Lockheed Lightning P-38F 41-7677 (Maid of Harlech) Update

We hear that the anoraks are once again up in arms about not being able to loot the Harlech P-38, which is receiving further press attention due in part to interest in TIGHAR's current expedition to Nikumaroro to look for Amelia Earhart's 'plane.

Blackburn B-24 Skua Mk.II L3054?

Report from Rob the Tog on the continuing saga of Elidir Fawr...

I decided to have a go a pinning down the Skua (L3054) crash on Elidir Fawr. Well the short story is that I didn’t find the crash site. At first I walked up the valley skirting the bottom of the lower scree and looking with the binoculars to see if I could spot anything. I was working on the principle that wreckage usually moves downhill, but nothing.

Then I climbed up and moved to the top boulder field (I thought I spotted it, but as usual it turned out to be a brown rock!). I scouted round, but the place is nightmare to search on your own, the boulder field is big but stable, so you can cross it, but you could be a few feet away from any wreckage and still not spot it.

I did find a six foot long rusted steel tube with about a two inch diameter (no markings etc, too much rust), it could be from the aircraft but only its age makes it a possible. [see pic. above]

I searched the main boulder field as best I could in the fall line from the summit but didn’t find anything else. The problem with this one is the boulders spread right from the top of Elidir Fawr all the way along the summit ridge for a good few hundred metres, so unless the location can be pinned down a bit it will take an epic search to find it (or just a lot of luck!).

I did spot some nice fossils in the rocks at the top of the mountain and found a rock which I think could be a meteorite (because of it totally out of place look and its got a very high iron content which doesn’t fit with the local rocks). So not a bad day out despite not finding the crash site. I guess it might be a case to try and get a copy of the accident card from Hendon.

Location: SH 61238 61230

Anyone know anything?

Sperry Gyropilots and Torpedo Gyroscopes

We are told that the "V1 gyro" from Ringinglow is actually a Sperry gyropilot as illustrated in this pic from the manual. They were apparently fitted to C47s and early B17s.

But others claim it is a GA VIII Gyroscope from a WW2 German G7e torpedo. The torpedo gyro pic below (from German Wapedia) looks pretty convincing to my inexpert eye, there are so many points of similarity that this must be it, or a very close relative.



So who missed the sea by 100 miles?

Ringinglow V1 gyroscope?

This was apparently found near Ringinglow, and is believed by the finder to be a V1 gyroscope, despite no reports of V1s in the area.

For some reason, this was our most popular Flickr picture ever. 2250 views as of now...

Armstrong Vickers Wellington Mk.III BJ652 coded Z

Some well-preserved bits of geodetic found earlier in the week on an outing with Welsh Barry near the site of the Smerill Wellington.

Miles Master Mk.III W8474

A day out with an assortment of air crash site old-timers today, visiting the Broken Ground Liberator as well as this memorial to a fatal training accident (Pat Cunningham gave it a less charitable description) suffered by a Polish pilot.

Location: SJ 99530 95530

For more info, click on the pic for memorial text

Miles Master Mk.III W8474

A local enthusiast (who incidentally witnessed the crash first-hand) has amassed this collection of scraps from the crash site.

Location: SJ 99772 95326 (crash site)

Consolidated Liberator PB4Y-1 63934 USN

We were shown where a number of previously buried components of this Liberator were concealed today by the people who had hidden them.

We'd never have found some of them without this help.

This cylinder barrel comes from one of the two engines which were relocated.

Location: SE 00838 01630

Consolidated Liberator PB4Y-1 63934 USN

The second, more complete engine relocated today was reportedly rolled quite a way downhill by just one man.

Location: 365m from the main wreck site. Is this a record for single-handed engine-rolling?

Consolidated Liberator PB4Y-1 63934 USN

These undercarriage and nose-wheel components have risen mysteriously out of the peat since our last visit

Location: SE 00872 01595

There is incidentally a second undercarriage leg still buried

Location: SE 00820 01669

More info