Skymaster Down

[Benjamin]

I haven't watched it, but there is a documentary on CBC Gem called Skymaster Down which gets its name from a Douglas C-54 Skymaster (SN# 42-72469), that disappeared without a trace on Jan. 26, 1950 over the Yukon, Canada, with 44 people on board while flying from Anchorage, Alaska to Great Falls, Montana. It was a US First Strategic Support Squadron aircraft with an eight man crew, 34 servicemen and two civilians (a woman and infant son). The plane had four engines, a 100 ft. wingspan and a 26 ft. tail. No wreckage has ever been found.

One of the largest search and rescue attempts was carried out with 85 US and Canadian planes, plus 7,000 personnel, covering 350,000 square miles of the Pacific Northwest. Apparently, the search tactics were chaotic and three (or four) S&R planes crashed over the course of the search, although all crew members survived.

On Feb. 2, two search planes and two radio stations in the Yukon reported unintelligible radio signals, some from the Skymaster's second radio 'check-in' town of Aishihik, but a location of the source couldn't be pinpointed. As well, a large plane was seen flying over an isolated settler's cabin at Beaver Lake, BC, 500 miles south of the Yukon border.

One reason the rescue team was so large was apparently due to the 5265 US and Can. military personnel attending the war game scenario called Exercise Sweetbriar that took place on Feb. 13-23 that year. The reason for the excersise was concern over possible Soviet Union aggression.

Also, on Feb. 14, the S&R operation was suspended when a Convair B-36 bomber (SN# 44-92075) crashed onto Mount Kologet, BC, carrying a Mark 4 nuclear bomb which was jettisoned prior and detonated in midair. The USAF claimed the bomb was without it's plutonium core but did contain a substantial quantity of natural uranium and 5,000 lbs of conventional explosives. I assume the bomber was a part of the Sweetbriar exercise since it was flying a simulated nuclear bomb run (on the Soviet Union) to southern California's San Francisco and continuing on to Fort Worth, Texas. The crash was blamed on ice buildup in the carburetor air intakes. Seven hours into the flight, flames started to shoot out of three of the six engines and had to be shut down. The other three were operating at inoptimal power and so the crew decided to abandon the bomber. Wreckage of the plane was found.

A database of over 500 planewrecks in the Yukon are all located and accounted for except for the Skymaster. This, of course, assumes the plane crashed and crashed in the Yukon.

Skymaster Down 1 | Skymaster Down | CBC Gem

Skymaster Down is the mystery of a U.S. troop plane missing without a trace in the Yukon with 44 people on board.

gem.cbc.ca

There is a long, detailed speech by Dr. Solandt given at the Empire Club of Canada about Excersise Sweetbriar here. There is also a 3:28 minute story about it here. This is the transcript. 1000 vehicles and 100 aircraft? It was a pretty large excersise.

1950 Yukon Nuggets​

Operation Sweetbriar, 1950

The skies over Whitehorse were filled with planes and parachutes.The streets were swarming with combat-ready soldiers.The Alaska Highway was a battle-ground.

The frigid winter showed no sign of abating, but the heat was on around the world. Thousands of Canadian troops were fighting the communists in Korea. And everyone truly believed that the Russian army would soon appear from the north and change North American life forever. The Cold War was hot in 1950. So much so, that one of the largest military exercises in the Canadian north descended on Whitehorse. It was called Operation Sweetbriar.

The objective was to develop techniques for the employment of combined Canadian and U.S. forces operating in the sub-Arctic, and to test the latest developments in clothing, food, aircraft, vehicles, weapons, and other equipment and material.

The exercise began on February 13th with more than 5,000 personnel of the U.S. and Canadian Armies and Air Forces. The assumption was that the Soviet military had captured the airfield at Northway in Alaska, and moved, blitzkrieg style, down the Alaska Highway to the outskirts of Whitehorse. The task of the Allied Force was to drive the cursed Russkies back, and recapture Northway.

The exercise lasted for eleven days, and was huge by any standards. 1000 motorized vehicles and 100 aircraft took part. The troops of the PPCLI (Princess Pats) had driven 1500 miles from Wainwright to Whitehorse, followed by ten days of stiff fighting up the 350 miles of highway from Whitehorse to Northway. They had slept and eaten in tents, or in the open. The twin Mustangs of the Aggressor Air Force, based in Fairbanks, made low-level attacks on the infantry.

The airfield at Snag was used as a major staging area for the final assault by Canadian troops on the Russian aggressor, played by the American military who had taken over the airfield at Northway. This airborne attack was combined with artillery fire and infantry attacks in the final assault on the airfield at Northway.

One observer wrote: “It was a thrilling sight to see the Dakota transports of the RCAF approach in perfect formation and to watch the troops pile out in neat, close-packed sticks. Soon after landing, the paratroops assembled and began their advance toward the hangar and the Aggressor camp on the edge of the airfield. Quite a few of the less experienced observers commented very unfavourably on the slackness of some of the men who just lay about on the ice and made no effort to join the attack. It was a little embarrassing, but reassuring, to discover that these unfortunates had been declared dead by the umpires, and were merely awaiting “burial”.

The troops of the joint U.S. Combat Team and of the PPCLI attacked the outer defenses of the Northway airfield and at noon, on February 23rd, 1950, the Exercise was over.

Many of the Canadian infantry personnel who took part were then sent to Korea where the only exercise was the real life challenge of staying alive while driving communist forces out of the south, using the lessons they had learned in 1950 under the clear cold Yukon skies.

A CKRW Yukon Nugget by Les McLaughlin.