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
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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We think the molten aluminium mixed in with these more recognisable components show this to be the burn-out site of this disputed wreck site on Elidir Fawr.
There is a cairn immediately adjacent to this scatter of bits, perhaps indicating that someone else thought the same.
We are calling it as the Skua rather than a Beaufighter, based on what is there to be seen now. It might even be more of the Blenheim. That would be a long wreckage trail, mind.
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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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Pretty much the whole of this Piper Cherokee remains at Ashfold Gill Head on the moors above Pateley Bridge
Location: SE 07420 68358
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
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
This scar in Bwylch Maen Gwynedd was close to the coordinates given in "High Ground Wrecks", for three 'planes (Boeing Flying Fortress B-17E 41-9098, Westland Lysander Mk.III T1655, and Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IIA P7295), and looked pretty convincing from a distance.
Close up however, not a trace of metal. It's hard to crash a 16 tonne 'plane into the ground and not leave a scrap of aluminium.
We know this isn't it, but we think this might be what HGW have marked as the Fortress crash site.
Location:SJ 07733 34027
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After the Wellington Memorial we started the day's job of revisiting sites where we had received enough additional information since our last visit to be fairly confident of clearing them.
This is a view down the gully where the Cessna crashed on Broadlee Bank Tor, above Edale.
Whilst we are happy we have found the site ( a fair bit up the gully from the photo location) by photo-matching, metal detection showed there to be not a scrap of tin left at the site.
We don't want our site to degenerate to the state of some others on the 'net where we take a picture from half a mile away of a field and claim to have identified the site, but this pic will help you find the site if you are looking, and we really cannot find any physical evidence at this site.
This was the last remaining site on Kinder which we considered to have a good chance of definitively locating without in-depth research.
Location:SK 11375 86122
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Our second visit to the Waterhouses crash site of this Oxford yielded this scrap of debris.
Access to the site was facilitated by the river being unexpectedly completely dry.
Pat Cunningham's information is a bit poor at this site, probably for the main reason we had such difficulty locating it: the trees on the steep bank block the GPS signal pretty effectively.
His given coordinates are for example 50m below his given elevation data, and on the wrong side of the river.
Our location info at this site is at least on the right side of the river, but it will not be as accurate as usual, maybe +/- 50 ft.
Location:SK 09323 50138
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The lowest and biggest bit we found, maybe 600mm long. This might not be the most illustrative pic we took, but I like the look of it...
Location: SH 51630 50377
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The Botha wreckage was just where we left it in May last year, and looked just the same too. Our co-ords are also good.
Location:SK 11077 97532
The remains of this Defiant on Bleaklow appear all to still be intact, despite our publishing the coordinates of the site almost a year ago on here.
The dire warnings that publishing coordinates will result in sites being looted we have been receiving from wreckologists appear groundless.
But of course we knew that. It is the aircraft nuts who are taking bits, and they know where the sites are. What would walkers want a bit of old scrap metal for?
Back to basics for us this week. It's pretty much all about the walk for us, so Mick persuaded me to climb to the summit of Daffydd, via a rather unstable ascent of the scree and rocks above the lake. He loves a cairn, does Mick.
Oh, and we looked for a few plane wrecks.
Location:SH 66258 63042
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There is not as much wreckage left as there was in the seventies, according to our correspondent. We were particularly disappointed not to find the cannon which were there in '71.
Location: SH 71621 69138
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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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