ORDER Alfred Hagenwas entangled in legal proceedings on Nov. 24, 2003, when he sought the right to recover the planes and repatriate the bodies. We asked Hagen, “Why do you think the British didn’t want their boys back?”

“I got hoodwinked by the Brits. ey sent a U.S. maritime attorney, James Goold of Washington, D.C., to represent them. ey held the suit in the courthouse right in Portland. All these lawyers and o cials. To introduce themselves, they went around the room. ‘Who do you represent?’” All these lo y connections. “When they got to me, I said, ‘I’m Fred Hagen. I represent the two pilots.’ is seemed to incense Goold. He said, ‘How could you say you’re representing these pilots?’

“I said, ‘I’ve located eight aircra , most in the South Paci c, and 18 airmen. During the course of this I’ve met hundreds of World War II veterans. We’re talking about two young men. ey gave up more than just lives. Dying that young, they gave up the fullness of their lives. e chance to go home, the chance to fall in love and have children, the chance to tell their stories to their grandchildren. ese two boys have been forgotten by men and time. ey were ying very rare aircra [the early birdcage model of the gull-winged F-4U Corsair. On the underwater images, you can see the birdcages covering the cockpits]. Preservation of these two artifacts could be a memorial to these two men. You can’t tell me if they could speak, the two pilots wouldn’t want to be understood and remembered.’ I looked around. ‘No one on Earth could convince me of that.

No one in this room.’ “Now here’s the scary part” to this high drama in the Portland courthouse: “Goold met with me during a break. ‘ e UK has led a suit, and you have led a countersuit. If you drop your suit, I’ll drop our suit. I’ll get back to the UK and recommend that they work with you to get a permit for you to do the salvage operation.’

“I agreed to that. I called my lawyer. Time kept passing. When are we going to receive a fax? is was 2003, and we’re still faxing them.” 20 years later.

Who is this James Goold, anyway? “He’s a U.S. lawyer and maritime legal authority representing Britain. I’m not saying that he screwed me. He said he could promise me that he would recommend that I do that. He seemed very sincere. I believe he recommended that.”

According to the 1999 CBS News coverage, “Commander Colin Sharp of the Royal Navy has said in the past that the British government prefers the pilots’ watery graves not be disturbed. ‘But if the remains can be recovered, the men will be buried with full military honors.’”

According to Hagen, in 2003 Britain’s party line was: “‘We have determined that it is still sacred ground’ and it can’t be touched, though this is still controversial.”

Seth Brewster, an attorney from Falmouth, also represented the British Government during the proceedings. We asked him if the families of the deceased pilots played a part in the decision. “Not that I remember. is was determined to be a war grave, and the site belonged to the British Government and shouldn’t be disturbed. I am not sure if the position of the UK has changed.”

On one hand, it’s always about money. In his complaint Hagen asked for title to the aircra as part of the deal. CBS reported that one of these Corsairs, in good condition, would fetch roughly $1M today. On the other hand, that’s how the salvage business works.

According to the court transcript, Earle Shettleworth, Jr., representing the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, submitted a declaration that “the remains of the Aircra are ‘eligible for listing in the National Register of Historic Places.’”

REALITY CHECK Military repatriation and funeral protocol for bringing heroes home for interment in their own countries in places dear to their families is a big deal. Example from the National Funeral Directors Association: “Bodies of those who die in Afghanistan, or elsewhere as a result of the war, will be repatriated—returned to the United States—as soon as possible.”

Were the families involved in this decision to leave their loved ones on foreign soil? Hagen says, “I was in contact with the sister of Sub-Lieutenant Gill. She wanted him recovered and brought home.”

FATHOMS DEEP

Sebago Lakeisthe deepest lake in Maine, built on a granite shelf. It’s so profoundly dark and deep that when the Department of Energy was casting about for places to store nuclear waste a few decades ago, the geologists suggested Sebago Lake in Maine. It was nixed as the publicity posed a threat to tourism.

Hagen says, “It was a hot summer day. Canopies open. Flight suits were likely unzipped. Ice cold down there. It’s dark, so little light. e pilots’ remains would most likely be remarkably preserved. We found the aircra and the debris eld with an ROV (remote operating vehicle) that I rented for the occasion.”

But was it such a summery day? According to NOAA Online (weather data provided by weather.gov), the temperature on May 14, 1944 hit 75 degrees. e average temperature that day was nearly 10 degrees higher than normal. It could have felt like an oven under the canopy.

Flight crews’ bodies have reportedly been preserved for decades, but underwater mummi cation in a lake is news.

Certainly there is eerie preservation in arid desert conditions, the most famous example being the Lady Be Good, the B-24D Liberator that crashed in the dunes of North Africa while returning to its base in Libya after a bombing raid on German-held Naples, Italy in April 1943.

Hagen says, “I’ve seen Lady Be Good. I met with Muammar Gadda , twice. e purpose of my meeting was to try to salvage her. Now it’s in Tobruk. ere has never been a museum. I gave him a proposal, and he agreed. is was during the Arab Spring, in December 2010 or so. We went over site selections. We were thinking of Tobruk, along the ocean. Gadda said he’d donate the land if we’d put up the funds.”

He didn’t condescend to meet Hagen in his palace. Too showy and not warrior-like enough. In royal Bedouin style, “he met me in a tent, which had all female bodyguards. Beautiful girls with machine guns. ere were cartons of Marlboro reds everywhere.

“I said, ‘I understand you’d consider this Europeans ghting on your land. But for posterity, with so many war machines kept dry by desert conditions, an incredible museum for the ages might happen here. A world attraction.’

“Gadda said, ‘If your proposal has merit, I’ll give you an equal share with the other countries’” that engaged in World War II.

Hagen’s next recovery operation? “I’m heading to Croatia to check on a sunken Roman vessel.”

ILLUSIONS OF SANCTITY It ’ s November2022 now. We’ve witnessed that a drought causing the water level in Lake