Moelfre, Foel Lywd, Sychnant Pass: Chinook, Liberator, Oxford, Anson

Chinook
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

A day out in Snowdonia, the weather forecast didn't quite pan out, so only one new site to report.

We were overflown by this Chinook just before finding the crash site and memorial to the Liberator bomber "Bachelor's Baby"

We passed close to the crash site of Oxford N4568 by the Sychnant pass on our way to the next site, but didn't stop as we don't have enough information to make a search in lashing rain attractive.

We also had to abandon our return visit for Anson VV995's undercarriage about 50m short of the most likely location, as we were running out of light and the weather was turning very nasty.

As ever, we'll be back.

Consolidated B-24 J Liberator 42-99991 "Bachelors Baby"

Liberator-Batchelor's Baby: Moelfre
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

The burn site with its two memorials resulting from the crash of "Bachelor's Baby", which was a brand new Liberator bomber before it met with Moelfre's slopes.

Though all but six (or four according to the link below) of the eleven crew died in the crash, one went on to resume his sports career in the US as the "singing fullback".

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Consolidated B-24 J Liberator 42-99991 "Bachelors Baby"

Liberator-Batchelor's Baby: Moelfre
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

A fractured rock with cross on top. At the base of the cross, scraps of the 'plane.

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Consolidated B-24 J Liberator 42-99991 "Bachelors Baby"

Liberator-Batchelor's Baby: Moelfre
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

Memorial to the five human crew killed in the 1942 crash of this American heavy bomber, and their dog "Booster", who was interred at the site.

The site is a full 82 m from the six decimal place coordinates given on the "GPS Walker" site. Perhaps that is why Alan Clark is happy to carry a link to that inaccurate and ill-maintained site and not to ours. No-one is going to find much from "GPS Walker"'s coordinates.

Since the site's title implies that GPS is being used for navigation and production of coordinates, we have no idea how the coordinates published on the website can be so far out.

We have had no success in contacting "GPS Walker", but if you are out there, your comments are invited. We link below our +/-3m accurate coordinates to the relevant page of "GPS Walker"'s site.

Location: SH 71564 74345

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Bofurs Gun

40mm AA Gun
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

One of Welsh Barry's finds, a pretty much complete 40mm Bofurs anti-aircraft autocannon apparently abandoned to rot in the wilds of Staffordshire.

Location:SK 04588 57285

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West Midlands- Kidderminster

Rocket Testing Facility
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

A Remembrance Sunday out yesterday with Matt ZX and his Motley Crüe, as well as our mate Moustache Steve.

Turned a bit wet and windy towards the end of the day, but we had 100% success in finding trace evidence at the the three sites Matt had chosen, despite them all being well picked over by the usual magpies.

Passed this secret rocket testing facility, (now scarcely used) on the way. Security could be a bit tighter.

Hawker Hurricane Mk. I Z5663

Hurricane: Bewdley
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

Scraps from the crash site of this Hurricane in the Wyre Forest.

Location SO 7472 77904

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Spitfire Mk.XIV NH695

Spitfire: Bewdley
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

A nut from a Spitfire which crashed in Postensplain, Wyre Forest.

This is our first crash site for a female pilot.

Mrs Rosamund King Everard-Steenkamp was at the controls. We are told that her husband had himself previously died in an aviation accident. She may have been the first woman to fly a jet.

Location: SO 74870 79165

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Airspeed Oxford AT655

Oxford: Kidderminster
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

The remains of this Oxford in Wassell Wood, SW Midlands are more substantial than those at the other two sites visited on the day.

Location: SO 79661 77602

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Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV Z5870

Crowden Brook
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

Further to some recent correspondence, we decided to search up from Crowden Brook towards what is believed by some to be the terminal site of this still unlocated Blenheim Bomber crash.

Like all others we are aware of, we failed to find any trace of the 'plane on the mountain.

On the other hand, we did get to be overtaken by little old ladies (amongst many others) on what seemed to be the most well-trafficked route up Kinder we have yet been on.

Location:TBC

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De Havilland Vampire T.11 XE854

Neglected Crash Site Memorial
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

By an industrial estate in Rawmarsh, there is an unmade lane. Down this lane there is an empty house. Behind the empty house there is derelict half-acre of waist-high nettles.

100 yards through this there is a scruffy thicket of trees. Inside the thicket there is a low, gated wall.

Inside the wall there is a tangle of brambles, and in this tangle there are two memorials and a bench commemorating the fatal crash of a Vampire jet in 1959.

We'd never have found this without Pat Cunningham's 6 d.p. coordinates.

The standing memorial is from the pilot's aunties and uncles, and the one on the ground from his parents. The neglected state of these memorials is a sad sight.

UPDATE the memorials and the pilot's ashes have been moved to new locations

De Havilland Vampire T.11 XE854

Neglected Crash Site Memorial
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

The parents of the teenage pilot placed this memorial in the crater caused by his crashing his jet into the ground after disobeying orders in order to fly low over his home whilst supposedly on a training flight.

He had previously got away this with on several occasions in prop 'planes, but this time he became disoriented in cloud, and hit the ground with fatal results.

If this seems a harsh summary of events, Pat Cunnigham's is less generous still.

The pilot's ashes are also interred here.

Location: SK 43346 95752

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UPDATE