Contact
Contact email below.
© 2024 aircrashsites.co.uk
All photos and words are © aircrashsites.co.uk unless otherwise stated.
Contact email below.
© 2024 aircrashsites.co.uk
All photos and words are © aircrashsites.co.uk unless otherwise stated.
Hi Ian, great site – will be in touch soon
Thanks Bryan, likewise I will revist your stream soon!
Hi Ian!
Congratulations on opening this new site, a brilliant platform for your wonderful photos and stories of the air crashes.
Will keep in touch through this site, take care!
Hazel
Ian
I mentioned a book i’ve come across. It’s called Dark Peak Hikes Off the Beaten Track and it’s by Doug Brown (hang on Ian DB.. that’s not you is it?) ISBN 978-1-85058-883-2.It is full of Air crash sites (off the beaten track) Great read, i will be checking a few out over the coming weeks.
Talk care Andy
Hi Andy, thanks for your visit – and for the heads-up about the book. Lol, no not by me! But I have just been on Amazon and ordered a copy.
By the way, I was struggling to indentify that aircraft you photographed recently over Stalybridge, do you know what it was?
Cheers!
Ian
Ian! This is such a great website! You have put such hard work into it. Feel very proud!
Lovely to see all your work under this one roof
Lesley xx
Hi Lesley, lovely to hear from you! Thanks for taking a look around.
Ian
Hi Ian,
Just been doing my usual Sunday morning browse of news stories on the net whilst enjoying my usual morning coffee and came across this link – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24159975 – which you might find interesting if you haven`t seen it yet ? Looks a wee bit more dangerous than your average wreck recovery but no doubt worth it in the end !
Hope you are well and that you and Paul are still continuing your wreck hunting activities – keep up the good work,
Cheers
Dave.
PS: Have you finished reading all those damn books yet !
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the link, very interesting. It is pathetic that some locals don’t want to remember the dead because they were the enemy (though bearing in mind this is a news report, “not everyone is happy to see this history brought to light” might mean one person… or none at all!).
Yeah a terrific story that, thanks.
I have been making good use of the books alright, they are a really valuable resource when it comes ot looking for unusual photos of aircraft or details not recorded elsewhere. Can’t beat out of print books for coming up with a gem just when you need it!
All’s well but not been out much lately but I should be back in the hills next weekend…
Thanks for getting in touch,
Ian
Hi Ian,
Glad that you`ve been able to make use of the books – it`s great that they are appreciated and that they are being used again rather then stored somewhere gathering dust !
I`ve been uploading to Flickr quite a lot recently as I`ve given up on Ipernity because there is very little activity there and a lot of my contacts stuck with Flickr in the end 🙂 We recently went on holiday to East Anglia and managed to get over to Duxford for a day – the highlight was seeing a B24 “in the flesh” – although I`ve loads of photos my dad took of them in Burma I`ve never seen one before ! Other than that it`s the usual car shows and sometimes sadly my continuing task of capturing closed pubs before they are lost for good.
Anyway I look forward to more of your wreck hunting pics – once the weather closes in and you & Paul decide to give up for winter maybe we should get together for a pint !
Cheers,
Dave
Hi Dave, yeah be great to meet up again! Paul has been working overseas a lot lately, reckon we should resume normal service soon. Been helluva busy at work lately.
Duxford is always a treat. If ever you get chance, see the Flying Legends airshow at Duxford, it is world class. Duxford is also where I had that Tiger Moth flight…
Will check oout your stream (and everyone elses!) soon. But yes, the books get used a lot!
Ian
Hi Ian,
Hope you’re good?
All the best,
Rob
PS.
My Flickr stream tells me you are ‘deleted’ – is this right?
Hi Rob, thanks for taking the time to visit and comment. I have deleted one flickr account – the new Ian DB one – because I never used it and noticed on a rare occasion when I logged on that people had e-mailed me at that account. Main reason for deleting it is to prevent e-mails going unanswered for weeks on end. All good though, busy at work but all good! Hope you are well? Will pay you a visit on flickr soon.
Ian
Hi
I’ve tried finding the POW article – with the link that provides locations of POW camps in the UK. I think it stemmed from the Italian POW / river post … Could you please provide me with a link? Ta much, Ang
Hi Ang, the map is here
The POW stories are under the heading Britain at War
https://aircrashsites.co.uk/britain-at-war/
hi Ian
hope your well and had a great christmas ,all the best for the new year
take care
mick
Cheers Mick, nice to hear from you. Best wishes to you and yours too.
Ian
took some pictures of a liberator crash in glair loch , north west scotland if you wanna see them .
thanks, will send you an e-mail.
Hi I am trying to find information on a possible RAF crash in Liverpool during World War 2, I am sure I have read about a plane crashing onto playing fields at Holly Lodge School West Derby Liverpool , and that it was a target tug possibly a Hawker Henley???? I have searched the net but to no avail…..did it really happen or have I dreamt it, any info or ideas on where to look would be appreciated.
Thanks Gary
Hi Gary, I will take a look in my books on the subject and get back to you. Am a bit tied up at the moment but hope to be in touch by the end of the week. Cheers,
Ian
Hi Ian, I can’t believe it I have tried for a few years to find information, I contact you and discussing it with a friend in my local , A complete stranger interupted and said up it was a Hotspur Glider not a powered aircraft
that crashed in the School Field in winter 1942……..this may help!!!!
Hi Gary,
The person interrupting you was correct. The good news is that the aircraft can be identified as Hotspur BT723 which crash landed at the school after the pilot got lost in low cloud on 23 October 1942. The bad news is I have no more on the incident. You could use the aircraft number as a basis for further research though, try the RAF Museum at Hendon. And although it will be censored, because you have the date you may be able to find reference to it in a local newspaper of the time; book a microfilm reader at the library nearest to West Derby and go through the local rags for a couple of weeks after 23 Oct 1942. There may even be a photo of it!
Ian
Ian Thanks for all your help, It’s spooky that for such a long time no one had heard of it, and then after asking for your help the answer appears or some of the answer from an unexpected quarter. I will check out the local newspapers around that time
Thanks again
Gary
No problem Gary, good luck with your research.
Ian
Interesting stuff, thanks
Over here in Leeds we get a bit West Yorkshire – centric.
I like to visit Manchester and environs occasionally. Manchester seems a bit less up itself than Leeds
Thanks Rick, good to see you. I don’t get on flickr much these days. I get into Leeds on occasion but don’t know the place well enough to recognise any character… I prefer Liverpool to Manchester as a place to visit but the docks and industrial and war remains of both these cities have appeal for me.
Hope you are well and thanks for dropping by!
Ian
hi read your article on the bomb that fell on Hanson lane Halifax. my great great aunt Emmerline Jagger was injured by the bomb and died the following march . she is registered in he civilian death register
Hi Barabara, thank you for your comment. I have added it to the Hanson Lane bomb page.
Ian
hello again – just a quick one – I’ve added photos of a trip to East Kirkby to Flickr. I saw a Lancaster in the summer at Chiltern Open Air Museum (the British flying one). Was fantastic and the pilot flew over us 3 times – lower each time – got great photos. Anyway it got me thinking about the Lancaster I saw in Blackpool in the early ’70’s and I wondered if it was the same one – that one did fly then. I went in it – you could go in and have a look around (not fly!) but I really didn’t like it and my mum had to get me out! Put photos on facebook and a girl I was at school with said she also went in it in Blackpool. I found out it was at East Kirkby near Spilsby and ahe said she was born there because her dad was in the RAF. I was visiting friends in Skegness a couple of weeks ago so popped by to see it.
Here’s the photos- just scroll down to see them (still don’t like Flickr!)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/stickotopia/
While I was there – there was a small exhibit about a crashed American plane – Lady Be Good and I suddenly realised I’d watched a film vaguely based on it – then (after I thought I was going mad – it wasn’t Flight of the Phoenix) – I found it on the net – was called Sole Survivor with William Shatner in it – ghost story really – that’s why I probably remembered it. Was a really good story but was a made for tv film I reckon – in the ’70’s too.
Anyway – thought I’d say hello – it’s all fascinating stuff.
Helen
Hi Helen, great to hear from you and thanks for your visit and comment. I have taken a look at your photos of Just Jane and also Drag em oot at East Kirkby – some lovely photos there, good to see them. Also took a look at your photos taken at Chiltern, some smashing photos you got. I got to see the visiting Canadian Lanc when it was touring, saw it fly over the Rolls Royce factory at Barnoldswick and then later in the day at Holmfirth. It’s amazing to read of you being able to just go inside the Lanc – costs a small fortune to do that now at East Kirby and you have to book well in advance.
I shall have to check out the movie with William Shatner. The only one I remember him in involving a ghost and an aircraft was a film called ‘Horror at 37,000 feet.’ It was a crappy effort, involved the passengers on an airliner having to defeat a druid ghost from an altar being flown to America… I’d laugh if I watched it now but aged 9 it scared the living daylights out of me!
Ian
A Wellington Bomber crashed on Carn Bach, Llaniestyn, North Wales during World War II. Came down in very dense fog I was told, there’s nothing structural left but if you dig around you find all sorts of odds and ends. My brother and I dragged down the last half decent sized chunk of it in the 70’s (we were young and knew not what we were doing). On a side note it was my Grandfathers job during the war to collect crashed planes American, German and British and he had a sizeable collection of odds and ends he’d picked up but my nan threw out the lot.
Cheers Barry, I shall have to look into that, I’ve loads of old books detailing crash sites in North Wales, one will have a record of it. Ian
Hi Ian,
Just been trawling the local papers for anything interesting and found this article which you might find of interest –
http://www.burytimes.co.uk/news/13527615.Folk_band_to_play_concert_in_bomb_crater_made_by_Zeppelin_which_killed_13_in_Bolton/?ref=mr&lp=5
Not sure if you`ve covered this before but looks like a dark day in Lancashire history from waay back 🙁
We managed to get to Barton recently to see the Vulcan flypast and a couple of weeks ago went to Blackpool to see her again – only problem was traffic, it took up 4 hours ( bear in mind it`s about 38 miles fron home ) and we missed 1/2 the show including the Spitfire and Vulcan 🙁 The good news is we saw the Red Arrows again who were, as usual, superb – managed to get a few decent shots of them at least ! So it`s
Southport for us next month to see XH558 for the last time – will probably go by train as from previous experience getting there/back by car will be a nightmare !
Hope you are well and that you and Paul are still managing to get out and about on the hills :-))
Cheers,
Dave
PS:- Arrows shot below :-
https://www.flickr.com/photos/davel59/20246121610/in/datetaken-ff/
Hi Dave, thanks for the link. There is a piece I did on the Zeppelin attack, it is on these pages somewhere.
Sad to hear about you missing the Vulcan. Hope to catch it at Yorkshire air show next month though you saw it at Barton which is something. Excellent shot of the Red Arrows!
Ian
hello Ian this is Davids wife Kathy.sorry to have to tell you that David died of a heart attack on 22/8/15.only just found this email
Hi Kathy, I am saddened and sorry to read that. He was a lovely man and so young… I will send you an email.
Ian
Just like to ask if possible, weither the aircraft ID Plate was with the remains of 44-13521 P-51D Mustang ‘Sunny VII’ when you visited the aircraft. ? The reason I ask is because a restoration outfit in Norfolk claims to be rebuilding ‘Sunny VII’ to flying status. I wondered if they have the original data plate from the aircraft to get it through the CAA to get a ‘COA’ ticket.
Hi Gary, I’m afraid anything like that will have long since been removed by souvenir hunters. There are only scant remains left but nothing like that. Is possible there may be stuff under the surface. I don’t know but doubt it will be there.
Ian
Hello,
I am an American that is in search of information regarding the crash site of a B-24J that was piloted by my father, Edward Coverdill. It crashed on 2 FEB 1944 9 miles east of Barnstaple, near Charles. I have quite a bit of information regarding the crash, but am lacking the location. I would really like to visit this site to provide some closure. My father survived, but was severely injured. Here are the basics of what I know:
The aircraft (B-24J, sn 2100409) was being ferried from the factory in the US to the UK. As such, the aircraft had no bombs on board.
It carried 9 crew, 6 of which were “replacement” crew (gunners, radio operators, co-pilot), and the remaining 3 were assigned together to ferry aircraft, and were slated to return to the US to deliver another airplane. This included my father, Edward Coverdill, and his navigator, Robert Dimond (who perished). I am unsure of his permanent third crew member.
Only 3 survived.
It departed from Marrakech, Morocco, in Africa, at around midnight (local time in UK), with its destination being an airfield in the UK. I am not certain where it was destined.
It crashed after some 13.5 hours of flying, likely having spent its fuel supply.
The weather in southwest UK on 2 FEB 44 was virtually unflyable. Visibility was zero, and clouds extended to over 20,000 feet.
I recall my father saying that after the crash, there was no emergency assistance until many hours afterwards. The crash occurred at 13:27 Greenwich Mean Time, which I think is roughly the same as local time in Devon. So that means the crew laid in the wreckage during the night, which was most certainly bone chilling.
I have recently learned that the aircraft was lost over the water southwest of England. It was heard calling “Mayday” on the radio in areas of Torquay and then Exeter between 1200 and 1330Z. It ultimately crash landed “9 miles east of Barnstaple, North Devonshire.”
I have 5 high quality original photos of the crash site that I can upload. I would most certainly be interested in being able to correspond with anyone in the area who might have information regarding the Charles crash site, as this sounds like the most likely match with what I recall my father stating. I found it’s location on Google Maps, and it almost exactly is 9 miles east of Barnstaple. Please feel free to pass along my email, name, etc. I am seriously contemplating a visit to the Devonshire area within the next 6 months. It would indeed be gratifying to visit the site of the crash, and it would provide immense closure to me.
Hi Robert, thanks for your query. Most of the info I have relates to air crashes in the north of England and Wales but I will take a look at the books I have and get back to you soon. If I cannot find any detail there may be a message board where you might get some help, I will advise after I’ve taken a look around.
Ian
Robert-
My mother’s cousin was killed in that crash, SSgt Harry O. Long, Jr. I would be interested in hearing more about it. I will be visiting his grave in Cambridge next month (11/2019)
Ian-
Could you share my contact info with Robert, if possible? Thank you!
Have done Steve, good luck with your research.
Please send me a photo of the grave after your visit if you wish, would be good to add it to this thread for posterity.
Ian
Steve–I sent you an email. I have much information to share with you.
Robert
I have been remiss in not updating my post. I indeed found the precise location of the crash site, and visited in 2017. I will try to post new photos and other information. We also visited the American cemetery in Cambridge and paid respects to all the crew who are interred there. It was a very emtional trip for me, and very meaningful.
Dornier Do17 F1+AT 15 Sep 1940 – Rotherfield, East Sussex
I finally managed to track this one down after nearly 18 months of searching. Various publications mention various places all nearby – Bicycle Arms, Red Lane Farm, Argos Hill, Paynes Farm. Author Simon Parry sent me some contemporary combat, occurrence, constabulary and 49 Maint reports then even more priceless I met with a farmer who was on the scene and took me there to show me the spot. He is an absolute goldmine of info, taking me to one of the searchlight fields, the house where tiles blew off from a V1, the road where he picked up .303 shell cases and lots more.
I saw a plane crash on holly lodge playing fields when I was a child trying to find date and any photos thank you
Hi,
Nearby where I am living in South Germany is a plane-crash-site of a Halifax bomber which was shot down by German night-hunters after an air-raid on Nuernberg in August 1943. If you are interested in some information about this crash please drop me an email.
Best regards, Tim
Hi. I wonder if you could help me.
I am interested in finding details of a fatal crash involving a Boeing B17 on 9th January 1942 over Shepreth in Cambridgeshire.
I have lived in Shepreth all of my life (50 years) and have only recently heard of this accident.
I am having trouble finding the exact location of the crash and would like to locate it so that I can approach the Parish council with a suggestion for a memorial featuring the names of the aircrew who perished.
My email address is:
martin68smith@yahoo.co.uk
Many thanks,
Martin.
Hi Ian
I’m trying to find details of a Messerschmitt Bf 109 that crashed near or at Pitton in Wilshire.
Sorry to be so vague but the author is elderly and at the time drew a dog emblem beside the cockpit.
Any suggestions on tracking this event down are welcome
Great site!
Hi Roger, I’m afraid I can’t help. I have spent the past hour or so trawling through all 12 volumes of Nigel Parker’s Luftwaffe Crash Archive – which claim to detail every Luftwaffe crash in the UK – without success.
I looked first at the maps and then went back to the first 4 volumes looking at every entry… but then gave up. There’s nothing I could find at Pitton or even close to Salisbury.
Memories do get mixed up over time, so I started looking on the internet for any crash site, but again with nothing coming up, alas.
That’s not to say the account you have is wrong, just that I have not been able to find it.
However, this may be of interest – not sure if you know of it already?
link
It refers to a contemporary record of all downed German aircraft in the area which I am sure will provide the detail you need, one way or the other. I’d contact the History Centre, see if you can have access to it.
Ian
Hi Ian,
My neighbour told me that there was a plane crash near our village during the war (I assume WW2). I can’t find anything online about this and was wondering if you could assist?
The village is Rothiemay in Aberdeenshire.
Many thanks.
Hi Alan, do you have you any further info as to the year or type of aircraft etc? Any detail you know of could help.
Ian
Hi Ian,
I don’t have any further information other than a farmer neighbour mentioned a plane crashing during the war. I assume WW2. He didn’t offer anymore info unfortunately and its very rarely that we see him to ask.
I find it mega intriguing though.
Ok I will take a look around, anything that sounds like it might be your aircraft, I will let you know.
Thanks Ian
Actually a helpful reply because I’m beginning to rule out Pitton and rule in Ditton Kent, which is more likely give it’s a fighter.
I’ll put it to the author
Roger
Any idea as to the year would be great but I shall have another look at Ditton – expect will be many around there though.
Ian
Ian. A great site you have clearly done a lot of research to come up with as much detail.
I wonder if you were aware of a Wellington bomber crash site just outside of West on on the Green in Oxfordshire.
Hi Andrew, glad you like these pages!
I don’t document many crash sites in the south of England, but if you have any details you could add them here? I just had a quick google round, couldn’t find anything about it?
Ian
Hi Ian,
I recently saw your post online about a bomb pond on Black Edge nr Buxton, and I wondered if you might be so kind as to give me a little more info on how to go and see this.
I am painting a series of Bomb Pond paintings, and as I am going to be in the area in April (I live in the South East) I thought it would be an ideal time to go along but I am struggling to find info on how to get there.
Any help at all would be amazing! Or if there are any other such ponds or craters in the area you would recommend I visit I would love to know.
Many thanks
Hi Twinkle,
Thank you for your interest. There is quite a lot of info so I will email you what I have. Although not visible on this page, I can see your email address on the admin page. Will drop you a line later.
Ian
We live opposite the site where the German bomber crashed in Lostock Green
Yesterday whilst digging in the garden my husband pulled out the nose from a shell , it’s quite heavy not sure if there’s anymore of it or others in the flower bed.
Interesting find.
Hi I wonder if you can help me? I’ve been doing some research on my father, who was an air gunner during WW2. He told me a story of him crashing in a Bristol Blenheim whilst doing circuits and bumps at RAF Pembrey. I’m guessing it must have been in 1942. I can see that there were two accidents in that year involving Blenheim bombers but can’t find any aircrew listed. I was wondering if you could shed any more light on the incident.
Hi Mike,
It might be difficult to find such details recorded, mishaps at airfields where no-one was killed were commonplace and not likely to make it into books – though I don’t know if that was the case with your Dad’s story? Have you any other details such as location or whether any casualties or if the aircraft was written off?
I will take a look at what books I have for south Wales and will let you know if I find anything which might fit. But your best bet might be to look for station logs or squadron logs? If you have your dad’s service record, that will help. Was he serving with No 1 Gunnery School?
The link below is to an organisation which has a digital archive of logs, you might ask them for support in searching the archive?
Good luck!
Ian
IBBC Digital Archive
Hello everyone, Is there a list of crash sites for 1944 in Normandy, a allied aircraft crashed at the village of Hallot or Hollot August 1944. My father and two others ran to try and save the crew but they ran into a mine field and my father sadly died from his wounds the others were injured , love to find out more, the aircraft, and did the crew make it etc. Pete
Hi Pete, I will email you a few tips to help with your search for information. As admin for this site, I can see your email address (but no-one else can of course!)
Give me a few days, will get back to you.
Ian
Hi Pete, I have been looking around but without any success. About the most promising website might be this one.
France Crashes 39-45
There are English translations alongside the French. You could email the site owner, provide as much detail as you can, and he or she may be able to help. There is a village called Le Hallot which is just in Normandy, between Paris and Évreux, which could be the place?
Ian
Hi Ian, I’m looking for information for my dad on a plane crash near Fauldhouse, West Lothian, Scotland. He thinks it was probably around the mid-1940s and involving a UK bomber (Wellington, Lancaster?). He said that no crew died as they reportedly bailed out. I have looked in the local paper archive (West Lothian Courier) but nothing matching is coming up. I hope you can help.
Hi John, I will have a look and reply to your email if I can find anything. Or someone else might see you query on here and reply?
Ian
APPROX 1943 MY GRANDAD AND I WERE STUDE AT THE END OF THE TERRACE ROW OF HAYES BLULDINGS ON HASLIGDEN ROAD RAWTENSTALL LANCASHIRE WHEN A V.1 FLEW ACROSS OUR VIEW SOME 200 FEET FROM THE GROUND WITH THE FLAMES COMING OUT OF THE BACK OF THE ROCKET,THESE FLAMES CUT OUT AND SMOKE REPLACED THEM AND IT WAS ON ITS WAY TO THE TARGET,WHICH WAS THE ICI FACTORY NEXT TO THE RIVER IRWEL AT TOWNSEND FOLD RAWTENSTALL. IT MISSED ITS TARGET AND FINISHED UP IN FIELDS REAR OF HASLINGDEN .NOT MUCH IS KNOWN LOCALLY BUT THE P0LICE ARE AWERE OF THIS EVENT.
Hi, can you help me find the exact OS grid reference, to locate the crash site of Spitfire BL688, which crashed on the 29th May 1945, which happened around eight years before I was born in 1955. I have lived in this area all my life and this is the first time I have heard of this crash. I worked on the farms in this area and have carted hay from most of these fields, working with many of the older farmers and hands. I knew Alice Walmsley and her husband Joe Howarth and no one has ever mentioned this crash. I have been involved in many local organisations, over the years including the local Church where, we Remember the fallen every year. I am Astonished that this accident, in this Parish, has never been mentioned. I would like to find out more and make sure it is known about in the area and that this young man is remembered.
Hi Chris, I have sent you an email,
Ian
Good afternoon, as a member of a workgroup we are trying to find pictures to the 281 Commonwealth Graves on our Overloon Cemetery. We therefor have to contact the families. Does anybody know the relatives of Leslie Joseph Smith, born in 1922 and killed October 12th, 1944, serving as private with the South Lancashire Regiment 1sr Bn. Leslie was the son of William Henry and Lena Smith from Pellon Yorkshire.
FB: @WerkgroepOverloonWarCemetery
Any crashes in the torbay area of devon please.
Hi
I am looking for some pointers about where to find information on
Luftwaffe aircraft losses over London during WW2. My 88year old mother was about 8-9 years old when she and a friend were machine-gunned by a German aircraft flying very low over Richmond, London sometime around 1941-1941. She says she can still picture an airman in a flying helmet. I am guessing it would probably have been a nose gunner firing on them, possibly a Heinkel III (?) It would have been a daylight raid as the incident occurred around lunchtime and she was told that the aircraft was then brought down by guns in Richmond Park.
I was wondering if it would be possible to identify the aircraft involved. This may be a long shot but I hope that you may be able to help.
Russell
Correction to my above comment. The years should read ‘sometime around 1941-1943’
Russell
Hi someone mailed me to ask for some history re the plane crash on Gorse Hall Stalybridge. I am secretary to The Friends of Gorse Hall a local community group of volunteers who manage the site. I have been researching the sites history for 25 years so I knew about the accident. The field is still there. My contact was researching cinemas and wanted info re the Princes cinema he put me ono your website which I have read with great interest.
I do have the newspaper copies of the accident so was able to refer to them.
What I didn’t realise was that the film was not in the canister??? It was so sad that the young lad died due to this prank!! Just thought I would put you in the picture. best wishes Chris
Hello Ian,You might remember me? Rob, we had a chance meeting on a visit on Wellington MF509, also my pal chris! What a fab day we had, so very pleased to have met you and paul. Yesterday made a 3/12 hike with poppy wreath for P/O Colin James Day, Clifford 1a R7057. 80th anniversary of crash, very little remains today. Next year will be the 80th anniversary for Sgt Alan Fisher flying Clifford 2a P8380 Black Velvet. On reading the file on this aircraft, No ACC102 PRN 08025W it is not quite correct. Aircraft came down between glyncorrwg and resolven. Aircraft was recovered with help from local farmer from llwyn-y-ffynnon in glyncorrwg, not glynneath. When lifting the merlin onto the cart the pony all of sudden became airborne! Scrap dealers removed all metal few years back, close proximity to road. Hope you’re both keeping well? If your in my neck of the woods, give me a shout! Kind tends Rob…
Hi Rob, great to hear from you, I remember that day well! It’s rare I get the opportunity to visit South Wales but that was a worthwhile visit. Am doing ok thanks, glad we seem to be moving away from what we’ve been through these past 17 months or so.
Hope you are well, and thanks for dropping by!
Ian
Where Clifford came from I don’t know! Should be Spifire!!
Ian, Can you tell me please where I might find information about a Heinkel 111 that crashed at Lossiemouth on 26.10.1940?
Hi Dave, I will send you an email.
Ian
Hi John,
I have been googling Liberator KN768. There are some discrepancies, which happens occasionally. One pdf I found states:
Group RAF Ferry Command, Liberator B.VIII KN768 crashed taking off at Dorval, Quebec,
when the undercarriage was retracted too early and the propellors hit the ground, causing
a loss of control, Sgt A.T. Furness RAF (Can.), Sgt G.F. Buers RAF, Sgt G.E. Chappell
RAF, F/O D.W. Southwell RAF, P/O J.A Winkley RAF and Sgt I.R. Platt RAF killed (C.A.
Christie), 5 survived (from a quoted crew of 11; most sites list 4 killed from this accident).
The Liberator crashed near the house where pilot F/L D.P. Varden was on leave from his
station at Yarmouth, NS. He immediately entered the burning wreck and pulled out two
crewmen who had been killed. A third attempt pulled out a survivor. A second survivor
was pinned by wreckage that was too hot to handle. F/L Varden’s wife brought him water
which was used to cool the metal, but F/L Varden’s hands were still burned releasing the
trapped airmen. He ceased his rescue attempts when other people took over. For his
efforts F/L D.P. Varden was awarded the George Medal
You can often view headstones by looking on Find-a-grave, e.g the wireless op’s grave is here
Geoffrey Frank BUERS
And you should be able to get hold of the accident report (Air Ministry Form 1180) from the RAF Air Historical Branch at Northolt. There is a phone number and email address on this page. You have the exact date so it shouldn’t be too difficult but it can be a bit hit and miss as to what is recorded on them.
Ian
Hi Ian,hope you are well.Will chat with you more later as l’m in a rush.Is there anything on site for the flight path of 2nd Dec 1943 16.34 hours.9th Squadron Lancasters. Harbourg,Lower Saxony.Germany.Believed to have been shot down near Brusendorf. Plane no. DV332. Speak later.Best wishes.Pat.
Hi Pat, have messaged you.
Best wishes,
Ian
Great site.. lots of useful info… Is there any chance you could add a gpx file for each section?? This would be fantastic and very helpful indeed
thanks again
regards
Andrew
Hi Andrew,
Thank you for the feedback. Don’t think I’d be able to do gpx files I’m afraid, not sure of the routes I took as some of these places were visited years ago. But if you need any grid refs I will get them to you if I have them. Email address above.
Best wishes,
Ian