Wyvern burials – Gosport

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Its a bowling green I think.

Hi Melvyn, I was at school with you.

I reckon if it’s a nature reserve you would probably want to dig them up to avoid potential pollution !!! If it’s a good enough excuse for pulling Heinkels and Junkers out of reservoirs I think we can apply it here.

I only live 20 miles down the road and have a spade if you need any help.

I grew up close to there and well remember digging up belted 303 and individual rounds of 20mm ammunition in the garden of our council house.
I have friends on Gosport council and used to be a member myself and I’m pretty sure that if you gave them a half decent X marks the spot they would support a dig. Having said that, Gosport has a very high water table and if you dig down about ten feet it will flood.

Maybe the silence speaks for itself?

6 years on from the start of this thread & mentioned in the legends & myths thread, so any news/progress?

Thanks for posting the pics, it always amazes me how the Python engine snapped in the same place as the Wyvern, and that the pilot survived.
What were the details of the accident?
I seem to remember that there was an ‘Aeroplane’ photographer on Albion at the time, who came away with the impression that the Wyvern was a dangerous old bird!

“Lieutenant Jim Jarrett, one of the squadron staff officers, was making his approach in a very tail down attitude, indicating that he was either very heavy or slow. As he came over Eagle’s round-down the aircraft entered a stall and rolled to the right, crashing into the carrier’s funnel. The engine and propellers broke off, remaining embedded in the funnel, while the remainder of the aircraft crashed upside down alongside the port side of the island with Jim trapped underneath. The flight-deck rescue crew and firefighters were quck off the mark, and fortunately there was no fire. Jims ‘bone dome’ took most of the impact and shattered, but he was deeply unconscious and his head and face were dreadful shades of blue and black. The first impressions were that he had not survived, but after the aircraft had been lifted to enable a doctor to attend him he was found to have a pulse. Jim Jarrett subsequently made a recovery (although still suffered from the effects) but never flew fixed wing aircraft again, instead going onto helicopters”.

The above taken from the excellent book ‘Phantom Leader’ by Michael J. Doust.

Rob

Great photos in this thread but seriously how likely is it that aircraft were just buried when aluminium always had a good scrap value per hundredweight and there were always men willing to buy it as scrap?

It depends on when, but there were times when the scrap value of the aluminium was well below the cost of recovering it meaning that dumping actually save money. In March 1944, before the end of the war in Japan was even imagined, the scrap price of ali was £45 a ton and it cost £54 a ton to process. A £9 loss on each ton. These numbers would vary as the market got flooded after VE day and as processing became more efficient, but it was far from cut and dried that ali had a good price.

Thanks for posting the pics, it always amazes me how the Python engine snapped in the same place as the Wyvern, and that the pilot survived.
What were the details of the accident?
I seem to remember that there was an ‘Aeroplane’ photographer on Albion at the time, who came away with the impression that the Wyvern was a dangerous old bird!

Thanks Barry / Mark, much appreciated. I’ve seen those before except the first one but great to see all the same. The Mt Etna photo in particular is a nice shot, and although its definately not 1965 i cannot remember the exact date!

Rob

Many thanks to Barry Leeming for these shots of from 813 Sqn HMS Eagle in 1955

Mark

Anyone have any further news on this buried aircraft story?

Thanks.

I think its safe to say that when there’s something to tell, it will be told 🙂

I have a series photos of a Wyvern from 813 Sqdn. ” Buried ” in the funnel of HMS Eagle. ( pilot survived 🙂 )
We had to return to port to ” dig it out of ” :diablo:
Also have photos of 3, 813 Wyverns over Mt Etna 1965. 123,124,125, Code J ( Eagle ) If only I new how to post ’em, and lots more FAA 1953/65 era A/C photos ?? Geriatric PC user 😀

bleeming, would love to see those photos as well 🙂

Rob

Very 🙂

Great photos in this thread but seriously how likely is it that aircraft were just buried when aluminium always had a good scrap value per hundredweight and there were always men willing to buy it as scrap?

Would be great to see the pictures here Bleeming, hopefully Mark12 will arrange that for us.
I suspect Wyverns over Mt. Etna was 1955.

I have a series photos of a Wyvern from 813 Sqdn. ” Buried ” in the funnel of HMS Eagle. ( pilot survived 🙂 )
We had to return to port to ” dig it out of ” :diablo:
Also have photos of 3, 813 Wyverns over Mt Etna 1965. 123,124,125, Code J ( Eagle ) If only I new how to post ’em, and lots more FAA 1953/65 era A/C photos ?? Geriatric PC user 😀

Personal message sent.

Mark

” Buried ” Wyvern.

I have a series photos of a Wyvern from 813 Sqdn. ” Buried ” in the funnel of HMS Eagle. ( pilot survived 🙂 )
We had to return to port to ” dig it out of ” :diablo:
Also have photos of 3, 813 Wyverns over Mt Etna 1965. 123,124,125, Code J ( Eagle ) If only I new how to post ’em, and lots more FAA 1953/65 era A/C photos ?? Geriatric PC user 😀

Anyone have any further news on this buried aircraft story?

Thanks.

Gosport (Grange) Airfield Aerial Pics

Thanks Flat for your last,
You prompted me to take another delve in the archive to come up with something similar, but also to help illustrate clearly what I have said in my last couple posts on this very interesting thread.

The two attached pics were taken immediate post war, I know that for sure, as the future location of the family home is still a field!.

The first pic I have marked the Church at Rowner Lane (left), the right hand one denotes roughly the location of the fenced off aircraft dump, as I remember it. Interestingly to the left of both markers, a line of what look like Fireflys is shown along the boundary hedge.

In the next image I have marked the Hangars that were demolished in early sixties I believe, to make way for the HMS Centurion Records/Drafts building, one of these Hangars appears in a couple of pics of the dump aircraft in this thread. The lower right hand marker denotes the Officers Mess, the other two lower left are where the old gravel pits were, and maybe,…….and it is a big maybe, the last resting place for the Wyvern and others,……..you don’t know till you try:).

Gerry R