HE111 Off Skegness Pier

Thanks Twin Otter for answering a query.
In 1965-6 I lived in the AMQ at RAF Manby . I can remember seeing the Lancaster fuselage section being used for building work outside the main gates. I can remember peering inside it was in very good condition and used as a bad weather shelter and tool store. I presume the owner was Peter Pumfrey and always wondered how it survived.

Pleased to have been of assistance! 🙂

Likewise you’ve added to my knowledge on the fuselage section, the story always told at Newark is that it had been used as a garden shed; however your description seems much more fitting.

Have you downloaded the East Lindsey Aviation Trail? It features Manby and the fuselage is mentioned – if not I would be able to email you a PDF file if you PM me a working email address!

He111 off Skegness Pier

I was with M62A on that visit to Fillingham castle which was a very imposing place, one had a feeling boiling tar was waitng to be poured over us from the battlements. In the event it was only the Butler( Jeeves?) who posed a threat.
I believe the visit was to confirm a report in possibly a very early edition of Wrecks & Relics that there were gun turrets on the property and the cockpit section of a Liberator, I think it was which was supposedly hiding in shrubbery on the estate somewhere all of which was denied during our very brief visit. In later years I seem to recall seeing a photograph of the cockpit. Can anybody confirm if this did indeed exist and if so where it is now?

Thanks Twin Otter for answering a query.
In 1965-6 I lived in the AMQ at RAF Manby . I can remember seeing the Lancaster fuselage section being used for building work outside the main gates. I can remember peering inside it was in very good condition and used as a bad weather shelter and tool store. I presume the owner was Peter Pumfrey and always wondered how it survived.

A photo of the Jumo remains at Newark has been added to the Restoration Gallery here! 🙂

I have more of a packaging industry background and as a consequence I’d missed the Baker Perkins connections; I have mostly relied on the Rose-Forgrove heritage aspects that I’m more familiar with.

I seem to recall a Nev Franklin photograph from the late 1960s of the turret on a trailer somewhere in Lincoln on what appears to have been a ‘round robin’ trip to collect various aviation items that also included a large four bladed wooden propeller! So perhaps Fillingham Castle may be the original source.

I helped off-load the Lancaster fuselage section from a Bradshaw’s low-loader one Sunday morning in 1974; and as I recall Peter was also there when it arrived. (39 years ago!!)

I believe that Peter passed away sometime in 2003; shortly after I met his brother Paul whilst on a visit to the museum with his wife and H & R Bradshaw.

I always understood that the Rose turret came directly from Gainsborough, but I could be mistaken, although I’ve not heard mention of Fillingham Castle.

The story of the Rose family tablecloth that was signed by all visitors to the factory and then embroidered by the mother has always stuck with me – the NAM archive also has some interesting photographs of these turrets from that same source.

Clearly not afraid to gets his hands dirty. I am sorry to hear Peter Pumfrey has died.

I can only remember we saw just a turret casing so if yours was more complete it was probably another one. According the Baker Perkins Historical website Fillingham Castle was purchased by Alfred Rose in 1949.

Cheers, Tony

I helped off-load the Lancaster fuselage section from a Bradshaw’s low-loader one Sunday morning in 1974; and as I recall Peter was also there when it arrived. (39 years ago!!)

I believe that Peter passed away sometime in 2003; shortly after I met his brother Paul whilst on a visit to the museum with his wife and H & R Bradshaw.

I always understood that the Rose turret came directly from Gainsborough, but I could be mistaken, although I’ve not heard mention of Fillingham Castle.

The story of the Rose family tablecloth that was signed by all visitors to the factory and then embroidered by the mother has always stuck with me – the NAM archive also has some interesting photographs of these turrets from that same source.

He111 at Chapel St. Leonards

An excellent record of the recovery and some of those photographs were used in “Lincolnshire Air War 1939 – 1945” that I mentioned earlier.

As a slight aside it was Peter Pumfrey and his family who donated the Lancaster fuselage section to Newark Air Museum in 1974 and which is referenced here. Peter was a museum member for many years!

Thank you TwinOtter, as it happens I had scanned the surviving negs to hard drive and and to a disk a while back. I glad it worked out OK, this was the first time I had used Photobucket and was not sure whether I had cracked it.

Interested to hear the Pumfrey family donated the Lancaster fuselage. I also note in your NAM link the mention of the Rose rear turrets. Probably one of those we saw on a visit to Fillingham Castle around the same time. When we knocked on the order it was answered by the butler!
Cheers, Tony

Remarkable shots. Thanks M-62A.

Andy – Thanks for that! PM inbound. 🙂

An excellent record of the recovery and some of those photographs were used in “Lincolnshire Air War 1939 – 1945” that I mentioned earlier.

As a slight aside it was Peter Pumfrey and his family who donated the Lancaster fuselage section to Newark Air Museum in 1974 and which is referenced here. Peter was a museum member for many years!

He111 at Chapel St Leonards

As Airfield mentioned there are lots of photos of the recovery and I will post a few here.

Way back in 1964 or 65 the remains of the centre section and two detached engines were showing on the beach just below the high tide mark and a letter was published in one of aircraft magazines about it – probably either Flying Review or Air Pictorial. It was largely that announcement, plus the activities of groups such as the HAPS and NAPS, which inspired four or five young aviation enthusiasts in the Grimsby area to form the Lincolnshire Aircraft Preservation Society in 1965. I seem to recall the membership quickly reached 20 or 30 but we always operated on a shoestring budget.

During 1966 the LAPS were donated Proctor NP294 by the Northern Aircraft Preservation Society at Stockport and later collected Gemini G-AKER from Biggin Hill. It was in fact 1967 before we were able to tackle the He111 wreck at Chapel St. Leonards and that only came about through the generosity of Peter Pumfrey.

Peter Pumfrey had a construction and contracting business which did work on various RAF airfields and he offered the use of some lifting equipment and an operator.

Access on to the beach and permission to remove the remains had been obtained from the local authorities and Crown Estates.

On a grey Saturday morning on 23rd September 1967 a group of LAPS members assembled at Chapel St. Leonards waiting to see what the tide would reveal. Peter Pumfrey came in a Landrover along with one his men with a 4WD Bedford equipped with a large lifting arm. These were positioned on the beach as soon as conditions permitted.

As the centre section was revealed first we started on that but quickly learnt there was no way we were going to move it without a lot of digging and pumping out. You will note the extent of remaining structure. This image gives a lie to the story there were still bombs on board as the bomb bay area would have been visible had it remained.

The engines lay a few yards further out but soon became visible. After several hours of digging and of pumping and bailing out the excavations, the first engine was finally lifted out.

The digging was all manual labour, what we needed was a JCB or similar. After more digging and bailing the lifting arm finally prised the second engine from wet sand and goo.

Most of those in the pictures are just spectators. Peter Pumfrey and John Whitelam (light pullover) are seen in the above picture positioning the second engine.

It was clear to us by then that recovering the centre section would require a much larger operation with more equipment than we had available that day. The engines were delivered late that afternoon to Grainsby on the Bedford. The next two photos were taken the following day when we began the clean-up.

I cannot recall the name of the young lad in middle but John Whitelam is manning the hose and Tim Stone is standing in front of Gemini G-AKER.

Then, one at a time, the engines were taken to an adjoining farm where a high pressure water supply was available. The man with the hose this time was my father.

The final picture was taken some weeks later and shows one of the partially stripped engine blocks. Amazingly, and despite the damage they had received from previous “investigators” it proved possible to dismantle, clean up and reassemble most of the major parts.

The last I heard, one was on display at East Kirkby (not in the main hangar) and the other at Newark. As both groups had been interested in their recovery that seems appropriate.

We did not manage to organise a return visit with the necessary resources to recover the centre section and was usual in those days the powers-that-be decided to blow up it up in situ. There is no doubt the spars were danger to bathers, etc., but I am not sure spreading bits of sharp metal over a greater area was really the best answer. The same destructive logic was applied to a Beaufighter that surfaced on the beach between Cleethorpes and Humberston a year or so later.

The attached photos of the recovery were mainly taken by the late Tony Walsh – as was one of those submitted by Tangmere. Some were taken on TW’s camera and some on mine – my hands were too grubby that to use a camera.

I cannot recall ever seeing any 1940 photos of the Hienkel.

I would not know where to lay my hands on it now but I am sure I recall seeing a document resulting from some research undertaken later into the German crew. It is possible one those at East Kirkby or the Thorpe Camp museum may know something of that.

Hope this is of interest, Tony Broadhurst

Just a quick P.S. Anglia TV came to record a few minutes of the recovery which appeared as a local news item the following week. I wonder if they still have the film?

Here you go, Don.

Don

I think that I do, yes.

It rings a bell. Have I not answered this query before?? I will have a look, anyway.

Andy,
Slightly o/t (apologies), but do you have any photos of Do17z 2892 5K+BP, which crashed near Loughborough 14:11:40?

Cheers,

Don

HE111 off Skegness Pier

He HE111 is A1+CH of 1/KG53 shot down at Trunch lane Chapel St Leonards on 2/10/40 by F/O Smith flying a Hurricane of 151 Sqdn. He had been vectored to the Heinkel by Digby control after it dropped a solitary bomb near the Manton works in Nottinghamshire. It missed and exploded in a nearby field creating a large pond.
The intended target was the Rolls Royce factory at Derby. F/O Smith hit the aircraft in both engines and it glided down and crash landed on the beach. All the crew survived and were captured.
Both engines were recovered by the Lincolnshire Aircraft Preservation Society on September 26th 1966 and taken to the village of Grainsby where they were cleaned up a best as possible. One went to Newark Air Museum and the other to Tattershal, I believe it is now at either East Kirkby ot Woodhall Spa. Lots of photos were taken of the recovery at the time

re;

If you have a 1940 picture of the Heinkel then I’d be keen to see it!

Yes, me too. Wonder if my great uncle would have been out rounding up the crew?

yep if I do get it, no probs

Can you post it, anyway?

The picture is a picture of the exposed wreck before RN intervention, probably not much more than the one shown bottom right.

Would a current photo of the NAM display material assist in any way?

I won’t be able to get it until Sunday though!

Also I’m not sure whether there might be something in the Nev Franklin Archive at NAM from the crash site / recovery.