Halifax W1048
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Halifax W1048
Wreck of Halifax bomber W1048 on display at the RAF Museum in London. It is displayed as recovered. W1048 crashed in Norway 27th April 1942. All crew members survived, and all but one managed to escape to neutral Sweden with the help of the Norwegian Resistance.
The bomber had been on a raid on the German battleship Tirpitz which lay at anchor in Fættenfjorden in Norway. During the bombing run, flak hit the aircraft and Canadian Pilot Officer Don MacIntyre had to crash land the plane on a frozen lake. No mean feat; still on fire, it careered across the ice (with landing gear up) before coming to a halt in the middle of Lake Hoklingen at about one o’clock in the morning. It sank shortly after.
The crew all got out, but Sgt Vic Stevens had broken an ankle during the crash landing, and later gave himself up to the Police. The Norwegian Policeman allowed his mates time to get away before alerting the Germans. The rest all made it to Sweden and were repatriated back to Britain soon after.
Halifax W1048 wasn’t recovered from the bottom of the lake and repatriated back to Britain till 1973.
CREW
P/O D MacIntyre, RCAF Pilot
P/O I Hewitt RAFVR Navigator
Sgt D Perry RAFVR WirelessOp/ Air Gunner
Sgt P Blanchett RCAF Wireless Op/ Air Gunner
Sgt R Wilson RAFVR Tail Gunner
Sgt V Stevens RAFVR Flight Engineer (injured)
Details from
www.archieraf.co.uk/archie/1048tls.html
For info on the recovery, see
www.archieraf.co.uk/archie/1048tls_continued.html
Photo by Bjorn Olsen of RAF divers and Draugen Diving Club (Trondheim), during the recovery from Lake Hoklingen in 1973.
lovely shot of one of my very fav museum exhibits,ian…i prefer it un-fixed,mate..brings the whole scenario to real life..i loved examining this when i was there last..one of the days high-lights other than that lanc…
Amazing to see such a piece preserved. The following shots are a great addition. Thanks Ian
Reminds me of the Wellington they pulled out of Loch Ness discovered while looking for Nessie!
A real bit off rusty history and what a story.
That’s some story!
What an impressive photo – it does a lot to convey the destructive force of an airplane crash.
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Seen in Canadian History (?)
great story and great photo colours look great
Great colours and textures – lovely!
Great to look at with all of that orange and red rust!
Hi, I’m an admin for a group called ww2 Airfields, and we’d love to have this added to the group!
It’s certainly in an excellent preservation state, I think that there must be so much more aircraft in excellent condition due to the nature of the norwegian waters, although I don’t suppose it helps much in the mossie’s case!
awsome, thanks for sharing
I stood in awe at RAH Hendon where she is and reading about her recovery… if you think she looks good have a look at this! Click on the images and see large size… just look at the level of restoration !!!!
http://www.planepictures.net/netsearch4.cgi?stype=actype&srn...
Pretty remarkable when you think of what she must have been like after all those years on the Lake bed…
The effect of seeing ‘W1048’ took me back to my days in 1973 when I was a member of the RAF recovery team. A fantastic job and great to work with the Draugen Diving Club (Trondheim). I was actually ‘lucky’ enough to be with dive buddy, Barry Hill, when it came up with us holding on!
Hi Ray, great to hear from you, terrific effort in planning, recovering and preserving the remains of Halifax W1048.
Ian
My father was one of the crew that helped retrieve it too. I have so many pictures of the process took on site.
I know we speak of, and see the wonderful Lancaster bomber in both flying and preserved form, but this Halifax is something else. On the one hand a story of a fantastic example of flying in adversity by PO MacIntyre, on the other hand we have a piece of wartime history that is forever in our care.
I agree, it’s really good to be able to see the remains of this Halifax.
Ian