lake warbirds

Under water wrecks recovered bring to mind Hurricane Z3055 recovered from 42 metres between Blue Grotto and Filfla island Malta,And Sea Fire MB293 recovered from off the coast of Malta. There also known about 19 other wrecks including a Sea Fury,A sky raider,a Liberator, a Wellington and lots of other very interesting types but they should be treated like the Hurricane and Sea Fire where wait until you have the resources to recover otherwise you are wasting your time and effort to bring it up and just dump it to rott away.

The Buerling Spitfire in the War Museum at Valletta being a prime example the official line has in the past been for this ands the Gladiator “If we give it to the museum to rebuild it will be as good as new again it needs to stay as it is”

you may agree with this you might not but look at it this way if you bring it up and then dump it down on display no matter how well meaning it aint going to look the same in a short space of time it will just fade away to nothing and be lost so it might as well have stayed on the sea bed at least it would last longer.

You can add the remains of Hurricane Z2505 that were recovered from Loch Oich in Scotland, to the list, the remains of this aircraft are now spread far & wide & have been incorperated into a number of rebuilds, including 1 or 2 airworthy restorations.

Bob. T

Found another website about underwater warbirds:

http://www.divetheworld.com/Diving/warbirds/index.htm

It reports about an upcoming attempt to recover a Beaufighter from Norwegian waters. Anyone knows more about that?

And a tastefully made video about a dive to a sunken Sunderland (T9044) at Pembroke dock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAIIY5SjDGI

Tillerman.

Now that is a nice video. Very touching and really brings home how young these guys were.

Mark

Found another website about underwater warbirds:

http://www.divetheworld.com/Diving/warbirds/index.htm

It reports about an upcoming attempt to recover a Beaufighter from Norwegian waters. Anyone knows more about that?

And a tastefully made video about a dive to a sunken Sunderland (T9044) at Pembroke dock:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SAIIY5SjDGI

Tillerman.

Whats the current story on the Flixton (?) P47?

We know there are 2 or 3 Catalinas on the bottom of Lough Erne in N Ireland but so far the divers can’t locate them

Paddy R

and the mysterious “disappearing ” twin in Lough Neagh!

You will need to get yourself a copy of `Green Hearts` first in combat with the Dora 9, Axel Urbanke/Eagle Editions ( Great book by the way)
there are some colour pictures of the recovery Of fw 190 d9 Black 8.

Cheers

JT:cool:

Yes, indeed a great book and some great pics about the recovery.
Pity that the fuselage was left to deteriorate to such an extent that the complete fuselage had to be (or is being) replaced. The wings were built by Flugwerk and were delivered a few years ago.

Cees

Any pictures, post recovery or current? Not heard of this one.

JD

You will need to get yourself a copy of `Green Hearts` first in combat with the Dora 9, Axel Urbanke/Eagle Editions ( Great book by the way)
there are some colour pictures of the recovery Of fw 190 d9 Black 8.

Cheers

JT:cool:

We know there are 2 or 3 Catalinas on the bottom of Lough Erne in N Ireland but so far the divers can’t locate them

Paddy R

I’ve worked on one of the L Michigan Wildcats & it was in such good nick that the paint inside the cockpit etc is original…

The type isn’t extinct, there is one on display in Sth.America, and the Norwegians have recovered the substantial remains of one last year.
The particlular aicraft in the photos has been discussed before , do a search.

Dave

That looks like an extinct type thats ripe for bringing back from the brink. anyone any more details on this one?.

Greg

Ok, i know that one is still in the lake but !!!!!!!!!!

http://www.watalibi.com/FW58photo2.htm

Laurent

Wrecking the Mariner, what an amateurs

Cees

Found a website about aircraft under water. Some of them were recovered.
The structure and navigation of the website is somewhat unclear, but clicking the ‘forward’ button brings you to interesting pictures and stories.

http://www.nwrain.com/~newtsuit/recoveries/lkwash/pbm/pbm.htm

Tillerman.

Gary

Would that be the P47 recovered from a certain part of Shropshire?

No this is a site in Wales. I suppose there are bound to be P47 parts in Shropshire with the 495th being at Atcham. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if there are actually enough parts in sheds and gardens across the UK to produce examples of several rare airframes.

Getting back on topic,the C-47 from the lake in Snowdonia,parts of which are now in Fort Pearch at New Brighton,although last time I visited the place all the parts from sites in Wales had been removed from display.

G.O.

Slowly rotting outside on its belly. The Czech example, not a lake recovery, was just restored and placed on display.

Dave

Cheers Dave –

Shame – an IL-2 IS something I would love to see fly…. and on the basis they made more of them than any other aircraft in WW2, jolly surprising that we havent seen it happen yet…

ATB

TT

Gary

Would that be the P47 recovered from a certain part of Shropshire?

Hi Nick,

That sounds depressingly familiar:mad: I did have some success in tracking down parts held by an ATC unit but they would only admit to having them and give access after being told to do so by their wing HQ,the squadron staff were doing their best to be un-helpful.

If I were you I would write to the current squadron CO and ask for details of where the parts are,pointing out you would like to see the surviving wreckage in a suitable local museum,if you get no joy there go to the wing. I wonder how much more of our aviation heritage is rotting away in peoples sheds and gardens?. I know of someone who has quite substantial parts of an early P47 which they removed from a site in the 1980’s(without MOD or landowners permission) but they will not allow anyone access.

G.O.

It would be interesting to know what became of Magister L8355,how intact was it when recovered? Does anyone know what became of it? Knowing how ATC units tend to treat wreckage/crash sites I don’t hold out much hope of it having survived:(

G.O.

Tried to track it down a few years ago – seems usual story – took up space needed for other things and as it began to decay / need work to preserve, interest was lost and it got slowly discarded piece by piece – I believe the instrument panel is still around and the engine is apparently in someones back garden loacally, though no one would say exactly whose!!!