Thames Estuary dredging

Ian, what was the diameter given, please?

It’s not Lysander, that’s the remains of a sizable spinner back-plate behind. So similarly, not Blenheim, or anything radial. Either Spitfire and not measured accurately, or something more interesting.

Mike there is a full picture I the report in the link posted by Ross McNeil earlier. It may be better quality as this was cut and pasted from that.

Interesting finds having read the Wessex Report in 2011 and hoping for a follow up to it on the Thames Estuary, I wait in excited anticipation.

I would love to see a graphic of all the Buxey Sand wrecks and better aerial photos.

I think it may well be Lysander. Measurements taken when the Junkers bits were being looked at matched published Lysander diameter.

It’s hard to tell but the prop does look like a H-S/de-H bracket prop. With the remains of the spinner it could be ex-Spitfire Mk.1, but without a better picture it’s hard to see the blade profile. Can you get, or do you have, any better picture(s) of it, Ross?

It appears to have a two-piece hub, which wasn’t a design feature utilised by the Luftwaffe.

Anon.

Thanks Mike, they did say in the report they think it’s German, I just keeping hoping something will turn up to help prove my position error theory.

Not sure if you’re implying that the propeller in the picture in post #34 is a Havoc prop Ross699, but I can assure you it is not.

The Havoc’s props are Hydromatic and whilst the one pictured may possibly be a Hamilton Standard unit, it is not of the type fitted to the Havoc.

There’s also evidence of spinner remains which only confirm it it is not a Havoc prop.

Anon.

The 416th definitely lost one Havoc in the bay in addition to Cramsie’s. A plane returning to Wethersfield from a mission with bombs onboard was told by Col. Mace not to land, but to take the plane back out over the Bay and drop the bombs there. The pilot didn’t have enough gas. Mace told him to take it over water and bail out. He did and the plane went down in the general area of the dredging. The pilot was picked up by air/sea rescue, the gunners had bailed out over land. That was before they learned that landing with bombs aboard was safe enough.

Denis, hopefully they kept some bits and pieces that we can examine.

I can be contacted at

[email]Wethersfield.Museum@outlook.com[/email]

Thanks Denis,

There is a wreck out there near the JU bits I found, at first the people who found it said it was American through a 3rd party that story changed when they discovered I was MOD Police and suspect they have taken parts from it.

I do have photos they took and have an good idea of the location.[ATTACH=CONFIG]241648[/ATTACH]

Speaking to two fishermen from Bradwell a month or so ago and they reported an aircraft wreck just off the furthest south eastern part of Buxey sands. They have had bits and pieces in their nets on more than one occasion.
They said it is NOT the JU88 as they know where that one is. It will be very difficult for me to contact them for a couple of months. If and when I hear from them I shall ask them to clarify where exactly this other wreck lies before you visit.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]241647[/ATTACH]

So who do I contact to try and get them to consider it could have come from 699 as it was trying to get to Bradwell Bay?

[ATTACH=CONFIG]241646[/ATTACH]

A Havoc propellor similar in size to a JU

But if you don’t think there is one there then you will not consider it!

[ATTACH=CONFIG]241645[/ATTACH]

43-9699 was actually last seen by an eye witness 5 miles south of this spot flying North at 400ft with one engine shot out and on fire since leaving Hazebrook in France.

Of course it’s officially recorded as being 40 miles away because someone wrote 50 instead of 05.

Thanks for posting the link Ross.
It seems that there are many JU88’s in the Thames Estuary not least on Buxey Sand. I hope to visit the sand bank in 2016 to continue the search for 43-9699 Bill Cramsies A20 Havoc from RAF Wethersfield MIA with his crew Sgts Jack Steward and Charles Henshaw.
In the mean time I have been developing the RAF Wethersfield Museum, interesting Stirling photos and a part from a crashed Hurricane?? In the last couple of weeks. I will post them in a new thread.

Very interesting reading.

Thanks for posting the link. My mum lived in Leigh-on-Sea during the war and she often said that German aircraft carried out regular attacks on shipping in the estuary so there must be a large number of aircraft wrecks in the water around the Southend-on-Sea area.

An altogether fascinating read Ross, many thanks.

Thanks for posting

My apologies people,

Catching up with a backlog I see that I was remiss in not linking to the published details of the Ju 88T recovery when it was released.

http://www.londongateway.com/media/cms_page_media/122/Archaeology%20from%20the%20Sky%20-%20web4client.pdf

Ross

Echo: Speculation that the machine guns blown up on East Beach recently were from downed aircraft http://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/11164506.East_Beach_closed_on_Easter_Sunday_as_MoD_carry_out_controlled_explosion/

I assume that there were aircraft crashed in this area during the war, any one what ones might fit the sketchy details?