Possible Beaufighter lump

I thought Bristol tanks were welded?

Slipped my thoughts, you are quite correct.

I thought Bristol tanks were welded?

Matt, what a brilliant bit of work with google Earth. It certainly gives you a clear perspective on what might have been the planning for the attack, and what both the AA gunners and pilots would have to contend with.

For the pilots, a logical attack would be to come from the west, low in the river valley, with the afternoon sun shining on the face of the power station. The terrain seems to be too difficult to to mount an attack from any other direction. The logical, if predictable, gun emplacements would look down the river valley, easy for gunners to get to from the shelter of the building, where your lunch room would be. The historical photo shows these afternoon conditions, sun in the face of the gunners. Coming out of a low, westerly attack, you would need to sweep to the right into rising terrain, very difficult, exposing your full underside to likely gun emplacements.

Perhaps they came from the north : there seem to be clouds of dust in front and behind the long dimension of the station, and smoke on the hillside behind consistent with this. Perhaps a bunt from the north, swooping down and up, with a misjudgement of height or damage to the aircraft in the bunt down causing it to hit the roof.

I concur that it is a fuel tank, but don’t recognise it. There would have to be a spray of metal from the disintegrating aircraft in the hill behind the station, no doubt over the years working its way down to the river below. Perhaps a bit of work with a metal detector might come up with small pieces that haven’t been scrapped.

Hi, Melvyn,

I can’t help at all with identification. I just wanted to give a little visual perspective to the crash site.

First, I rotated the wartime photo to make it easier to view.

I then found the power station on Google Earth, more or less matched the GE view to the wartime camera view, and I added a 1 to 1 vertical exaggeration to the terrain (horizontal and vertical are matched; no vertical exaggeration). Attached are photos for then-and-now comparisons. Note the north arrow in the GE images. I should add that the power station itself is not part of the terrain modeling.

Good luck,

Matt

Beaufighter wing tanks are strapped to the tank bay door, no steel attachment. This tank has more of a Hawker feel to it, similar to Hurricane wing tank with that right angled steel mount.

…but plenty of folks in here will pick up on having an ID for this..

The serial is on the document – LZ375, a Beaufighter TF-X.

Hi Melvyn,
That “Lump” looks WW2 ,british to me and also looks like part of an integral fuel tank. You can see 3 fuel connections, 1) the large reinforced pipe attachment ring. 2) what looks like a “Stack ” or vent pipe connection and 3) poss another connector that the mans hands are covering in the one pic. (The pics can be seen if you click away and get into photo Bucket. ) My knowledge of Beaufighters is less than yours, but plenty of folks in here will pick up on having an ID for this. Have a look at any bolts, nuts, connectors to ID anything British. Hope it is Beaufighter, for families closure.

This is where this forum comes into its own. Best of luck M8.

Bill T.

Pictures three to five don’t appear for me…