Vickers Wellington Mk. X MF113

My family are from Ardrossan – so I meant Arran – last time I was there I was in shorts with a woggle around my neck.. And all I remember is midges….

Ooops yes of course you are correct,I meant Islay,I used to go there archaeology diving on the Frenchmans rocks cannon site.

You obviously looked in the wrong places, Brian! And Scotavia, I’m sure you meant to type Islay rather than Arran.

The only thing I found on Arran were midges !!!!

As fan of High Ground Wrecks(by Atcham Tower of course) I recall the great whoops of delight when finding a stencilled panel at a crash site,the Beaufighter on Arran was LX 946, it was a bad night for the OTU as they lost 2 crews and aircraft.

A former RAF aircraft fitter told me that removable panels rarely fitted other aircraft of the same type, hence the stencilled or pecilled serial numbers, He was talking about postwar types such as the Varsity. built by professionals, so one can imagine the results obtained by inexperienced shadow factory workers. Fixing holes drilled in different places, etc etc. Hence I think it unlikely but of course unprovable that cowlings were swapped around.

It may also just be my eyes – everything else is falling apart.

I attach the two stamps on the two inner ribs. The letters/numbers on the inspector stamps are VERY small.

The first numbers confirming it is wellington are badly struck and you need to look at different angles to see the numbers

Scotavia – you are correct wrt stencil for the aircraft id on the inside.

I did clean up a piece of Lancaster yesterday and found a nice RY – Avro Yeadon stamp

I might be saying what you have already considered……the marking of the aircraft serial inside removable panels became common,I have photographed this on a Beuafighter wreck on Arran and a Wellington BK347 in Yorkshire. However it was not a part of the factory finish as the 2 I have seen were made using stencils. So is it possible that the panel had already been swopped from another Wellington before the idea of marking panels spread?

Remarkable. But I’m puzzled by the Castle Brom stamps (presumably VACB). I don’t think Wellingtons were built at CB but I may be wrong about that. Perhaps they just made certain components. Squires Gate (Blackpool) aircraft had VABL stamps.

Thank you Sir – well at least a bit of her still survives – port lower engine cowl. Id stencilled on rear.

Several decades of emulsion paint and underneath the original Night Black.

According to Air-Britain, MF113 was built by Vickers at Squires Gate, served only with 26 OTU and was sold as scrap on 11.2.49.