Spitfire X4843
‹ Return to Spitfire X4843
Sergeat Norman Ware Mowat (Royal Australian Air Force) was killed when his Mk.I Spitfire crashed in low cloud on Yr Aran in north Wales on 26 September 1941.
He was on exercise from RAF Hawarden (57 Operational Training Unit) at Chester when he flew into the mountainside in conditions similar to these, having drifted away from his allotted area.
The Spitfire in the photo below is not only a Mk I, same as the Spitfire which crashed here, but was also with 57 OTU at Hawarden at the same time Sgt Mowat in X4843 left the airfield for the last time.
At the crash site there are only fragmentary remains, much has been stolen in recent years.
Hawarden is now used solely by Airbus, the aircraft wings are made there.
Yr Aran is a summit a mile to the south of Snowdon.
Beautiful shot my friend!
Yes, I like it..
The clouds covering the hills and hazy landscape help to imagine how dangerous that place could be for a low-flying aircraft…
Judging from some pictures in your photostream, the rate of fatal accidents in the training units during WWII was rather alarming. I assume it might be due to a great deal of airmen going through intense trainings in war circumstances.
Shame people feel the need to steal the remains (bit like grave robbing.!) Great shot of the MK1..
These are fantastic what you do Ian..Great to see and read about..
nicely done Ian
Superb work mate ! that mist brings even more drama into the shot !
fantastic that you’ve got out 🙂
great info, great shot. love the colour and the misty – and very rocky! – looking background. really cool tie in too, with the matching Mk I.
really stoked for you Ian
Amazing what you find Ian … not the general you but the specific you!
More good detail and I do like the top shot with the landscape in the distance
brilliant work on a sad story ian , and great photo
take care
A fine tribute….
Very interesting 🙂
really well composed frame
I like the mountain shape in the dof
well done Ian
Beauty in tragedy. Great work, Ian
Really nice shot, I agree – the mist does add to the shot 😉
What a fabulous picture. That misty atmosphere really brings home the sadness of the scene.
why would anyone steal wreckage, ?
Many thanks for your comments and views and faves everyone. This has somehow ended up in Explore.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/solarscot] [http://www.flickr.com/photos/nondesigner]
Ha. Good question. People will take stuff because then they have it and no-one else has it. Their justification will be that they are preserving it. But the only thing wreckage needs preserving from is people taking it.
Somebody once said something along the lines of; "Me and you Ian, we are different from the others, we know about history, we know the value of something, there is a duty on us to protect it, not leave it in the ground."
But that is untrue, I am no different from anybody else if I take wreckage away. And apart from being unlawful, the sad thing is that once removed from the crash site it becomes irrelevant. A bit of crappy old metal on a shelf in the garden shed that will eventually get chucked in the bin when the person who removed it dies.
Anything we find of any interest (things that are likely to be lifted) we bury at the crash site.
Another sad loss up on the hills.
Good info Ian and I totally agree about how pieces of wreckage become irrelevant when someone takes them away from a crash site to keep for themself.
I like the composition and depth of focus in the photo.
Good post Ian when we were kids we picked up stuff from wrecks because we didn’t know the history but as adults we do and should! the robbing of sites goes on at a pace and now so much is lost ,virtually all the collections in museums have gone and all the private magpies hide their stash from everyone except their grave robbing followers so much for ‘saved for the nation’ that they so love to excuse their work!
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/28731066@N03]
Hi Mat, apologies for the late reply, and thank you for your comment. It was different then, as it was at the time when people took souvenirs shortly after the crash. It is the magpies now who piss me off, removing remains when they know full well that the sites are legally protected. Or those who get permission… but take those little bits just for themselves, coz no-one will notice. We all know who they are.
And like you say, stuff gets sold by museums to private collectors at auction. Anyone who buys wreckage and keeps it in their home, regardless of the source, is the same as someone who lifts it directly from the site in my book. If it came from a crash site it belongs at the crash site. Or in a museum. But preferably at the crash site.
Hurrah , an explore for a crash site shot !! i thought it would never happen ! perhaps one day we will be able to count two !:-)
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/28731066@N03] [http://www.flickr.com/photos/maycontaintracesofnuts]
Its a bit like Canute trying to hold back the tide , its unstoppable … and the financial difficulties are hitting the museum ‘collections’ hard …museums are not for ever so what then for the wreckage …it will be lost for all time . In a hundred years time future archaeologists and historians will look back on how the wreck sites have been plundered with disbelief …its not as if we do not now know any better ….we have learnt some superb archaeological techniques since the Thirties but we have absolutely failed to apply them to the wreck sites . Despite the organisations that have formed it seems to be still more like a scene from raiders of the lost ark than any serious work when we see these TV digs., and you would imagine its worse without the TV cameras present.
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/pasujoba44]
Thanks Paul. I have just counted 15 crash site photos which have been in explore. Odd how it goes, I have no idea how it works.
Agree re; digging stuff up, it is like the Victorian explorers in Egypt who only had eyes for gold and jewellery and who smashed down walls of tombs and trampled over mummies to get at it… That we now know that 25% of crash sites contain some human remains just adds to my feelings of disgust and sadness when I see JCBs digging up sites. It matters less where the crews all survived I suppose, I have no such feelings there.
I’d like to see those professional and sensitive techniques employed in this field, as you say and anything recovered should belong to the state or the local authority and not end up on e-bay or in auctions. It is our shared heritage and it is disappearing and there is not much we can do except draw the public’s attention to it, and record these histories as they are before all traces are lost forever.
The Pilot, Norman Ware Mowat was my wife’s uncle.
What a waste of a life, and a tragedy for his family.