USCG PBY Greenland May 19, 1944 026-g-050-005-001
Original caption: May 19, 1944. “Over the barren expanse of the 2,000-foot-high Greenland Ice Cap speeds a Coast Guard PBY Flying Boat. Thousands of years old, the Ice Cap looms as a forbidding menace to fliers. One of the most daring plane rescues in history was recorded in the winter of 1942, when Coast Guard Lieutenant John A. Pritchard, Jr., of Burbank, Calif., landed his PBY on the treacherous surface of the Ice Cap and took off successfully to rescue two of three Army fliers, stranded there when their Flying Fortress crashed. The next day, attempting to rescue the third Army airman, Lieutenant Pritchard’s plan was wrecked. The pilot, his co-pilot, and the Army flier were killed.” NARA 26-G-05-19-44(2)