Wellington X3336
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Wellington X3336 on Skiddaw
16 December 1942. Wellington bomber X3336 took off at 1838 from RAF Pershore in Worcestershire on a navigation exercise and crashed on Longside Edge on Skiddaw in the Lake District at around 2325.
It seems the crew missed the turn point which may have been over Lancaster and, perhaps realising their error, tried to make the turn but were alas some 40 miles off track and over the high ground of Cumbria.
The bomber struck the top of the ridge and exploded, killing all on board.
At the crash site only fragments remain but there are many .303 inch machine gun bullets. The debris was at grid reference NY 25001 28414 (with more fragments further down the slope) when I visited this site in 2013.
Crew
F/Sgt Reginald V W Bellew (pilot)
P/O Anthony Higgins RCAF (navigator)
P/O Ronald S Goodwin (navigator)
Sgt Arthur James Dubben (observer)
Sgt George Walter Hicks (wireless operator / air gunner)
Sgt Richard W Lawton RCAF (air gunner)
Below; Looking to the crash site from the western slopes of Skiddaw.
Below; Photo of a Wellington bomber (N2887) from wikipedia commons
A very moving photo and story. The second shot really shots the cliff face of Skiddaw. Do you leave the fragments in that little pile, or scatter them back around out of other people’s temptation to take a little ‘souvenir’
Your coverage of the topic is always well rounded, and even though i know i’m in for a good read: you had me at the first pic. By gosh it’s a good one. Love the colours, that poppy gets me every time and the tenderly laid out pieces of wreckage – well, very touching. Like something i’d do – and I’ve just read the above too, so that’s even nicer. That full scale scenic is great, the big red arrow perfect but quite daunting!
There is an another Wellington not too far away from this one. We found a 250lb bomb there in the late 1970s which was subsequently destroyed by the disposal squad.
I imagine crash sites now look a lot different to how they did in the 1970s!
Have visited the B17 site on Skiddaw, not too far from this one. Need to make more visits to the Lake District.
The pilot was my great uncle Victor, and I visited the site as a detour when I hiked the Coast to Coast a few year ago. Remembering all those who made the ultimate sacrifice
http://www.bigbiketrip.net