P-40 in Desert, Spitfires in Burma…and now a He 219 in Denmark!

it’s just been stuck on the wing by the recovery team 😉

Not entirely sure why they have decided to tape the outline of the balkenkreuz on as soon as it’s been recovered, perhaps they wanted some rapid visual progress!

I wondered if it was something to do with the temporary winter camoflage? Or was that not used in Denmark?

Not entirely sure why they have decided to tape the outline of the balkenkreuz on as soon as it’s been recovered, perhaps they wanted some rapid visual progress!

What´s going on with the taped on looking Balkankreuz? Is that normal?

She’s cleaning up nicely

photos from here

http://www.danas-have.dk/He219.2.htm

All aviation books say He-219 was pressurized…I have seen no info that verifys this. He-219B-2 was planned to be pressurized.

I think it’s a case of wrecks attract fish, isn’t it? Where there be fish, there be fishermen, there be nets…

Adrian

It certainly seems to have found every fishing net for miles around!

Last year I was diving and photographing the remains of what turned out to be a P47-D Thunderbolt that was sitting in 25m of water in Weymouth Bay. The site is covered in modern rope…the tail wheel was found about 400′ from the engine – this could have been as a result of a crash, or being trawled. We can only find one undercarriage leg, leaving us wondering if we have the crash site…or if the aircraft has moved by trawling.

Sites like this do get trawled…another site under investigation is the wreck of the Scaldis, a Brixham trawler that (according to contemporary reports) snagged a german bomber in its trawl net during a storm. The trawler was lost with all hands.

Its not unusual to find shipwrecks with discarded fishing gear. Its not an aeroplane, but this image gives you an idea about the kind of mess lost fishing net looks like:-

From another forum I see that the hunt is still on for the identity of this aircraft.

The search for the Werke Nummer highlights the likely problems to be encountered if the Dornier 17 is ever recovered from the Goodwins. In fact, and even if the number is there, it wont help to confirm the identity of the Dornier in terms of its unit, date of loss, crew etc etc.

Here’s hoping the story of the He 219 emerges, though!

It reached the news on danish TV today:

http://www.dr.dk/Nyheder/Indland/2012/04/25/161704.htm

I don´t know much about preservation of aircraft taken out of salty waters, but still I was surprised to see the part already dry and worked at with what seemed to be very crude tools – hammers and so on.

The footage on the main news channel tonight was different from this short clip.

It may not mean much in reality, but they said they wanted to make the plane into a “complete but static exhibit”.

Jon

Damage quite possibly caused by trawling, ships anchors etc

It certainly seems to have found every fishing net for miles around!

I hope they have a well-ventilated facility because when all that sea life starts to rot, it’s going to really, really hum! Despite that, it’s going to be fascinarting to see what happens next. I guess you really need a big lake to drop it in now to dilute all the salt out…

It’s startling to think that forty years ago there were wrecks in this sort of state round our coast – the “Reluctant Messerschmitt” and the Buxey Sands Ju88 come to mind.

Adrian

Link to a Danish newspaper article about the recovery:

http://politiken.dk/indland/ECE1605376/sjaeldent-krigsfly-fundet-paa-vesterhavets-havbund/

According to the article, “the instruments were missing, their wires having been cut…. the wreck must therefore have been “visited” before…” and the parts are going to “Garnisonsmuseet” in Aalborg in Northern Jutland.

The museum is this:

http://www.forsvarsmuseum.dk/index.html

http://www.danas-have.dk/He219.htm

I would guess that it has broken up on hitting the water.

Damage quite possibly caused by trawling, ships anchors etc

Also the possibility that some parts could be useful for the completion of the NASM example which is missing bits and pieces….even if those parts are only useful for patterns.

Dave

Not as though it sets a precedence with water recoveries.The various Great Lakes aircraft in the states,the Halifax,Greek Stuka,Norwegian Fw190 and most recently the French MkIX Spitfire now at Point Cook undergoing stabilization.
Indeed as with the Condor it will provide a great base for preservation,restoration and possibly rebuild.

I think we all understand that this sort of aircraft is not a great basis for a complete restoration/re-creation (excluding the fw200!) however it is great to see substantial parts of a 219 being recovered that despite large bits of encrustation look as though they will clean up very nicely and will make a good display for a museum. I think some on this thread were expecting a complete 219 however what they have recovered exceeds my expectations and to just get on and recover it is very commendable, we are all very aware what happens when groups recover items and then have no plan to conserve them or look after them afterwards (sort of a new puppy syndrome!). However let’s hope this team have a good plan laid out for the future
Matt

Its a lot of wreckage!

I would guess that it has broken up on hitting the water.

It will be interesting to see what is there once its all laid out in the right order. Conservation of the remains is certainly possible, but reconstruction may be a step too far!

DTMB in Berlin would be a good place for this to go.

Bruce

The scale of the problem facing the RAFM Dornier 17 recovery is perhaps evident here – both in the recovery itself and dealing with (conserving/preserving/restoring) the wreckage and its likely condition.

Many recoveries, such as this one, might cause a great deal of pre-recovery excitement but the end result is perhaps not always quite as exciting as the pre-publicity might tend to suggest. Maybe this is a case in point, although in truth I don’t know what the recovery team expected and it thus might well equal or exceed their expectations. My point is; maybe we shouldn’t get too excited about what will appear until the Dornier 17 breaks the surface or those elusive crated Spitfires emerge….! Realistic optimism, perhaps.

I can’t understand the excitement about this.

What I see in the pictures are chunks of torn, twisted, encrusted and corroded aluminium.

As could be expected from making an emergency landing (as in “impact”) and remaining for almost 70 years on the seabed.

Moreover, there are no resources/interest in Denmark to fund a restoration of this scale, which has never been carried out before, least of all by the recovering organisation.