Wartime Scrappings

Are there any of these sites near Derby?

TIA

Jason

Fleet Air Arm Whitleys

There was another bomber scrapping ground on the Black Isle to the north of Inverness, possibly a satellite of the Kinloss MU.
Also Balado Bridge, No Whitley’s were broken up there, I did hear of a story of Barracudas, fresh from the factory, having their engines removed and then lined up and a bulldozer driven over them to break them up.

Steve, I did Google ‘Balado Bridge + Whitley’ and was guided back to this forum : taken from a post last month, if you search you’ll find the thread: probably correct info on the Whitleys. As a youngster I recall seeing from windows of passing trains what I now know were Seafire wings stacked up in the yard at Balado Bridge/Milnathort. I never did have the opportunity, or the desire then, to get any closer.
From Cher’s once-popular song however…(breaks into tuneless melody) …If I could tu-r-n-n back ti-ime ….. enough of that ! :rolleyes: Regards, Brian

There was another bomber scrapping ground on the Black Isle to the north of Inverness, possibly a satellite of the Kinloss MU.
Also Balado Bridge, No Whitley’s were broken up there, I did hear of a story of Barracudas, fresh from the factory, having their engines removed and then lined up and a bulldozer driven over them to break them up.

A lot of naval aircraft met the axe at Balado Bridge. The museum at Strathallan used to have some Barracuda panels with interesting nose art on display which came from there. I’d love to know where they are now.

I’ve also seen an aerial shot of Dalcross, Inverness, that shows a Lancaster being cut up on the airfield circa 1947/1948.

Also, Wig Bay cut up many of Coastal Command’s flying boats in the early post-war years.

Best wishes
Steve P

All over the place it would seem, the attached shot taken at Portsmouth airport just after WW2. Many aircraft scrapped here I am told, by Hants & Sussex Aviation.

There was another bomber scrapping ground on the Black Isle to the north of Inverness, possibly a satellite of the Kinloss MU.
Also Balado Bridge, No Whitley’s were broken up there, I did hear of a story of Barracudas, fresh from the factory, having their engines removed and then lined up and a bulldozer driven over them to break them up.

Quite a few different types ended their days at the MU at RAF Edzell.

Best wishes
Steve P

Were there any post war scrapping yards on Salisbury Plain?

Only one’s I know of are the Horsa’s at Netheravon which were stored in “Glider Bottom”. Fair few parts ended up in locals gardens as fences, sheds, cloches, etc.

Great stuff – thanks guys. If anyone has any pics of aircraft lined up on the old airfields i’d be really interested to see them.

I wonder what happened to the Whitleys that were bombed out at Driffield. Maybe they were bulldozed into a hole somewhere…

RAF Kemble undertook lots of scrapping during the period after WW2, most notably was that, most, if not, all, of the Westland Whirlwind’s were done to death there.

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I know, I should be over it by now… 🙁

There were mass scrappings of Halifaxes at Hooton Park post war. An aerial photo of the site shows over 400 on the airfield. I’ll try and get a copy and post it.
The Halifaxes came from the Rootes factory in Liverpool on the opposite side of the river Mersey from Hooton. They were completed, inspected and test flown to comply with the terms of the contract then flown the three miles across river to Hooton and broken up.
We got a good-sized bag of bits from a local wood including perspex, cockpit and engine parts, inspection hatches and other assorted bits.
There were lots of Mossies broken up at Hooton as well which had originated from the overhaul and disposal work at the Martin Hearn factory on the airfield.
As an interesting aside, when the airfield closed in 1957 the land was subsequently bought by Vauxhalls to build the car factory in the early sixties(which still stands and operates to this day). The work entailed tearing down the old Martin Hearn hangars and clearing woodland behind. An old Blackburn Botha was found in the woods and the chap in charge (an ex-RAF pilot would you believe) said “get rid of it asap so it doesn’t hold the job up”. They did, and bulldozed it into a hole out of sight – exact location unknown.
It was probably the last one in existence.
The Botha story was told to me by the brother of said chap-in-charge – an ex-RAF pilot himself.

Were there any post war scrapping yards on Salisbury Plain?

wartime aircraft scrapping

Hundreds of Halifaxes met their fate at Rawcliffe near York which had been a Handley Page Repair Depot during the hostilities,there were Costal Command aircraft as well as the mainly Canadian Squadron kites broken up there ,is a photo of these aircraft at Rawcliffe awaiting their fate is in the splendid Phiilip Moyes “Squadrons of the Royal airforce”

Elliott –

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/bridgeford/forres/Aviation/Moray%20Aviation%20Trail.pdf

Details on the Brackla scrappings here.

We recently recovered fuel tanks and various Halifax bits from near here. On the same trip we got hold of a DH Hornet canopy, which I believe some is putting to good use! 😉

Steve

RAF Aston Down – Large Numbers of Lancaster’s/Anson’s/Tempests – Photo’s & I’ve found fragments of all of these.

RAF Honeybourn – Large Numbers of Whitley’s – Photos

RAF Kemble – Large Numbers of Typhoons – Photos and bits recovered (Late 80’s-Early 90’s – Some big bits…firewalls, fwd fuse carry thru spars etc)

What about the quarry full of aircraft at Eaglescliffe ?

Thanks Scotty – I would be interested to see a scan.

The halifax scrapping took place at an airfield away from Kinloss, called RAF Brackla. This is close to Nairn and Cawdor Castle. It didn’t have concrete runways, and little remains now to show that there was ever an airfield there.

I have a leaflet somewhere that details this, I’ll see if I can pass it on to you Elliot, but give me a while to find it!

Regards,
Scotty

RAF Cosford was also a major scrapping site, there was a feature about it in Aeroplane a year or two ago. Lots of pics of Lancs being hacked apart…:(

Surprised no one has mentioned High Ercall.

Tried Googling for that well known aerial shot but drew a blank.:D

Brian

Wrong initial and a different family.:)

Mark

Ahh, My apologies !

RAF Kemble undertook lots of scrapping during the period after WW2, most notably was that, most, if not, all, of the Westland Whirlwind’s were done to death there.