Grumman Avenger Mk.II JZ390

Wast Water Avenger
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

On the rock in the foreground is a scrap of the Royal Navy Air Service Grumman Avenger ship-borne torpedo bomber which flew into a cliff on the 16th January 1945, on a training flight from RNAS Inskip in Lancashire.

The 'plane's engine is allegedly in the lake shown in the background (Wast Water at the foot of Sca Fell in the Lake District).

Eeh, Mick's new camera takes an atmospheric picture...

Location

Countryfile

Countryfile's article on the peak plane wreck sites may have been the cause of the massive spike in visitor numbers to the site over the weekend.

At least they sent out a competent presenter guided by a local MRT volunteer to the Shelf Stones Superfortress site, rather than the clueless floppy-haired double act possibility: Ben Fogle and Alan Clark. Imagine that if you will.
























Oh dear-here's that Mountain Rescue Team volunteer leading his colleagues in the "recovery" from the site of what is described as a gun turret, previously hidden by kids back in 1948.

I'd be interested to know whether they had a licence from the MOD for the operation. If they have, we could have told them where there was one in much better condition.

Boeing B-17 G Flying Fortress 44-8683

Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress 44-8683
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

A long trek over boggy terrain above Kettlewell in the Yorkshire Dales yesterday yielded only one confirmed site, this collection of scraps from a Flying Fortress crashed in cloud in May 1945.

Location:SE 00053 72764

More info

Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I X4588

Supermarine Spitfire X4588
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

A day out in the Brecon Beacons yesterday located the crash site of Spitfire X4588, fatally crashed by Sgt. D P Carruthers during a formation flying exercise in May 1942 probably as a result of a combination of bad weather and a slight navigation error.

The efforts of the local National Park staff in the Brecons to prevent the activities of magpies (as previously reported) are probably the reason for this being our most extensive Spitfire wreckage visited to date.

Location: SO 01677 18458

Snowdon Revisit

Sean and Matt with 'Copter
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

A hot day on Snowdon yesterday. Imagine that.

Helicopters were all over keeping an eye on things, and in the case of the Sea King seen near the summit, presumably taking part in a rescue exercise. This littler one ( top right of frame) went back and forth up and down Cwm Llan for the better part of an hour.

We found the rest of the DH Mosquito we missed last time, as well as the scant remains of the Spitfire on Yr Aran, with the assistance of Matt ZX.

Now we have found it, we can reveal that you won't need our coordinates to find the Mosquito wreckage. Just follow the river, you can't miss it, throughout the stream bed, and around its banks.

The Spitfire is more elusive, and on steep unstable ground above a good drop. Even that has not prevented fresh looting, however, as we report lower down the page.

On a technical note, all pics are now taken with Micks' new camera, and have much better resolution than previously if you click through...

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

Propeller boss

Location: SH 61048 52930

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

Detail from collection further upstream

Location: SH 61085 52982

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

This engine bearer used to hold one of the Mosquito's Rolls-Royce Merlin engines.

Of course even if engine and bearer had survived the crash together, this would have been discarded by the scrap merchants when they took the Merlin away to their "Museum".

Mick was telling me that Mr Doylerush was under the impression that the local magpies had told him the stuff they were scavenging was for a millenium museum in Bethesda.

We saw no signs of any such musem on our way through. Would anyone like to tell us what happened to the Bethesda Millennium Museum, and the engines looted on the basis that they were to be exhibits there?

Location: SH 61086 52980

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982

De Havilland Mosquito Mk.III TV982
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

This is the most upstream collection we found, mostly comprising undercarriage parts.

Location: SH 61086 52993

Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I X4843

Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I X4843
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

All that remains of the Spitfire crashed on Yr Aran are these few scraps.

These are less still than Matt ZX saw only as far back as April.

This piece of perspex, and chunk of armour plate have been taken from the site since then.

If you click on the pic and zoom in , you can see that the plate is marked with the year of manufacture, 1940.

The magpies like nothing better than a Spitfire. Consequently even the few bits not yet misappropriated may be the most we have seen left at a Spitfire crash site!

Interestingly, I am told that the missing bits apparently feature in the photos of the crash site on the PDAAR website, which were taken very shortly before we visited.

Location: SH 60615 51687