Avro Lancaster Mk. III NE132

This appropriately sombre picture shows the memorial to the crew of Lancaster NE132 at the site of their fatal 6th February 1945 crash.

It lies in the middle of an extensive (but nevertheless hard to find) wreckage trail down the flank of Rhinog Fawr in South Snowdonia, Wales.

It's pretty accessible by high ground wreck site standards, though the 50mph winds and driving rain reduced accessibility a bit for us last Saturday. Without assistance from Matt ZX, we'd undoubtedly have blanked here as we did on our last attempt. The site is a very long way from the High Ground Wrecks coordinates.

This is the only crash site listed as a War Grave in Wales, but this didn't stop someone taking away the only two engines on the site which were not completely shattered around ten years ago.

As we know, wreckologists aren't squeamish about graverobbing, but for whatever reason, the shattered remains of much of the 'plane and two of of the crew are still there on the hillside, rather than gracing some sad anorak's shed.

With the new rules from CADW, they will hopefully now remain undisturbed for years to come.

Location: SH 63736 28879

Avro Lancaster Mk. III NE132

This mixture of wreckage and rocks goes on for several hundred metres, and in some places includes what appear to be human remains, as well as other clearly identifiable items as pictured below



0.303 bullets

Propeller Boss

Avro Lancaster Mk. III NE132

The bottom of the wreckage trail, where a substantial wall stops the bits falling further down the hill. if you click through to the higher resolution version, you can see the crank from a shattered Merlin engine, as well as armour plate and undercarriage components.

The two stolen engines used to lie here also. Does anyone know who took them?

Location: SH 63720 28916

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Aircraft Wrecks: The Walker's Guide: Historic Crash Sites on the Moors and Mountains of the British Isles

We are getting reports of inaccuracies and errors in Clark and Wotherspoon's so-called "Walkers Guide". We don't want to judge prematurely, so are investigating.

Our initial comment is this -walkers (or "bobble-hatted numpties" as Alan Clark likes to call us) don't want a guide which is a big hardback book, contains no walking routes, has only approximate (and perhaps inaccurate) coordinates, and has pages of stuff about what the flight crew had for breakfast.

Surely they want something more like the old "High Ground Wrecks", only more precise and accurate, with GPS verified 6 dp coordinates, and a few words about the circumstances of the crash.

But of course we give you that for nowt. Comments and reports on errors in the "guide" are invited.

Vickers Armstrong Wellington Mk.IC DV718

A tough 19k in fog and rain brought us precious little of this aircraft which crashed at night in low cloud and rain on Riggs Moor.

The poor visibility around here which did for all but one of the crew of the Wellington has caused us a few problems too. The weather was relatively fine until we came to the search area, and visibility then dropped dramatically, just as it did last time we were here.

We were out of light before we had a chance to complete our search, and had to do a couple of K over cloughs and groughs in the dark, which was a good navigation exercise. We found this lightweight bit, around 400mm square, but I'm pretty sure we were almost 100m from the main site.

The crash site is big, and having been assured it could be seen from 100m (if only you could see that far), we are certain we will get the main site at our next attempt, (especially as I spotted it on Google Earth this morning!)

Location: SE 02205 73365

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Vickers Armstrong Wellington Mk. III BK405

A bit of an easy walk with Pat Cunningham this afternoon at the Boylestone site of the fatal crash of this Wellington shortly after take-off.

This was the most convincing scrap we found in a reasonably thorough metal detector search, despite a report that the field was so littered with metallic scraps three years ago that you wouldn't need a metal detector to find them.

The magpies have struck again!

Location: SK 20342 35419

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World's End : Flying Whale

Back to World's End above Wrexham last Saturday for another crack at the numerous wrecksites up there. Matt ZX was with us this time, which often improves our luck.

As last time we saw the "Beluga" which ferries bits of Airbus between factories, but this time we actually found a wreck-site, that which most people think is that of a Beaufighter.

High heather made for tough going, and we had to pack it in after only six hours. We had a good look for the Mustang and Vampire wreck sites in that time, mind. We will return when we have better data.

Bristol Beaufighter Mk. X NE203

This is what others have shown as the state of the site, a scar with a few scraps. The nearby burial pit has far more stuff, though.

Location: SJ 23924 48274

Bristol Beaufighter Mk. X NE203

This looks to be a burial pit with signs of recent digging and fresh-looking bits of aluminium. This is where most of the wreckage we saw was located.

Location:SJ 23933 48268

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There are serial numbers on the wreckage as pictured below

also an inspector's stamp

Urra Moor

A day out above Chop Gate yesterday proved far more successful than our previous outing. As the photo shows, the area is pretty flat in the main, with some deepish gullies containing watercourses.

The High Ground Wrecks coordinates are absolutely rubbish in this area, as so often in Yorkshire, which we proved by finding the actual locations of two or three wreck sites.

The easy ground allowed us to get round the 15k planned, and visit the 6 locations where we though something might be found despite a late start.

We came down in the dark, but there was fair amount of moonlight, so it wasn't the big deal it might have been on a less forgiving bit of high ground, or less favourable weather. I didn't even get my jumper out all day...