Is there anything undiscovered?

Not so Dave,

It still lies there almost as intact as the day it ditched. The currents where it is are not as fast as you might think although the Forth is notorious for it fast moving very heavily silted waters. The tail of this Lancaster still occasionally shows itself.

Isn’t that the wreck of ED548? I think there was some concern the new bridge would disturb the wreck but I’ve never heard anything about it since.

Thanks all for your replies, emails etc. I have been amazed by how many are looking for targets at sea which we have plenty of ourselves but not much in the way of weather to follow them up. We are only interested in freshwater/brackish sites that enable us to use our equipment when we are weathered off at sea. Interesting reading all the posts about buried aircraft surely some must have been pushed into rivers and lakes would be a hell of a lot easier than burying them?

There’s the Lancaster that crashed into the Forth near Kincardine on take off from Grangemouth (although IMO it is long broken up by the fast moving currents).
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=92639

Not so Dave,

It still lies there almost as intact as the day it ditched. The currents where it is are not as fast as you might think although the Forth is notorious for it fast moving very heavily silted waters. The tail of this Lancaster still occasionally shows itself.

Here is an obscure question, but has anybody ever looked into ditching trials locations?
Can’t help feeling we put a few on the bottom on purpose….
Guy

Take a look at some of the threads at http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?board=36.0. You might find something of interest.

We have a Westland Whirlwind Fighter that we would love to locate in the River Severn we know where it went into the water but not where it is now.

Do you fancy a challenge ????

There are also about 5 around Jersey (St Brelaides Bay) and Sark and 1 off Guernsey.

Mike E

www.westlandwhirlwindfighterproject.org

There’s the Lancaster that crashed into the Forth near Kincardine on take off from Grangemouth (although IMO it is long broken up by the fast moving currents).

I can think on a few other alleged water sites in Scotland (Ju88 in the Renfrewshire hills for example)

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=92639

Graham, it might be worth seeing who you could contact on the continent. Pickings in this country are slim, but just off the top of my head I can think of several ‘in situ’ submerged bombers in Germany. The Laacher See near Koblenz is littered with them, for instance.

If it helps there’s a picture of the wing-tip in the Lancaster Corner section of the museum’s Empedia listing! 🙂

What about Lancaster R5726 at Knipton, which is briefly referred to in this news item from NAM and has been discussed about these parts in the past?

As far as I’m aware all that was recovered in the 1970s is the wing tip that is displayed in Hangar 1 at Newark Air Museum.

Just a thought, but what about the Norfolk Broads, there must be one or two in there, as the Broads must have been crossed many times by our own aircraft, and the Germans.

Jim.

Lincoln .7

Plenty of Sea Hornets went into the sea around the UK, but unless they were made from 10″ sections of oak, and were quickly covered with silt, I doubt if the wood has survived! 😀

Hi Graham – do you have a magnetometer? If so and if you are still interested I wonder if you’d be interested in helping us locate our Whitley off Hastings.

Cheers
Elliott

Yes Elliott as I said before always happy to help especially when we have something else nearby we can have a look at while we are there. We do have a mag and obviously the sidescan and a couple of Minelab Excalibur 2’s which are the best hand held underwater detectors we have ever used. Spring or Autumn is best for us, Summer we are flat out so drop me a line when you are ready.

Here is an obscure question, but has anybody ever looked into ditching trials locations?
Can’t help feeling we put a few on the bottom on purpose….
Guy

Sounds like a good question to me Guy

Hi Graham – do you have a magnetometer? If so and if you are still interested I wonder if you’d be interested in helping us locate our Whitley off Hastings.

Cheers
Elliott

Ditching trials

Here is an obscure question, but has anybody ever looked into ditching trials locations?
Can’t help feeling we put a few on the bottom on purpose….
Guy

Some very interesting thoughts there Ross and it would of taken me ages to work out an overview like that so big thanks. As you say mud is the enemy in estuaries and even with a sub bottom you need a tight search area otherwise you will be finding bedsteads an all manner of junk that you have to put a lot of effort into digging for. Glad you survived a days diving with me and I might well be in touch with regard to your offer, cheers again.

Hi Grahame,

Compared to 10,000 or so sea losses, it’s less than 1,000 for UK inland.

The bulk are in the river estuaries but this mostly comprises of mud so you will need to add a sub bottom profiler to the kit bag.

A few in English lakes but not many and these are relatively well known due to the population proximity.

Cumbria had surprisingly very little but I suspect it was due to the low number of overflights due to the mountains.

This leaves Scotland on the mainland and the best known places are well mapped due to the monster hunters.

Given a choice I would look to Lough Fermanagh and the seaplane mooring/alighting areas, however the mooring maintenance crews were quite adept at grapple fishing.

After that the Firths in descending order would be Solway. Clyde and Forth all have extensive groups of losses in narrow areas.

The Clyde has the added advantage of the scuttled Mariners and Sunderlands off Ardrossan as Asdic targets. For the Forth the added advantage is the lost gold baggage.

Both the Forth and the Clyde have their respective aircraft carriers.

For River then the Servern has the most number from the Bridges to Worcester but again mud flats are the order of the day.

Pick a destination then drop me a line and I’ll give you the printout for the location. I owe you one for dropping be on the M2 as one of ny first open water dives back in the day.

Regards
Ross

To use a forum phrase..

It’s all in the book

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2251377/Aircraft-Crash-Sites-at-Sea-a-Scoping-Study-project-report

I see that you are also listed as one of the contributors to the survey.

My numbers included inland water losses.

Regards
Ross

Yes Ross quite right we did along with yourself and many others contribute to the aircraft losses at sea study. We have many years experience in the English Channel but absolutely zero in fresh water. A lot of our equipment sits idle in periods of bad weather and our lovely winters, would be nice to put it to some use on a worthwhile project and that is my question. What if anything would the aviation world consider worth looking for? May be I didn’t make that clear enough.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QaxqUDd4fiw

Sorry, I just couldn’t resist. 🙂

To use a forum phrase..

It’s all in the book

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2251377/Aircraft-Crash-Sites-at-Sea-a-Scoping-Study-project-report

I see that you are also listed as one of the contributors to the survey.

My numbers included inland water losses.

Regards
Ross