Crash site of USAAF P51B Mustang 43-12419
‹ Return to Air Crash Sites
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…”
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.
________________________________________________________________________
There is no visible wreckage remaining at the site which is somewhere between the middle distance and the nearest turbine. Also in this area are two other air crash sites. Somewhere on Rooley Moor, Airspeed Oxford P1920 crash landed on 09 February 1942. The crew survived. And close by at Top O’Th’Height Farm (just off Rooley Moor Road) on 22 December 1947, de Havilland Hornet PX274 crashed into a stone wall in a field just to the north east of the farm buildings, killing the pilot Ronald Feasby.
Photo taken at sunrise. The column on the right is a Viewpoint.
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.
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
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 !
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.
My grandad told me about this years ago , he says he remembered kids on brotherod estate running around with cannon shells from the crash site . He also says he found some metal years later , when he took it to an old scrap merchant , the owner told him it was a P51 mustang radiator ( or part of it) , as he had scrapped quite a few in the war .
Thanks for that Jamie. When I looked there (and have been back several times since) was not a trace of the aircraft, so your grandad’s story is a very welcome addition!
Ian