What Actually Happened to Bong’s P-38 “Marge”

Marge, perhaps the most iconic P-38 in history. This is the fighter and nose art of America’s ace of aces, Major Richard Bong. But what if I told you that her story, and perhaps even her reputation, is not necessarily true? In fact, for most of Richard Bong’s Pacific campaign, Marge didn’t even exist.
So what is the real story of this famous Lightning? How did she become such an iconic aircraft? And what actually happened to her 80 years later? It is February of 1944, and just returning to New Guinea is one of America’s hottest new aces, Richard Bong. With 21 kills officially to his name, he has just finished a bonds tour in the United States, and is now back in the Pacific, ready to rejoin the 49th Fighter Group to continue his tear against the Japanese.
For most of his first tour, he flew a standard P-38 Lightning with an olive drab paint scheme. No fancy nose art and no fancy design. In a letter home, he even once wrote, I never have one plane long enough to paint anything on it. There’s too many bullet holes. But now that he was a national icon and one of the highest scoring pilots in the war, that was about to change.
But Bong was a modest person. He rarely bragged and was not a flashy pilot. So when he was given a brand new lightning upon arrival, he opted for a simple paint scheme to separate his aircraft from the rest of the squadron. With the standard issue Army Lightning, now a bare aluminum scheme, he requested that his propeller spinners, nose cones, wing tips, and rudder tips were painted bright red.
This was more than enough to make him stand out and allowed him to be easily recognized by both friendly aircraft and perhaps the enemy as well. It was not quite as noticeable as the bright Fokkers of World War I, but it was more than enough to begin the legacy of what would become a very famous fighter plane.
Captain Bong took this new style and kicked off his second tour in February of 1944, and it did not take long before he proved that he hadn’t lost a step. On the 15th of that month, he took off for a patrol with his close friend, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas J. Lynch. The pair had become a lethal duo and regularly went on two aircraft patrols together.
Bong was currently at 21 confirmed kills, and Thomas Lynch was not far behind with 17. With their respective resumes and long tallies of rising suns, they were perhaps the best one-two aerial punch in all of the Pacific. As part of this duo, on that day, Bong and his new red-tipped Lightning would score their first victory of the second tour, against a Ki-61 Tony.
This would be his 22nd confirmed aerial kill. Captain Bong would fly 14 other combat missions that month, likely all of them in this new aircraft, and many with Lieutenant Colonel Lynch. But he tallied no further kills until March 3, when he had one of his best days of the war on a fighter sweep over New Guinea, bringing down two Sally bombers, a twin-engine aircraft similar to that of the Betty.
These would be his 23rd and 24th kills. Lynch, however, would match him, bringing down two fighters of his own. It seemed like things couldn’t be going better. The two were tearing up the skies and pushing each other to become better in the best way possible. But that would come to a screeching halt five days later.
By this point, it was obvious that Richard Bong was becoming a legend by outsmarting and out shooting his enemies. And somewhere else that you can use those same tactics to become a legend by outsmarting and out-shooting his enemies. And somewhere else that you can use those same tactics to become a legend yourself is with this video’s sponsor, Heroes of History.
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Now speaking of heroes of history, let’s get back to Richard Bong as I believe he was just about to take off for a mission that would not only have a major impact on his own story, but his aircraft’s as well.On March 8th of 1944, the pair would take off for a mission that would halt Bong in his tracks.
This was another two-aircraft patrol to New Guinea. After Bong and Lynch arrived over the target airfield, though, they sighted no aircraft. Instead, they shifted their focus to a small group of vessels that they had spotted in the water nearby.
While strafing these ships, however, a small Japanese ground garrison engaged the pair with anti-aircraft and machine gun fire. One of the rounds would strike a lucky and crippling blow to the aircraft of Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Lynch. His P-38 immediately caught fire and began to go out of control. After opening the canopy, he tried to bail out, but was too low for his parachute to deploy.
Lieutenant Colonel Lynch would be killed on impact with the ground. Richard Bong, after watching in horror, did not escape unscathed either. He took substantial damage and would fly back to base alone, having to feather one engine from the fire he had taken, and upon landing, counted no less than 87 bullet holes in his lightning.
This was a crippling blow to Captain Bong. It would take him quite a while to recover and he would never again be quite the same. But it would also change the story of his aircraft. While his lightning was being extensively repaired from the damage taken, Captain Bong requested that some nose art finally be added to his aircraft.
This request was the name and photo of his girlfriend, Marjorie Ann Vattendahl, or Marge for short, his sweetheart that he had just met while stateside. Bong’s crew chief gladly obliged, and 48 hours later the red-tipped lightning had a totally different look. They had an enlarged wallet photo of Marge printed. Then the crews glued and varnished the image onto the left side of the nose, and her name written in red cursive letters close by.
It was so much more than a simple piece of pin-up nose art. It was a real image of a real girl, one that was being fought for with great success by an American hero. To appropriately illustrate this success, Richard Bong finally also had his 24 confirmed Rising Sun victories added as well, creating the iconic livery that so many know today.
And why exactly do we know it? Because a week later, in the middle of March of 1944, war correspondents did a photo shoot with the national figure, Captain Bong, and his dazzling new lightning. The photos would soon be circulated all over papers in the States in the days to follow, allowing the nation to now associate their ace of aces with a beautifully decorated warbird and a man fighting for his real and recognizable sweetheart back home.
real and recognizable sweetheart back home. It was a match made in heaven, and a public relations dream for the United States Army Air Force. But the picture painted by the papers did not actually represent what would come of the beautiful lightning named Marge. While Bong went on to pass Rickenbacker and continue his famous run, this famous P-38 would not share such a career.
Immediately after the photoshoot, Bong likely took his new Lightning on a couple of missions, but would never score a kill in his newly painted plane. This is because on March 24th, roughly two weeks after she had been painted, Lieutenant Thomas Malone took off for a routine weather recon mission, borrowing the fighter as was common practice.
Roughly 50 minutes into the flight however, bad weather was encountered and engine troubles hit Marge, likely still residual effects from the damage taken earlier that month. Unbeknown to Malone, the mission had already been called off, but he had now lost radio contact. It was too late.
Between the bad weather and the lack of power, Marge, the most famous aircraft in the Pacific at the time, went into a spiral. With no other option, Lieutenant Malone was forced to bail out. He leapt from the cockpit of Marge and watched the brand new lightning disappear into the thick weather below. Malone would safely land and was picked up by American troops a few days later.
But Marge was sent spiraling into the jungles of New Guinea, some of the most difficult and rugged terrain in the Pacific. Less than two weeks after her moment in the spotlight, Marge had vanished. She was lost and no one truly knew where she had ended up.
Captain Bong was likely a little distraught at his new bird being lost so quickly, but he was not out of his element by any means. He had never had nose arc before and would be just fine without it again. He resumed his tally shortly after, scoring another kill on April 3rd, and many more in the weeks to follow. For the most part, Captain Bong’s lightnings from here forward were mostly red-tipped designs, as he could not keep the large photo of Marge on the side of his plane.
It was found that the glue and varnished image kept coming off in flight and would have to be continuously reapplied.So eventually, Bong simply kept flying his red tipped Lightning with no nose art and no name. But when the young ace did pass Rickenbacker, a new Lightning was painted up as the original Marge temporarily for simple publicity purposes.
But no other aircraft could truly be called Marge again, and for 80 years the iconic original had simply vanished. That is until 2024, when Pacific Rec’s researcher and director Justin Talen made an astounding discovery in the jungles of New Guinea. After years of careful research, Talen and his team, who had already found and documented hundreds of wrecks in the Pacific, finally located one believed to be that of Marge.
After traversing the thick jungles of New Guinea and a few false leads, they finally uncovered something incredible – a simple red wingtip. They knew that this was likely Bong’s lightning. Eventually they were able to locate the serial number, confirming that it was indeed the famous P-38 of the Ace of Aces.
She could now be properly documented, with pieces preserved and likely eventually put on display for all the public to see. Now more than 80 years after she was originally lost, the book could finally be closed on one of the most famous and misunderstood American fighter aircraft in history. Thanks for watching. Feel free to support my work at the links below and I’ll see you next time.