UK Air Crash Sites Photos

Here's my flickr site, with my archive of crash site photos. You can see grid refs/coordinates for all of the pictured sites on here.

Avro Anson T21 VV995

Anson VV995
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

Finally found the undercarriage from this Anson navigation trainer on Foel Lwyd at the third try.

This was our backup walk after our attempt on Moel Hebog's Anson EG472 had to be abandoned, as we had chosen a route which was unsuited to the weather.

Ended up doing it in the dark, but with good coords from Rob the Tog, an easy find in the end. It's always a lot easier when you are looking in the right place. The High Ground Wrecks coordinates are over 200m out at this site, and on this terrain, that's a long way.

Location: SH 72366 72056

World's End

World's End
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

Went up to a place called World's End above Minera (near Wrexham)on Monday in a fair bit of snow looking for some of the wrecks up there. Four are given in High Ground Wrecks: Beaufighter NE203, Spitfire TE210, Fulmar N4074, and Master N7442.

As with last week in Yorkshire, we found nothing anywhere near the HGW coordinates for the ones we got to.

A great day out though, and we had the added excitement of very nearly losing the Landy over a steep bank. Excitement is not quite the right word though, we were a few inches from a 30m drop sideways.

The road is basically impassable in any amount of snow, as even locals were finding out the hard way. Quite a few people went past points of no return, and we had to take a couple of carfuls back down to safety as dark closed in. I should imagine this has been world's end for a few drivers over the years, as well as all those pilots.

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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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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Handley Page Halifax Mk.V DG404 coded OO-A or Armstrong Vickers Wellington Mk.IC Z8808?

Halifax or Wellington?
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

We found this bit of aircraft aluminium on our walk to the Halifax, more or less halfway between the reported crash sites of the Halifax and a Wellington.

Location: SE 10236 67759

Handley Page Halifax Mk.V DG404 coded OO-A

Halifax
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

A pit containing large pieces of aluminium skinning from Halifax DG404 on Brown Hill Plain (some give it as Heathfield Moor or even Ashfold Side Beck) on the moors above Pateley Bridge

Location: SE 09570 67520

Handley Page Halifax Mk.V DG404 coded OO-A

Halifax
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

One of the two groups of good-sized wreckage at this Halifax crash site

Location: SE 09592 67502

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Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV L4873

Blenheim:Mynydd Tarw
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

Overgrowth by soft rush makes it hard to do justice to this pretty extensive pile of wreckage up on Foel Wen(or possibly Mynydd Tarw) in a photo.


Blenheim:Mynydd Tarw
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

The bit of metal in the foreground is a main spar from the wing of this bomber aircraft. It's a good sized bit of metal.

Location: SJ 10303 32442

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Boeing Flying Fortress B-17E 41-9098

Fortress: Craig Berwyn
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

Here's where the Flying Fortress actually crashed, 670m away from the High Ground Wrecks/Doylerush coordinates, and in a different valley altogether. See then next post for our proof.

Location: SJ 07933 33521

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Armstrong Vickers Wellington Mk.III HF613 coded DD-R

Wellington: Hope
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

This memorial and the Canadian maple planted in the wooden frame behind it were placed to mark the crash site of this RCAF Wellington in the ford in the river nearby.

The crash site itself threw up a practice bomb a few years back (not a live one as reported elsewhere on the 'net), which was blown up by the army with an unsatisfying explosion, according to witness reports.

Location:SK 16003 83421

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Hawker Henley Mk. III L3334

Henley: Cwm Silyn
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

The highest bit found, and an idea of the visibility on the day.

Location: SH 51689 50283

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Bleaklow: Defiant and Botha

Training outing yesterday, twelve and a half miles off-path over Bleaklow's groughs and cloughs took us almost exactly twelve hours. We went to visit a couple of sites more or less on the top of Bleaklow, which we had visited last year.

The sites are those of a Defiant and Botha, two planes united by being frankly a bit rubbish, both models ending up being used as target tugs.

The Defiant was like a Spitfire with a rear firing gun-turret. This tricked a few German pilots at first, but once they knew it had no forward firing guns, it came to seem to the unfortunate aircrew like a much less clever idea.

The Botha was very underpowered and unstable, and consequently crashed a lot. The military therefore withdrew it from active service. They then seemingly thought that these characteristics would make it an ideal training aircraft, which obviously did nothing good for its continuing safety record.

We had resolved previously to revisit the Defiant as High Peak Bob records a further wreckage pile downhill from the commonly visited major one. We actually found quite a number of collections, within a widespread scatter of small bits.

We saw nothing to prove or disprove the sometimes advanced theory that this 'plane was subject to "friendly fire": the fabled radiator with 0.303 bullet holes was not in evidence. There are in any case many things on these moors with such bullet holes in, as they were used for military training for many years. We'd have been none the wiser if we had seen it.

We revisited the Botha because it was close by, and also because visiting both sites allowed us to better investigate the hypothesis frequently put to us that publishing wreck coordinates encourages looting.

We are pleased to say that both sites seem untouched since our last visit. Whilst far from conclusive, this supports our view that publishing coordinates facilitates a harmless navigation exercise for walkers.

Boulton Paul Defiant Mk.I N3378

Defiant
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

These pieces of aluminium sheeting were a good way from the piled wreckage commonly photographed at the site, in the direction of the Botha wreck.

Location: SK 10747 97072