Suspected human bone discovered in WW2 Spitfire dig

Another link from today http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-35884242

The excavation of a Spitfire from its wartime crash site has set the standard for future aviation digs, England’s historic environment body has said.
The plane crashed in Holme Fen in Cambridgeshire in November 1940, killing Pilot Officer Harold Penketh.
Historic England said involving forces veterans in the dig made it “an exemplar for future such endeavours”.
Veteran Gary Phillips, 57, who suffers from PTSD, said it was “like therapy” because he helped a fellow soldier.
The Spitfire Mk 1A and Pilot Officer Harold Penketh
Sgt Diarmaid Walshe said even though Harold Penketh died years ago “we have a responsibility as fellow service personnel to make sure he’s not forgotten”
A team from Oxford Archaeology East worked with veterans and service personnel to excavate the Spitfire in October, during which some of the pilot’s remains were discovered.
Mr Phillips, who is from Liverpool, said: “It’s like a fellow soldier and we’re going to help him – he served his country and died doing it and I lost friends doing the same.”
He served with the King’s Regiment during the 1970s and 1980s, including tours of Northern Ireland.
Two years ago he approached the veterans’ mental health charity Combat Stress for help with post-traumatic stress disorder, and said “in our day, PTSD wasn’t accepted”.

A minute’s silence was held after a fragment of the pilot’s bone was found during the dig
Woodvale Crematorium Service

All those involved in the dig, including Gary Phillips, later attended a service in Brighton where the pilot’s final remains were laid to rest
The former rifleman was told about Operation Nightingale, which is a military-run Defence Archaeology Group project using archaeology to aid the recovery of service personnel and veterans injured in conflict.
He said: “It’s like therapy – sometimes I can’t go out of the house and that has lost me jobs, but this is bringing me out of my shell.”
Diarmaid Walshe co-founded Nightingale after he identified “a growing need for some form of occupational therapy and recovery” for injured personnel.
The Royal Medical Corps sergeant said: “Military personnel are very good at digging holes, at working in adverse conditions, as part of a team and to tight deadlines.
“Plus the more physical skills are relevant to archaeology too – spotting colour changes in the soil, writing proper reports and observing small details.”

Harold Penketh laid to rest today R I P and well done to all those involved in the dig. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-34866398

🙂 some more updates and photos http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-34549846

🙂 Thanks for that,it would make sense in a time of war.

From memory I think they had 3 days to recover any lost crew members but if just the aircraft as long as it took to pick up the lumps they could get and fill the hole in, maybe just the day at most.

I guess whether you call an engine a whole part ie the engine cases and internals as a single lump or lots of broken components when put together would make an engine.
Another question , during the war was the excavation done to 1,recover the body 2, any secret stuff 3,and ammo and any easy to get parts.I guess deep excavations were not regarded as necessary.

Engines have an amazing ability to hide. I was told by someone that the engine of the aircraft I mentioned above hadn’t been recovered, while I was stood next to a table with three pistons and con rods on it from that crash!

I suspect that someone somewhere has just missed that bit of news.

Adrian

The engine was recovered last week. Along with propeller hub and two x blades and a large quantity of other material.

It was stated they hoped to find the engine, since they have found the prop I would imagine they would have found the engine before they found the prop since the engine would be behind the prop when digging down. What am I missing here?

If this bog was rather wet the engine may have sunk throwing off parts on its arrival with the bog. keep digging chaps.

If there’s sufficient depth of soggy fen, isn’t it likely that the engine would tear free of it’s bearers, and it’s gearbox, and go on down past the drag of the propeller? It would seem virtually inconceivable that such a crash could take place without an off-axis component to the forces involved.

It was stated they hoped to find the engine, since they have found the prop I would imagine they would have found the engine before they found the prop since the engine would be behind the prop when digging down. What am I missing here?

This is the only link i can find so far ,is it the same one? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11910966/Spitfire-wreckage-to-be-pulled-from-bog-75-years-after-crash.html

Yes, that’s it…I saw it online. I can’t get anyone to deliver the paper delivered here. 🙂

During the deep clean of the Dornier at Cosford bones were found in the debris that came out of the wings. Not human thankfully.

There was a nice story in The Telegraph.

This is the only link i can find so far ,is it the same one? http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11910966/Spitfire-wreckage-to-be-pulled-from-bog-75-years-after-crash.html

There was a nice story in The Telegraph.

Was that in today’s Telegraph?

There was a nice story in The Telegraph.

A few more items have been recovered http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-34484400
A cigarette case and parts of bodywork have also been found during the dig for the plane at Holme Fen, Cambridgeshire.
They have also recovered the starter motor, control panels from the cockpit, part of the oxygen system and the entire remains of one of the fuel tanks of the Mk 1A Spitfire X4583.
They also hope to recover the engine.

We carried out a dig on a Hurricane many years ago in Oxfordshire, all records showed that the pilot bailed out, but amoungst the wreckage we found quite worryingly bones !

Turned out that as the Hurricane had made a convienient hole, the farmer used it to Dispose of a Pig !

Jules

Andy Saunders has written about that sort of thing, and I’m sure we have a few members here who can talk of what they’ve found if they wanted to. Suffice, I think, to say that you only need 7lbs to have a body to bury, which leaves quite a lot to find later. I believe there’s more than one case of a pilot having two graves.

Adrian

House-bricks used to get formal military funerals too, if you just bury what’s left of a pilot that’s gone in at 300kts the coffin won’t sit right.