On November 28, 1942 as the Cutter Northland drifted in Comanche Bay, a radio message notified the Commanding Officer of the position of a U.S. Army B-17 “Flying Fortress” that had crashed into the Ice Cap near the West Coast of Greenland. Radioman First Class Benjamin A. Bottoms eagerly volunteered to accompany the pilot of the ship’s plane, LT John A. Pritchard, on a hazardous rescue flight. Though no one ever before had successfully landed a plane on the ice cap, the two men were confident that the rescue could be accomplished.
At 1020, November 28, the Grumman J2F-4, CG-16140, was lowered over the side of the Northland into the water and took off to rescue the Army air crew. Bottoms was at the radio while LT John A. Pritchard piloted the plane. Picking up weak radio signals from the bomber, Bottoms was able to give the pilot accurate bearings on the wrecked B-17. After flying for about 30 minutes the pilot sighted the wreck, circled over the Army airmen, dropped a package of medicine, and signaled he was going to land. Regardless of the warning signals not to try to land with wheels down, the pilot set the plane down on the 2,000-ft high ice cap where the wheels of the plane sank into the snow up to the pontoons.
Since the pilot could not get closer than within four miles of the wreck, Pritchard undertook the journey to the crash site alone on foot while Bottoms kept contact with the ship to notify the skipper of their operations. After reaching the wrecked B-17, the pilot informed the Army fliers that his plane could only carry two of them at a time. Two injured men who could walk with some assistance were selected. With the aid of a third Army airman, the pilot brought the injured men back to his plane. Bottoms helped LT Pritchard and the third Army airman turn the plane around for a takeoff. Remembering the difficulty of landing with wheels down, LT Pritchard decided to take off from the ice using the plane’s pontoons. The wheels were forced up and LT Pritchard, with Bottoms and the two injured airmen, took off in the late afternoon. After careening, sliding, and bumping over the ice hummocks, the plane soared safely into the air and back to the Cutter Northland.
The following day, November 29, Bottoms volunteered again along with LT Pritchard to resume rescue operations for the remaining Army fliers. As on the previous day they reached the stranded fliers, took one on board and after a successful take-off started for the ship. Soon thereafter the plane encountered a heavy snow storm and crashed on the ice cap. Bottoms’ last radio message to the ship was that they had a successful takeoff and that he needed weather reports. After the storm subsided, search parties from a nearby Army base and from the ship were organized to search for the lost J2F. A bomber sighted and identified the plane which was partly buried in the snow . One rescue party pushed over the ice cap to within six miles of the wrecked Grumman but were unable to reach it. The bodies of Radioman Bottoms, LT Pritchard, and the injured airman who survived the crashed B-17 were never recovered.
Source: USCG Historian’s Office