Crash site of USAAF P51B Mustang 43-12419
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Crash site of USAAF P51B Mustang 43-12419 on Rooley Moor
4th June 1944. A couple of days before D-Day, Second Lieutenant Charles D Nelson, on a cross country navigation exercise from the American airbase at Goxhill in Lincolnshire, was killed when his Mustang crashed on moors between Rochdale and Rossendale in Lancashire.
Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team states that at “…2117 (the time the aircraft’s clock stopped), the aircraft struck the ground at about a 30 degree angle under full power, breaking up as it cartwheeled across the moor…”
The airbase at Goxhill (named Goat Hill by US crews) was where ‘Gone With The Wind’ star Clark Gable briefly served during the war*. He had joined the US Army Air Corps in 1942 after his wife had died in a civil plane crash near Las Vegas. All on board the TWA DC3 were killed. A devastated Clark Gable joined up to fight for America aged 41, and was promoted to rank of Major by May 1944. He flew a number of combat missions over Germany in B17 Flying Fortresses.
Strangely, while internet searching the name ‘Second Lieutenant Charles D Nelson’, references to the Las Vegas crash kept cropping up; a man of exactly the same name and rank as the pilot of this Mustang had been a passenger on board the DC3 that crashed in Nevada two years earlier.
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There is no visible wreckage remaining at the site which is somewhere between the middle distance and the nearest turbine.
Photo taken at sunrise. The column on the right is a Viewpoint, or it used to be. There was a metal disc fastened to the top, which had distances to towns and hills around the compass engraved on it. But not fastened well enough, and it is now missing presumed pinched.
*This may be a myth, there being no evidence to prove it.
Goxhill now…
ooooh, get you and that pose! 🙂
Once again Ian, great information. I’ve walked over here a few times now and never suspected anything was lying beneath my feet, apart from earth. What a lovely sunrise you’ve captured too!
Now then, more about the chewits please! 🙂
Lol ! You’ve been eating to many chewits mate 🙂
Chewier than Barrow-In-Furness Bus Depot!
its funny you know Ian,Neal and i were watching American Jets dog fighting right over our heads the other day,bloody noisy they are! watching the Contrails as they zigged and zagged over the Scottish Borders,the same kind of lads that fought and gave so much for all of us as you so eloquently show us in your fab shots.
Nice shot.
great set of shots..
Great story Ian , you have hardly changed , bet you could even stand on the column still .
Amazing how the moor looks different with the turbines there..
If the aircraft cartwheeled , it must have been fairly smashed up and spread over a large area .
There must be something of it somewhere still hiding in the heather .Even if only tiny pieces . Would be nice to tie it down a little .
Very interesting shot, with the wind farm there now too. I was wondering if this is the same area where I took my ‘Power Line’ shot which did have a trig point out of shot
You always have good stories to go along with your images Ian and this set you’ve managed Ian history as well =)
Just noticed that you have the moon in shot too!
They were a hardy breed 26 years ago, thought it was a statue for Larry Grayson initially!!
What a fab story … I’ll be sure to pay my respects next time I’m up on Rooley Moor !
Wonderful story, Ian! Amazing how two incidents that are worlds apart can have such an amazing interconnection. Thank you for sharing that with me.
Hi Ian again. Another Mustang to visit soon… I googled Rooley Moor road and its a loooong road lol. How far down the road is the moor? Just head for the wind turbines i think.
This moor is a bit of a plane graveyard it seems. Google brought up this:
Rooley Moor Oxford
An article about Airspeed Oxford Mk.II P1920 which crashed on Rooley Moor near Rochdale
David Stansfield – Pennine Aviation – Research, Recovery & Restoration
From this wreck magazine page:
http://www.aviationarchaeology.org.uk/aviation-archaeologist-magazine?srs=Series%20No.3&issue=12
Needs more research i think so i can find more info. I doubt nothing will remain.
🙂
hi Nick, I have documented on this site a crash on Rooley Moor, it was a P51. But no-one knows where the crash site is for certain. A metal detector would probably be of little use unless the site could be narrowed down as there’s so much junk up there from industry – quarrying, rail tracks across the moor and more recently the turbines of course.