Ben Aigen Whitley
Al and I found something which might be of interest.
Elliott, of the Whitley_project was visiting this area to conduct the ultimately disappointing Quarrywood excavation – see http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=100641
Anyway, whilst he was here we decided to investigate the crash site of Whitley P5006 – see http://www.griffon.clara.net/19/19otu_aircraft_master.htm
A sister of one of the crash victims had given him a map reference for the site, and had asked if Elliott could take some pictures of the cairn on top of the hill, which she said she’d helped to build with her father.
After scrambling around in a treacherous ravine, Elliott found a couple of aircraft panels, which he left in situ. We then climbed the hill and took some photos of the cairn. We didn’t find the actual crash site though.
A few days later, Al and I decided to investigate, and using Google Earth and the photo on the 19 OTU website taken from the crash site, we worked out roughly where the site was. At the time of the photo, 1945, the hill was bare. Now it’s a forestry plantation. Referencing the view from the crash site photo was difficult, as we couldn’t see the view for the trees.
After a search in the forest, around the location we’d worked out, we found a jumble of rocks and couple of pieces of wreckage. The rocks and the wreckage looked to us as if they’d been put there. See the photo below.
We thought that this must have been the remains of the cairn built by the victims father in 1945, not the one on the peak, as the sister was only 3 years old at the time and cairns on the peaks of mountains are common. We cleaned off the moss and rebuilt the cairn as below.
This is the present day view from the same location as the 1945 photo:
I forwarded the photos above to Elliott, so he can pass them on along with this information to the crash victims sister.
Other pics from the site:
All photos courtesy of Al.
I think I can speak for Al here too – it was satisfying to be able to add something to the story of this aircraft and its crew.
Tail cone – Ballioll? SCimitar? – See Als earlier photo for a different view.
Lightning mainwheel?
Jaguar jet efflux?
Jaguar jet efflux again?
A native, possibly Stig of the Dump’s grandad, took an interest as Whitley_Project, Max, lankytim and I explored the yard. We were warned off, but managed to convince him we weren’t going to burn down the yard, slice ourselves to bits or steal any treasure.
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