WW2 Treasure Hunters Series 2 History Channel From Nov 2018: Two Aircraft Excavation

Pilot Officer ‘Sandy’ Ballantine and his gunner Sergeant McTaggart engage a Heinkel 111 over North Lincolnshire on the afternoon of 7th March 1941. Ballantine was airborne in Defiant N3333 YD-B of 255 Squadron performing an air test when he came across the Heinkel in layers of cloud. Less than two months later both men were forced to bale out of this aircraft when it was shot down in combat over Nocton in Lincolnshire.

4 May 1941 255sqn at Nocton Fen

This aircraft was destroyed whilst on a patrol sortie east of Lincoln. The engine exploded at around 4000 feet in flight, forcing the crew to bale out. The aircraft was wrecked when it dived into the ground near Glebe Farm, pilot P/O Arthur Alexander “Sandy” Ballantine 85650 and gunner Sgt Chrys H G McTaggart 902423 were uninjured apart from minor bruising.

More than a little misleading with the ‘building damaged’ figure https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-humber-20341765 or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hull_Blitz – not exactly Dresden when you look into it, but then ‘about 5000 houses or so were destroyed’ doesn’t have the same ‘shock-horror’ value as ‘95% damaged*’ I suppose

This is not to denigrate anything, but really…….. a bit of context and accuracy wouldn’t go amiss

*A house considered ‘damaged’ if a window had cracked?

Third episode also excavating an aircraft

Episode two- Stephen Taylor and Suggs are up to their knees in mud in Lincolnshire as they dig up the remains of a Bolton Paul Defiant plane, one of our best night-time fighter planes, shot down by the Luftwaffe during the Hull Blitz. As Stephen and the team dig up the plane and its famous Merlin engine, they discover that although it landed upside down, both pilot and gunner escaped unhurt. Meanwhile, Suggs discovers how the Hull Blitz was kept secret by the government to keep up morale despite over 95% of Hull’s houses being hit before finding out more about the little known Defiant- a forgotten marvel of British engineering. He invites pilot Sandy Ballantine’s daughter, Christine to the dig who, armed with a wealth of documents, reveals how Sandy ended up landing at Gold beach on D Day before being mortally wounded 2 days later. Stephen has found the exact location where he died under German attack and in an emotional visit, takes Christine there for the very first time.

Thanks for the info, will look forward to watching it.