Looking for more info on one particular eyewitness reminiscence, purely because it happened on a very specific bit of beach that I played on as a kid. Also, because all the usual sources are silent, and that always makes one curious.
here’s the account: http://www.users.globalnet.co.uk/~rwbarnes/defence/anecdote.htm#ken
Essentially, a witness remembers a ‘Wellington’ which crashed on the shore side of the the ‘slag bank’ adjacent to the steel works in Workington, Cumbria.
Essentially, this ‘slag bank’ is an artificial hill made up of the by-product of smelting – it’s an odd environment! Even the beach is largely made up of this detritus.
Anyway, the story goes that the Polish pilot of the ‘Wellington’ tried to get as close to shore as possible when ditching, which he succeeded in doing – he saved his crew, though he himself was killed. The aircraft was accessible at low tide, for ‘souvenir-hunting’ purposes.
No date on this, no names, nothing – just a very specific location – http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&q=Workington,+Cumbria,+United+Kingdom&ie=UTF8&geocode=FcbKQQMdT9fJ_w&split=0&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=6.881357,14.941406&hq=&hnear=Workington,+Cumbria,+United+Kingdom&ll=54.64136,-3.575878&spn=0.026921,0.056477&t=h&z=14
By: Gregor - 4th January 2011 at 17:31
Slight misspelling(s): it was BK156 (and the navigator, P/O Juliusz Zywicki P-2535, has drowned).
BK516 (BH-K), No. 300 Sqn, was lost with the entire crew on the night of 13 March 1943 on a Gardening mission to St Nazaire.
Sorry, I should have noticed that mistake while replaying in this thread.
Indeed BK-516 captained by Sgt. Kuzminski had been lost almost a year before the above mentioned incident took place…
By: Beermat - 4th January 2011 at 15:16
Thank you ever so much, folks!
This forum gets better and better for this kind of thing – what a resource!
By: VoyTech - 4th January 2011 at 11:11
Slight misspelling(s): it was BK156 (and the navigator, P/O Juliusz Zywicki P-2535, has drowned).
BK516 (BH-K), No. 300 Sqn, was lost with the entire crew on the night of 13 March 1943 on a Gardening mission to St Nazaire.
By: Gregor - 3rd January 2011 at 21:54
Hi! It was Wellington III BK516 from 18 (Polish) OTU which crashed near Workington in Cumberland on 23 Feb. 1944. After the engine failure during the training flight pilot tried to ditch. All crew managed to leave the aircraft successfully except the navigator who had drawn.
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January 3, 2011 at 11:56 am