Hi. I was recommended this site by “Whitley project”. Perhaps you can help me out with a questions of a crashed airplane we recently found on the bottom of the Baltic sea just outside the Swedish coast. We have found three Sterling engines fitted with three bladed wooden propellers. The ammo found on the site is 303 marked 1943. The plane is in pieces scattered over the seabed and seems to have landed upsidedown most of the parts are buried under the sand. We believe this to be a Halifax. You can find a film clip here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DC4bN1HuFWo . We have found a piece of brass marked “clutch lever MK IV”. Does this mean it’s a Halifx MKIV ?
By: Arabella-Cox - 10th August 2011 at 12:04
Welcome to the board and thank you for posting a link to the Youtube video – what lovely clear water the wreck lies in.
Unfortunately, the parts you have photographed are common to pretty near all WW2 British bombers likely to be flying in that part of the world.
The brass plate refers to the Automatic Pilot Mk IV, not a Halifax Mk IV.
The other plate is from the Mixer box “Beam Approach” “InterComm”.
From the video, it’s clear you have found the wreck of a Merlin Engined aeroplane, probably a Halifax. The rest of the details are vague without something more to work on.
By: Creaking Door - 10th August 2011 at 12:03
We have found a piece of brass marked “clutch lever MK IV”. Does this mean it’s a Halifx MKIV ?
I don’t think there was a Halifax Mark IV (not production anyway) so this is likely to mean a Mark IV clutch; I just can’t say what the clutch would be for!
Something inside the fuselage that the crew would have access to probably, something that would normally be moved by (hydraulic?) power but that could have the clutch set ‘out’ so it could be moved manually. Undercarriage or auto-pilot?
On the other part does ‘I/C’ stand for intercom?
By: Creaking Door - 10th August 2011 at 11:51
We have found three ‘Sterling’ engines fitted with three bladed wooden propellers.
I think you mean Rolls-Royce Merlin engines rather than Stirling (Bristol Hercules) engines. 🙂
Sorry, I cannot help with any of the parts you have posted but would be interested to see more photographs.
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August 10, 2011 at 10:25 am