Still In Business

We are still going out, though as we haven't done any new sites for a while, I don't bother posting anything. All any pictures would show is the gradual erosion of wreckage at the sites, and its replacement with a proliferation of signs, crosses and poppies, even at sites where there were no deaths. Some of the outings can be seen at MatZX's site here.  I'm planning on starting to visit some new sites soon, lockdown permitting...

Fairey Swordfish P4223

A tidied up pile with what looks to be new excavated material, and one of those new crosses at the Swordfish site.

Location: SE 08338 04764

Handley Page Hampden Mk.I AE381

Out on a training walk yesterday on Kinder, I dropped in on this site very close to the path. Both of the wreckage piles and their associated cross and plaque were disturbed, and one of those new stainless steel crosses I've been seeing has appeared, but the metal looks mostly still to be there, compared with my last visit in 2007.

The Kinder perimeter path was really busy, and there were already no parking spaces left in Edale at 7AM. I don't normally go there on a Sunday morning. I wouldn't recommend it, unless you like a crowd.

Location: SK 07802 87492.

Airspeed Oxford Mk.I LX745

Looking much as it did back in 2007, despite being very easily accessible from the nearby well-trafficked path, the Oxford site was the third of the four sites visited last Saturday. The pic shows the main wreckage pool. There is also a fuel tank partially buried nor far away.


Locations:

Wreckage pictured is at SJ 99800 74629.
Fuel tank at SJ 99813 74648.

North American Harvard Mk.IIB FT442

This Harvard site on Shining Tor is considerably more overgrown than when last visited, but it has acquired another one of those new crosses.

Location: SJ 99748 73741.

Fi-103 (V-1) Cruise Missile: Langsett

On Featherbed Top on Howden Moor, there is a bare patch which many including Alan Clark and Pat Cunningham have claimed is the site of a V1 crash. We have visited the site a couple of times previously, and gone with the consensus identification up to now, but we no longer think that the consensus is correct.

Following information received, we have looked into claims from "Tomsk" that this site is not in fact a V1 crater, but that the true crater lies 3/4 km away. After visiting the alternative location today, we are happy that this is the case, for the following reasons:

1. The new crater (illustrated) is very similar in appearance to the one on Black Edge, known to be a V1 site.

2. We found twisted, rusty heavy gauge steel components (illustrated) around the crater identical in appearance to those we found at the Black Edge site. Mick's doing his Big Vern face in this shot.

3. The aluminium parts we found previously (now removed by persons unknown) at the supposed V1 crater correspond to nothing we have seen at V1 sites elsewhere.

4. We have seen no other V1 sites which are a flat black scar on the peat like the supposed V1 site on Howden Moor. All other sites are sharp-sided craters like the new candidate.

5. We have evidence from Tomsk that scraps found at the supposed V1 crater come instead from a Luftmine B parachute mine. Here's a Luftmine B:

Note the distinctive cross section of the fins, and their five rivets. Here's a bit recovered from the old site with that cross section and five rivets:

6. Tomsk also identifies parts found at the new site as belonging to a V1. Here's the bolt which holds the warhead on on a museum piece:

Here's something which looks very similar recovered from the site:

Here's the guillotine mechanism which cuts the cables to send the V1 into a dive:

So our initial scepticism has been greatly tempered. The new location seems far more likely to be correct than the commonly held one. The sixth comment on this post also contains seemingly confirmatory information from the Imperial War Museum including these pics. Thanks Dave.

It'll be interesting if others modify their opinions and websites to suit. More interesting still will be who they credit-Mick tells me that Alan Clark for one is simply following us around the sites we have visited in Wales nowadays without crediting us, judging by the updates to his site.

New Location: SK 18224 97083

DeHavilland Hornet F. Mk.1 PX244

DeHavilland Hornet F.1 PX244
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

On the B-team outing today with Welsh Barry we found this little bit of aluminium skinning at the site, despite Alan Clark having apparently taken anything sizeable for his private collection (see the two pics right at the bottom of the page here).

If you are reading, Alan, did you make those wonky little felt-tip scale bars? ROFL! That's the best thing we've seen since your mate's home made "Air Crash Investigator" jumpsuit!

Location: SK 27282 36384

Further Info on Wrecks

You may want to know more about the wrecks we have visited. We could reproduce others' research, but it would be just as well to go to the source:

The link from the title above is probably the best internet site for information on the planes that crashed in the peak. No information on crash or wreckage location is given, but if you wanted to know more about the planes and their pilots, this one's the daddy, at least as far as the Peak District is concerned. Its author is another matter altogether. We had to ban him from commenting on the blog, but if you read some of his comments on here, you'll see what sort of person he is.

We use Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks and High Ground Wrecks for general location and biographical info, and the sites given here (with caution) for more up to date photos and info on the wreck sites.

Ralph the dog favours Peakland Air Crashes, which we understand has GPS based five decimal place coordinates, and more up to date info, though we have never seen a copy.