"post war " Horsas

horsa at pegasus bridge

Hi,

I took these 2 photographs at pegasus bridge in sept 09 they have these sections behind glass

There was a large restored Horsa fuselage section at the Military Transport museum at Helston, Cornwall in the mid to late eighties.

Beside the cockpit and fuselage in Mosquito aircraft museum, and the MKII in Middle Wallop. does any one has information about Horsa parts that were found long after war, being used as shed or something like that
Isn’t there a fuselage at Pegasus Bridge?

(At further risk of posting the same reply ad nauseam…)
I was slightly involved in the recovery of the Cholsey Horsa and can perhaps assist. I took numerous pics and wrote the article that was printed in Fly Past.
My information is that the salvaged remains were purchased from the Mosquito Museum, to be used as a basis for the Pegasus Bridge replica.

Nice ones !

Just discovered theirs two pictures of said Hamilcar pieces in the Getty Image archive.

http://www.gettyimages.se/detail/3290827/Hulton-Archive
http://www.gettyimages.se/detail/3396703/Hulton-Archive

Also Welcome, thanks

Not Horsa, but there was a Hamilcar fuselage section at Broadway, Glos. and a nose section at Woodmancote, Glos. being used as a shed/chicken cook respectively up until the mid 50’s.

Thanks Roger, any documentation on that

Two Horsa fuselages at Albrighton (near railway station), Wolverhampton in the late 1960s.

Roger Smith.

Thanks for that Dave

A Horsa fuselage existed at Christchurch (possibly where it was built) until about 1951 or 52. The intention was for the Christchurch Aero Club to use it as a club premises …however it was apparently vandalised before this could happen and was eventually burned.

The last known position of it (on the south side)is marked on the upper of two large photos of Christchurch in the early 50s on my webpage ….scroll down about halfway to the picture immediately below the Sea Venom and Control tower…..

http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/airfields/xch.html

Thanks for all the information guys, if you can help out with any photograph or so it would be most welcome. Also those who provided the info about the locations would you send me an private message or email, with your name, so I can make a note of it in my booklet, as source of information

I actually “found” Horsa TK979 at Queensferry around 1963. Noticed it one day while driving past. The elderly owner was quite apprehensive when I knocked on his door and asked about it. “It was come by quite legally he said”. He relaxed when I assured him that I was not from “the Ministry”. It had come from RAF Hawarden, about two miles away in the late 1940s/early 50s. All the N Wales ones came from here when they were sold off to farmers etc. TK979 was only a fuselage section about ten feet long, the identity being stencilled on the frames. I think it was or had been used as a chicken house.
The best one was at Rhuallt Hill. It was long fuselage section painted black and complete with yellow-ringed roundel. It was often misidentified as a Lancaster!

In the early-1970s Newark Air Museum agreed with the Museum of Army Flying to exchange the nose of a Horsa glider for a Sioux helicopter, which was eventually handed over to NAM in autumn 1978.

I’m not sure about the identity of the Horsa (my material for that period is archived at NAM) but it may have been the Mk.1, or was it TL659 – BAPC No.80? :confused:

There was a Horsa fuselage at Old Stratford, Bucks in the late 60s early 70s on the right hand side of the road as you came out of Stony Stratford. It had curtain’s in the windows. I was told that it was burnt later.

Dave

I remember the Cholsey Horsa house as I was ‘duty dog’ at Middle Wallop when it was offered to the museum (declined). Wallop currently has two Mk 2 Horsa fuselage sections on display, one restored, one not, there is also the world’s only original Mk 1 cockpit. The museum has other bits of airframe and donated some to the Assault Glider trust at Shawbury, who had a Horsa Caravan.
I’m also currently (and slowly) identifying and cateloging the remains of what appear to be a mix of Horsa Mk 1 and Mk2 and Hamilcar which have been burnt and then buried on in a shallow grave on a British airfield. These were recovered in 2009 and donated to the museum, so I’ve managed to positivley identify 174 pieces, this was one of the easier ones to identify.
[ATTACH]191645[/ATTACH]
Landing skid shock absorber from a Horsa Mk1

Thanks Adrian another one for checking out

There was a section of Horsa recovered from Cholsey in, I think, the late 1990s that had been used as part of a house. Covered in Flypast/Aeroplane Monthly at the time. I have to say that I haven’t heard of one since but, if you look on Youtube for Horsa, you should find a video of Horsas becoming houses.

Adrian

Thanks for that that would be an interesting magazine,Will see if I can get this from somewhere

Wrecks and Relics 2nd edition (1968) is your friend, it lists the following heavy gliders

Abingdon Gaol 2 Horsas used as changing rooms
Boscombe Down Horsa TK994 by side of road at Eastern end of base
Brize Norton ” scattered around the village allotments are the remains of Horse fuselarges carrying on their time honored task in the disguise of Chicken runs, tool sheds etc.Known examples at Manor Farm are TL619 and TL726″
Cherry Hinton, Cambridgeshire unknown Horsa at Sydney Farm
Cottesmore- “Bits of a Hadrain glider may be extant on the airfield boundary”
Cropredy,Oxon- two Horsas one is RZ240
Cubridge, Oxon- in the grounds of a dissused military hospital is Horsa TL338
Grotton,Lancs- Hardian 42-56353 behind a garage
Lyneham- the surrounding villages contained Hamilcars RR993,RR969,RR982,RZ421,TK731, RR996 was reported as dissapeared.
Mickleton,Glos- Hamilcar NX836 plus others
Queensfetrry, N .Wales- Horsa TK979 at Willow Cottage, Mould Road
Ruallt Hill, N.Wales-Horsa TL195 in a farm yard
St.Aspath, N .Wales-Horsa TK946 at Mr Phillips Far, another may be at Bryn Clwyd farm
Wotton Bassett,Wilts-two Horsas behind a transport Cafe reported in 1965
Wroughton-Horsa at Basset Doen Farm in 1965

So its lokks like the Wiltshire/Oxfordshire and North Wales area were the most populated with glider disposals. I also read somewhere the Elliotts of Newbury kept a couple of Horsas at their Newbury factory into the 50’s? When did the RAF stop using large gliders post war, by 1950 I would guess
Being woodern they were never going to last too long.