Bald Hill P-40 Items Donated

[Matt]

Last month after I did a presentation on the Military Crash Sites in Marin County, including the 57th PG P-40s that crashed into Bald Hill on 11/2/41, I was contacted by a gentleman who was a child when the planes crashed. At the time he lived on a hill in the Ross Valley area of Marin and remembers the planes flying below his house and a short time later hearing two "thumps" as they crashed into Bald Hill. Right after the crash he went up Bald Hill to see the wreckage and he collected two small souvenirs. Last week after our conversation he donated the items to me to give to my employer, the Marin Municipal Water District where I'm a ranger on it's watershed lands. Both items are from the left side of the cockpit of one of the P-40s. We're likely to loan the items to the museum going in at the old Hamilton AFB or the San Anselmo Town Museum.

I've also been in contact with people who various parts of some other Marin crashes and are interested in donating the items or putting them on public display. These parts include:
2 of the propellers from one of the Mt Tam Corsairs.
A gunsight from the Tam Corsairs
A door from the waist gun hatch of the Tam PBM
Misc small pieces from the White Hill B-17G
Misc items from LB30 AL601

It appears that some souvenir hunters will donate items once they learn someone cares about preserving them.

Matt

[Douglas Green]

Great work Matt! Great to see that some people are coming forward with these pieces of history so many years later before they end up lost forever.

Doug