A colleague at work has asked me if I know anything about a Spitfire that came down on The Cloud,Timbersbrook near Congleton,Cheshire.
The pilot,said to be Polish,was killed in the accident.The aircraft apparently hit a stone wall near the top of The Cloud in bad weather.
Terry(my colleague)is nearly 65 and can’t remember it hisself,but his father(he’s 87)can,but not many details.
However one of the father’s friends(a gent of 80)remembers the crash and being taken up to the site to see the aircraft before it was removed,presumably by an RAF recovery team.
Another chap whose father farmed the land upon the top of The Cloud remembers ploughing the field adjacent to the crash site and unearthing live ammunition,presumably from the wreckage of the fighter.
This too was dealt with by an RAF team.
Unfortunately I have no time or date information,but the general concencus is that it was late 1945,early 1946.
No other information on the aircraft other than it was a “Spitfire”,has yet come to light either.
Has anyone any ideas about this incident??
Mark
By: Kitty - 3rd February 2009 at 20:07
And that made her chuckle 😉
By: Miggers - 2nd February 2009 at 21:13
Turns out that the person who’s asking about this crash is non other than
Guy Gibson’s cousin!!!
Mark
By: VoyTech - 19th September 2008 at 12:57
Sgt Zygmunt Kowalski, killed in the crash.
By: Miggers - 7th September 2008 at 16:23
Excellent.
Many thanks gentlemen.
I’ll pass on this information to my collegue.I believe someone wrote a letter to his local paper asking for information on the crash,so he asked me and I’ve consulted the experts.
Regards,Mark
By: T-21 - 5th September 2008 at 20:14
Yes the batch W3109- 3970 are Supermarine Spitfire VA/VB.
By: Miggers - 5th September 2008 at 17:25
Gee!!!
Thanks very much gents.
Would “W3569” have been a Spit V though??.
I always thought Spit V serials started in the A?***range,such as AR213.
Mark
By: T-21 - 3rd September 2008 at 14:58
Thanks Voytech
By: VoyTech - 3rd September 2008 at 14:48
The code of W3569 was SZ-E
By: T-21 - 2nd September 2008 at 21:12
From the Squadron ORB http://orb.polishaf.pl/316sqn/1944/1944-03-no-316-squadron-f540 trying to find its code SZ : ?.
By: Alan Clark - 2nd September 2008 at 20:21
The aircraft Spitfire Mk.V W3569 of No.316 Sqn, it rashed on the 21st March 1944. The squadron was on temporary detachment to RAF Woodvale near Southport.
The pilot of the aircraft was Polish, Flight Sergeant Kowalski. While carrying out a practice scramble his aircraft’s engine “developed trouble” and according to the Squadron records while attempting to force land crashed and was killed.
By: Miggers - 2nd September 2008 at 17:47
Bit more info has surfaced.
One of my collegue’s cousins clearly remembers being taken to see the wreckage and reckons he was 6 or 7 years old at the time.
He’s now 72,so he was born in 1936.
That puts the year of the crash at either 1942 or 1943.
Would Polish squadrons have been converted to Spitfire IX’s or still on V’s by that time?
Mark
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September 1, 2008 at 6:39 pm