Lancaster PD259

Not seen this elsewhere on here;

Courtesy of “Touchdown-News”

Badenoch wreckage will help keep last Lancaster in the air

Published: 01 July, 2009

AN AIR rescue miss-ion with a difference has been carried out on a remote Badenoch mountain-top with the recovery of the wreckage of a Lancaster bomber which crashed during World War II.

The parts will be used to help keep the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster – the only one in Europe of 7,377 built which is still airworthy –

in the skies.
The Avro Lancaster from 463 Squadron (RAAF), which had been based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, broke up mid-flight at 10,000 feet near Kingussie on the night of August 31, 1944, with the loss of all seven crew.
One theory is that the plane was hit and suff-ered ultimately catastrophic damage on a bombing run the night before to German-occupied Koningsberg, now

known as Kaliningrad.
Another is that the Lancaster was struck by lightning after encountering a fierce storm over the Highlands, leading to the failure of all four engines in the course of the training exercise.
The stricken aircraft went down over Balavil Estate, near Kingussie, with the debris scatt-ered across one square kilometre.
A propeller from the bomber was retrieved a year ago, and a single blade was

used as a memorial to the Australian airmen who perished, and their RAAF comrades killed in the Second World War.
It was unveiled in the private graveyard of the owners of Balavil, the Macpherson-Fletchers, near the A9 Perth- Inverness road, in a poignant ceremony on the 64th anniversary of the crash.
In the latest mission earlier this week, a multi-agency team comprising Army, RAF and Royal Navy, assisted by Northern Constabulary, retrieved as many components, pieces of fuselage and other equipment as they could.
The items were transported by helicopter to Balavil House, where they were loaded onto an Army truck and then transferred onto a large transporter parked on the A9 before being taken to RAF Waddington.
Providing safety cover at the transporter were Northern Constabulary officers PC Stewart MacKellaig and PC Richard Carrington.
PC MacKellaig said the RAF personnel involved in the recovery were delighted

with the excellent condition of the items and components they found.
He said: “The RAF recovered one of the original landing wheels, which they were very excited about, because it’s the only smooth tyre from a Lancaster in existence; all the others are grooved.
“It was an amazing find, because it was in very good condition. They also managed to retrieve one of the bomb bay doors, and some of the stainless steel components in it were almost brand-new and in perfect working order.
“A lot of the components they recovered were in very good condition, and they were delighted as they are so valuable from a historical point of view,

and also for spare parts for the flying Lancaster.”
Allan Macpherson-Fletcher, whose family have had Balavil House since it was built in 1790, has been a staunch protector of the crash site.

In the past he has done all he can to prevent souvenir hunters and scavengers from taking away bits and pieces of the Lancaster.
He said: “Following really sympathetic app-roaches from the RAF, we came to the decision that some of the pieces which were being vandalised – which is a great tragedy – should be given to them for future protection.
“Even in the last six months, one of the best pieces out there, a piece of fuselage marked with the number JO-G and an RAF roundel, had been put on a peat hag and jumped on until the rivets sprung out.”
He said that when the propeller was taken away last year and dismantled at RAF Waddington, the mechanics removed an oil-filled hub and piston from it which was almost brand-new and in perfect working order.
It has since been installed in the “Phantom of the Ruhr”, the only airworthy

Lancaster in Europe, which gave a flypast at the Trooping of the Colour, the

Queen’s annual birthday parade.
“It’s nice to know that a bit of our Lancaster on the hill is still flying,”

said Mr Macpherson-Fletcher.
“That is another reason why we decided the RAF should get the remains.
“It’s far better that they should have it and put it to good use than to have it out on the hill where it could be vandalised.”
Lancaster PD259 JO-G only had 57 hours flying time under its belt when it came to grief, and was being flown by a “sprog” crew, the nickname given to newly-qualified fliers.
The Royal Australian Air Force crew who died were pilot, Flying Officer Robert Beddoe (21), from Elsterwick, near Victoria; navigator, Flight Sergeant Frederic Walker (32), St Ives, New South Wales; mid-upper gunner, Flight Sergeant Stanley Abbott (21), Cottesloe, West Australia; wireless operator, Flight Sergeant Terrence Dent (21), Walkeston, Queensland; rear gunner, Flight Sergeant Bevil Glover (23), Malvern, Victoria, and bomb aimer

David Ryan (30), of Fairfield, Victoria, and Glaswegian RAF flight engineer,

Warrant Officer George Middleton (37), who was laid to rest in Rutherglen Cemetery.
PD259 was one of 189 Lancasters which flew nearly 1,000 miles from their bases – the Lancaster’s top range – on August 30 to drop 480 tonnes of bombs

on the centre of Koningsberg. A heavy German night fighter defence downed 15

of the attacking bombers.
Crew member on PD259 that night, Bill Jackson, once made a poignant visit to

the wreckage on Balavil Estate to mark an anniversary of VJ Day. He saw six Lancasters crewed by pals shot out of the sky on the bombing run to the Baltic.
The veteran, then in his 80s, told Mr Macpherson-Fletcher that they had had to shut down one of the engines on their return on the 11-hour trip, and the

Lancaster was patched up before the plane was flown by Beddoe and his men.
In total, 2,525 operational sorties were flown by 463 Squadron, with 69 aircraft destroyed in operational sorties and 10 aircraft lost in accidents,

including PD259.
Lancasters flew 156,000 sorties in WWII, and 3,932 were lost in action.