A famous WW2 bomber that almost made it home, an extraordinary act of heroism, and a pilot whose remains were found more than 70 years later.
Join me as I dive the wreck of the **B24 Liberator Tulsamerican**, lying off the beautiful island of Vis in Croatia.
Tulsamerican was the last B24 built at the Douglas factory in Tulsa, Oklahoma. On 17 December 1944, she was badly damaged by German fighters and desperately tried to reach the emergency Allied airfield on Vis.
She almost made it.
The aircraft crashed into the Adriatic, breaking apart on impact. Seven of the ten crew survived, but three were killed, including 21 year old pilot Eugene Ford.
One survivor, **Edward Steelandt**, escaped the sinking bomber before going back inside to rescue a wounded crewman, an act of courage for which he received the Soldier’s Medal.
In this video, I’ll take you around this remarkable aircraft wreck, including:
✈️ The detached nose turret with its twin .50 calibre machine guns
✈️ The separated tail section at around 50 metres
✈️ The enormous inverted wings, four engines and remains of the cockpit
✈️ The area where Eugene Ford’s remains were discovered in 2017
✈️ Incredible artefacts still surviving on the seabed
I first dived Tulsamerican in February 2017, before the recovery operation later that year. Returning to the wreck knowing what was subsequently discovered made this a particularly special dive.
**DIVING WITH MANTA DIVING**
I’m diving with my great friend **Andi Marovic from Manta Diving**, based on the island of Vis.
Andi is a superb diver who knows these wrecks incredibly well, and I cannot recommend him and his team highly enough. If you’re interested in wreck diving in Croatia, Vis really should be on your list.
Manta Diving:
**THE DIVE**
Location: Vis, Croatia
Wreck: B24 Liberator Tulsamerican
Depth: Approximately 40 to 50 metres
Rebreather: AP Inspiration CCR
Scooter: Seacraft GO
Dive gas: Trimix 16/48
And make sure you watch the decompression at the end. I had a rather special surprise from my two sons!
**CHAPTERS**
00:00 The extraordinary story of Tulsamerican
01:12 Diving Vis with Manta Diving
02:13 The final mission and emergency airfield
03:38 Dive equipment and the Seacraft GO
05:04 The detached nose turret
05:29 Why Tulsamerican crashed
06:54 Exploring the separated tail
07:21 Edward Steelandt’s heroic rescue
12:45 The ball turret and surviving equipment
15:06 Exploring the deeper wreckage
17:58 Why Tulsamerican was famous
19:18 Protecting the wreck
21:26 The main aircraft and cockpit
23:32 Finding Eugene Ford after 73 years
26:30 Exploring the cockpit and engines
33:00 The engines and turbosuperchargers
34:58 Leaving the wreck and decompression
37:21 A very special family moment
39:20 Final thoughts
If you enjoyed the dive, please give the video a like, subscribe to Deep Wreck Diver and let me know what you thought in the comments.
#Tulsamerican #WreckDiving #B24Liberator
source
Dived the Tulsamerican two times, last time some 2 weeks ago, incredible wreck 🙂
Nice one Dom. Hoping to be in Vis next Sept.
Have you got anymore Vis Vidz planned?
Cute 🥰 moment with the boys, that's very special!
Great video and not nit picking but the Pratt & Whitney R-1830 engines used on the B-24 produced 1200 horsepower each.
Great video!
The nose wheel on the B-24 was tucked up tightly into the front of the plane. You had to crawl past it to get to the bombardier's station and front gunner position. If some sort of manual crank wasn't functioning to lower it, there just wasn't any space at all to try to leverage it down.
The bomb bay doors might have been opened in case the crew needed to bail out, or they could have been open so fuel fumes didn't collect in the bay causing the bay to possibly explode during a belly landing.
If I remember correctly from my flight on a B-24, yes I was very lucky, part of the landing procedure was to open the bomb bay doors. I don't think this was an official military landing procedure but I read it was common during emergency landings.
What an incredible thing to see 👍👍🇦🇺🇦🇺
The B24 was a terrible aircraft to belly land…the high wing loading was the big problem..the B17 by comparison was a totally different ball game…and your chances of survival much greater as a result…fascinating video..and the vision is next level…you feel like you're right there…
Very cool. Diving in Croatia is amazing. Loved the personal touches mate
Man, the vis is great.
So much bottom time!
How many dives did you go on to explore this wreck?
Wow thanks Dom. Absolutely amazing, with you I love the history and the story whenever I dive a wreck. This one’s on in my tec50 limit on a twin set too. Definitely added to my bucket list 👍🏻👍🏻
Incredible videography! Thank you for taking us along.
nice and sad to see
40:25 Another good video Dom.
Great vizability.
Glad that your young lads enjoyed your dive as well.
Very supportive of you, they are.
24:15 Dom, a dead engine got shutdown with props feathered ( Prop edges turned into the wind. Unlike this prop here. ) Indicating that this engine was indeed running seconds before this B-24 impacted the water.
Very cool. I live in Tulsa. I will do some research on that. Always love the videos. Stay safe brother.
Hey. I was looking forward your post from Komiža. Great work researching and retelling story of this crew and their craft. One of my favourite locations anyway. To be honest I have seen lot more detail in your video than in my 2 dives on 12l air. So I am secretly using this to plan my next one. One thing I found out is that B 24's seem to be known to break apart in exactly this way. I think I have also found that pilot body was tangled in to parachute which ended up below. Not completely sure have I read that or I was told. Also if I remember well there should be a box with material US team has recovered for investigation and than returned when they finished. I might be wrong. Another big thanks to you. Have great day
Absolutely brilliant
I must admit that I normally watch your videos because of your personality and to learn about the diving side of things, rather than for the wrecks themselves. I can’t identify much, so they often look like random pieces of metal to me. But not this time! The wreck is in such amazing condition that, even though I’m not very familiar with this plane, I could recognise plenty of details and really enjoyed the tour. Combined with the clear water and fascinating backstory, this dive goes straight onto my diving bucket list. I’ll need some deeper diving training first, though, because 5–10 minutes of NDL at 40 metres won’t be enough to fully appreciate this wreck.
Huge congratulations on your sons getting certified! You’re definitely a rich man with those two in your life. Maybe you could arrange a photoshoot with one of your professional underwater photographer friends and get some shots of you fist-bumping your sons while they’re in freediving gear and you’re hanging there in full gear.
If you’re open to talking about it, I’d be really interested in hearing your thoughts on being a diving parent and having children who dive. I’ve met so many wonderful diving families, but I often think about the potential risks involved. Especially as a parent who is such a highly trained diver, you must have certain expectations—for example, of your children’s instructors.
26:38 im surprised is not actually the shaft of the propellers that broke, its the outer casing for the planetary gearbox that cracked.
How is your PPO2 at 1.3 at 38 meters when you are using TMx 16/48! Is there a mistake in PPO2 or mix ?
Hi Dom. Great vid. Just wanted to back up how accessible the wreck is. We dived it last year as our club trip (Bude dive club). And it was the highlight of the week. Personally I was on a single 12 and it’s right up there with my favourite dives. Would love to more time on it so am planning to go back with ccr. But I’d recommend it to anyone. The other wrecks nearby to Komiza are all great too. Finally. What an awesome moment with your boys at the end Good job.
Great video! Well done. A beautiful and well deserved tribute 🫡
I‘ve been diving the B24 too with Andi two years ago. There are lots of wrecks around Vis, the B 17 lies at 75 m, the Vassilios is a great wreck too. Next year in April we’re back again with our dive club with 6 Inspiration CCR Divers 🤿
As Forrest said, " shot in the buttocks"
Great video. Really enjoyed the moment with your boys. It's been 20+ years, but one of my favorite moments is my son's first ocean dive where we both saw our first shark.
Since I only dive OC, I'm interested in that diver. Do you recall his run time and gas mix? Just curious to see how that compared with yours since I noticed him (I think) on the deco line with you toward the end of the video. Thanks again for giving me another place to add to the scuba wish list.
Great video!
Would it be possible in a future video for you to overlay the actual data from the ccr-controller, instead of the backup shearwater computer?
The only other ccr-controller data I have seen in realtime is my own Shearwater Petrel 3