North American Harvard Mk.IIB FT442

A day out with Pat today. Amongst other things we found this bit of metal at the Harvard site on Shining Tor, more convincing that the scraps of perspex we found last time.

We also found a discharged handgun round at the nearby Defiant/Norseman site, about which more later...

Gloster Javelin F.A.W Mk.5 XA662

We had a grand day out in Wensleydale (I had the cheese on the way back, it was nothing special in its native area) yesterday in fine weather to look at a couple of decent wreck sites above Castle Bolton.

The photo shows a detail from the extensive wreckage pile over the hill in Apedale from the crash of this early jet fighter (the pilot and trainee on board both ejected safely after both engines failed)

It is an end-on view of a jet-pipe, which is maybe 10 feet long. Pictures of the rest of the wreckage can be seen on the Flickr site, click though on the pic if you want to see them.

We'd be more concerned over the degree of inaccuracy we established in Clarks' published coordinates here if you couldn't see the site from over 200m away...

Location: SE 01545 94188

More info

De Havilland Mosquito F.B Mk.VI TA525

We recognised this pothole from Richard Allenby's site (see "more info" below), so we knocked the nettles aside and had a peer in to find...

...this wreckage, formerly to be seen just outside the pothole. It seems that someone has thoughtfully "tidied it up".

There is a much bigger pile of wreckage just above this location which certain others might pretend they had visited, but their photos didn't come out-in our case however the truth is that we were so focussed on finding this pothole that we just forgot.

Location: SE 02111 92966

More info

Avro Vulcan B. Mk.2 XH536

An outing to the Black Mountains and Brecon Beacons yesterday in flag-cracking sunshine proved successful in locating two wreck sites from the Brecon Beacons pamphlet.

First up was this one, a crater left when a Vulcan crashed into a snow-covered hillside indistinguishable from the low cloud around it on 11th February 1966 with no survivors. Click on the pic to see the wreckage in the crater.

Location: SN 91152 21363

Avro Vulcan B. Mk.2 XH536

This incredibly heavy bit of the Vulcan flew quite some distance from the crater. Not sure what it is, but it was built to last

Location: SN 91199 21489

Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress 42-5903 "Ascend Charlie"

This cairn is partially constructed from previously molten and torn aluminium from the Pen Gwylt Meirch crash site of Flying Fortress "Ascend Charlie". Unlike so many of the crash sites we have visited, this crew were on their way back from having seen action, rather than being casualties of training or hi-jinks.

Location: SO 24177 25366

More info:"An American Bomber crashed on the mountain near the Cwm Farm, Llanbedr at 21:20 hours on 16 September 1943. Fortress 42-5903 known as Ascend Charlie piloted by First Lt. Herbert Turner was hit in No. 1 engine by flak over La Rochelle. On the return journey the formation hit a cloud front with the oncoming darkness the formation scattered resulting in the plane hitting the hillside and killing all 10 crew." Addis.,J. (2002) "Crickhowell Yesterday" Abergavenny: Broadleaf

Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress 42-5903 "Ascend Charlie"

The memorial to "The Turner Crew" as they are sometimes known is immediately adjacent to the crash site. The average age of the crew was 22.

Boeing B-17F Flying Fortress 42-5903 "Ascend Charlie"

The memorial to the crew of the flying fortress in the church in nearby Llanbedr. There's one in the Red Lion next door too...

Location: SO 23933 20465

North American P 51-D Mustang 44-72340 / WD-K

Rainforest 1: Wreckhunters 0

We ( Me, Mick, Matt ZX) went over to Aran Fawddwy yesterday with a view to finding a bit of the Mustang whose wreckage was scattered there.

We had the crash report, and the various published coordinates. There were three of us, we had all day to look and we had all found a good few wreck sites.

We found nothing where the crash report map showed wreckage should have been, we found nothing where TR Hill's book described wreckage in a rainforest, and we found nothing where Clark's book reported wreckage, other than incredibly tightly packed trees, festooned with moss.

Crash Report: SH 845 233
Clark et al: SH 841 237
Hill: SH 846 234

We have a report that someone from Chester looted the site back in the early 90's, and that one of their friends has been operating nearby recently.

Anyone know anything?

Bruster Rooster? The fake crash report documents

So I now have one of those sets of "fake" crash document reports, reproduced below. I'm not convinced that they cast any doubt on the veracity of the Overexposed report posted previously, but appear to me to be joke documents produced as part of an outward bound type exercise. Apparently there is another set, more intended to deceive. Will publish when I get them. Comments?

Where did it all go?

Here's evidence from the May 1968 issue of Air Clues, an RAF magazine as to where some of the bigger sections of the Peak District sites went. Wonder where the bits taken are now?

Looks like the readily portable stuff was already gone by then, judging by the slim pickings available to these air cadets.

The crash sites referred to are believed to be that of Botha W5103, Defiant N3378, Blenheim L1476 and Swordfish P4223, but this last one is strangely a long way from the others, which form something of a cluster. Is there another Swordfish site?