Fairey Barracuda Mk.II DR306

A drystone wall "repaired" with bits of torpedo bomber. Click on pic to zoom in if you can't see it.

I'm not sure I agree with the suggestion that this is supposed to be a wall repair.

It just looks like the standard farmer's trick of throwing bits of aircraft wreckage to the edge of the field to me.

Two reasons why I don't think it is a repair-there's no hole in the wall, and in the National Park farmers get paid to repair dry stone walls properly.

In National Parks farmers are more like caretakers, really.

Location:SD 74246 80387

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Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk. V T4136

Some "Aviation Enthusiasts" nearly came a cropper here.

The bomb was found in the bucket of their JCB, according to The Independent, so obviously good archaeological practice was (as ever for wreckologists) not the No. 1 priority!

I am led to believe Eliott Smock of "The Whitley Project" was the digger in question. Perhaps he would have been better to leave well alone.

He has said since the original date of the posting that he makes no claim to be an archaeologist, and is just digging to get parts to attempt to make a museum piece.

It's nice that he does not have the common delusions of grandeur, but even if you are a house-builder, wouldn't it be better to allow professional archaeologists to make the maximum possible use of your dig site?

If you are going to drive a digger through a crash site, you will irreversibly destroy the archaeological evidence.

Why not follow the new CADW guidelines, even if you are not required to do so by law?

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Location SE 889 818

Martin Marauder B-26G 44-68072

Martin Marauder B-26G 44-68072
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

A day out with Matt ZX to see if we could find anything from the Marauder crash site on Y Garn yesterday.

The photo shows what we believe to be the impact point of this medium bomber of the Western face of Y Garn, Snowdonia. The parallel lines of scree are deepish scrapes which have filled over time with small stones. The site location was proven correct by the presence of some distinctive bits of aircraft aluminium, as shown in the entry below.

David Earl reports that the aircraft broke in two from here, with one bit staying with one of the crew on the Llanberis side, and the remainder of the crew and 'plane going over the edge to break up and scatter in the valley below. An old-time wreckhunter has written to tell us that by the early 60s only the props lay on this side of the hillside, the wing sections seemingly having been pushed over the cliff.

Using telescopes and binoculars from the summit, we established that the undercarriage and other bits not weighed in for scrap by the local magpies are still present. We will return by the Eastern route to get photos and accurate locations for the scattered wreckage on a later trip.

Location of impact point: SH 62842 59856

Location of undercarriage:SH 631 602

Martin Marauder B-26G 44-68072

Martin Marauder B-26G 44-68072
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

Site proving debris

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Heinkel He-111 F4801/IT+EL

Heinkel F4801/IT+EL: Lllwytmor
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

The Heinkel wreck site, found at the third attempt with assistance from Rob TT. As well as the big bits at Mick's feet, there's a lot of molten scattered stuff mixed in with small rocks, as commonly seen at burn-out sites.

There's not much about the 'plane on the 'net, so I'll put a bit of history in for once:

It was a Heinkel 111 of 3/KG28. The plane had been on a bombing run over the docks at Barrow in Furness where it was believed the “Illustrious “ was being repaired. Anti-aircraft guns hit the plane, taking out the radio and compass.

The damaged plane then flew into the side of Llwytmor killing the engineer on 14th April 1941. The remainder of the crew survived the crash and were sent to POW camps in Canada.

Location: SH 68683 69747

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Avro Lancaster Mk. I W4326 'C' Charlie

Dolwen Lancaster
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

The smaller of the two wreckage piles with its home-made memorial stone.

Someone seems to have claimed the site for Wales, despite the crew being from Canada and New Zealand in the main, and the aircraft having flown from 101 Group in Yorkshire.

Location: SH 95433 09203

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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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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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Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV V6099

Blenheim: Elidirs
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

Some bits of aluminium skinning from the site of the 31 March 1943 crash of 22 year old Flying Officer Edward Alexander Perry's Bristol Blenheim.

We don't normally bother too much with the historical stuff on here, but there's really nothing on the web from other wreck hunters on this.

Though there were no identifying marks on any of these bits, we are calling this definitively Blenheim wreckage based on the proximity to the High Ground Wrecks coordinates. No-one is disagreeing with us so far.

Location: SH 60874 62112

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Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk.V LA765

Whitley: Godleybrook
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig

A chunk of cast aluminium alloy from the 1944 crash site of this Whitley bomber at Dilhorne near Stoke on Trent, Staffordshire.

Location: SJ 97304 44867

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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

And for you serial number fans, here's a detail from a bit of wreckage carrying an embossed serial number with the "57" prefix indicative of a Halifax.

Flying Fortress: Arenig Fawr

Flying Fortress: Arenig Fawr
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

A day out with Matt ZX yesterday on foggy Arenig Fawr looking at the crash site of a Flying Fortress. We found far more wreckage than expected, trailling 300m down the slope in a suspiciously straight line which Matt thought might be the path taken by the recovery team.

Theres' not really much on the 'net about this site, but the link below gives a precis of the circumstances of the crash, and a pic of the crew..

Location: SH 82430 37069 to SH 82649 36942

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Boeing Flying Fortress B-17F 42-3134

Flying Fortress: Arenig Fawr
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

A collection of fair-sized bits further down the hill. Our Flickr site shows lots of other bits we found all the way up to the crash site and memorial. Too many and too small to blog them all.

Location: SH 82565 37052

Boeing Flying Fortress B-17F 42-3134

Flying Fortress: Arenig Fawr
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

This was the lowest substantial bit of wreckage we found. Thoroughly concertinaed by the crash.

Location: SH 82435 37069

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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Martin Marauder B-26G 44-68072

Marauder Memorial
Originally uploaded by wreckhunter

The weather prevented us taking the longer route originally intended to visit the Marauder crash site, but we visited this memorial to the crew on the Llanberis pass on our way back. It's around two miles from the crash site, which we will visit another time.

Location:SH 62066 57090

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Armstrong Vickers Wellington Mk.X MF584

MF584
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2

With Mick away on hols, an easy outing with the B-Team to this Wellington site near Marchington.

There was a fair bit more wreckage from MF584 than has been found by others, which had been thrown by the farmer into the hedge. He told us we could have it if we liked!

The farmer also told us that there is to be a 'plane wreck recovery operation going on in August not too far distant from this site.

Location:SK 12508 29853

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Handley Page Halifax MkII DT578 Coded ZB?

Halifax?:Great Whernside
Originally uploaded by seansonofbig2
We think these are the remains of Halifax DT578 which crashed in Great Whernside five years before the Mosquito shown in the next entry.

Location:SD 99974 73376

More info:Richard Allenby