Have come up with a couple of possibilities:
G-AXGF 188-0344 Crashed 11 Aug 70 Dyfynog, Breconshire. G-INFO shows date as 01 Sept 70
G-AYJM 188-0444 Crashed 15 Jun 72 No location quoted.Planemike
Many thanks!
Interesting thread on some ‘real flying’ – great photos…:)
Any info out there on a Cessna 188, flown by a Kiwi, prang in the early ’70s near Bridgwater in Somerset?
Some sites;
Among other things, this describes the demise of a Lt Potter…
The well documented…
RUSSELHEIM (August 26, 1944) & Incident in Essen
On a bombing mission over Germany, a US 8th Airforce B-24 bomber, piloted by 2nd Lt Norman J Rogers, was hit by flak and crash landed some 90 miles south of Hanover. The nine man crew were captured, one with a broken ankle was taken to hospital. The other eight were put on a train to a P.O.W. camp.
On the way, the train stopped at Russelheim where the airmen dismounted and were marched through the town under guard. During the march they were set upon by a crowd of townspeople and pelted with stones, bricks and shovels. Two airmen ran for their lives and escaped.
The other six, battered and unconscious were shot by the local Nazi leader, a foreman in the towns Opel Works. All were buried in a common grave. Later, the bodies were recovered and re-interned in the Lorraine Military Cemetery at St Avold in France. After the war eleven of the perpetrators were found and arrested. Five men were found guilty and hanged, two women received a 30 year jail term, two other men, 15 years each, and one to 25 years. One was acquitted.
(In August 2001, one of the survivors, tail gunner Sidney E Brown, of Florida, was invited back to Russelsheim by the town municipality to receive a formal apology from its citizens. On the 60th anniversary of the atrocity , August 26, 2004, the town dedicated a memorial to those killed)
That same year, 1944, on December 13, three British airmen were captured and were being marched through the streets of Essen on their way to a Luftwaffe unit for interrogation. The three man escort was commanded by Hauptmann Erich Heyer who ordered the escorts not to interfere if civilians attacked the prisoners.
Attacked they were as the party crossed a bridge. Sticks and stones were thrown and a pistol was fired which wounded one of the prisoners in the head. The escort and one of the civilians, Johann Braschoss, were sentenced to death. One of the escorts, Private Koenen, was sent to prison for five years and two other civilians, Karl Kaufer and Hugo Boddenberg, to life imprisonment and ten years respectively.
The death sentences were carried out on March 8th 1946. On March 22, 1945, five RAF aircrew were captured after baling out from their damaged aircraft during a raid on the Dreierwalde airfield in which around forty civilians and Luftwaffe personnel were killed. Marched to an interrogation centre by a three man German guard, under the command of Oberfeldwebel Karl Amberger, the party turned on to a track leading into a wood.
There the prisoners were shot in cold blood. One prisoner, Australian Flt. Lt. Berick, though wounded, managed to escape. At a British Military Court at Wuppertal on 11th to 14th March, 1946, Karl Amberger was found guilty of shooting unarmed prisoners of war and was sentenced to death. He was hanged on May 15th. 1946.
The Russelsheim aftermath…[graphic]
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWJPD0E-d5E
Many USAAF aircrew were killed by Japanese civilians on the Japanese home islands although sometimes there were scenes of compassion by Japanese [women] that stopped crowds from killing the crewman.
French used Havards in Algeria as well.
Many thanks for all the replies…
I had Googled the bio about Lt Lutz [Lyons Italy 🙂 ]
The news paper article is interesting as the crash site is some distance away from the memorial.
There is an airstrip nearby and as you walk from it to the restaurant you pass by the memorial.
Dave
What I’m saying is that the Americans didn’t get lost all the time.
All forces did including the Japanese…every clear beach on the east coast of New Ireland has a radial engine on it from when some Zeros coming down to Rabaul from Truk got lost and had to force land…
Even the RNZAF P-40s and Corsairs had to be shepherded up from NZ with a Ventura or Hudson….
I’d be interested to see when RNZAF Venturas escorted [US Forces] Avengers in PNG.
They also acted as navigation aircraft for US Avenger forces as they had trouble finding their way home too often
I’m not from the States but the impression that they had trouble finding their way home too often is one of the many myths about this theatre…the RNZAF having themselves lost many Corsairs on one mission when they got lost in bad weather.
I flew in this area for three years in the ’70s and after experiencing the conditions they all flew in I have the greatest respect for them and it is slightly irritating to see the old ANZAC/British myths about them getting lost all the time…everyone got lost there at sometime, even later on 🙂
Back to the RAAF photos, the vegetation is very similar to Emirau but I doubt that they were taken there. A possibility is that they were taken at Morotai [large bypassed RAAF base in Indonesia] when the PBJs positioned through on their way to the PI…??
To get away from the European sector of WWII one of the best books I have on the Pacific air war is ‘Warpath Across the Pacific’
http://www.pacificwrecks.com/reviews/warpath.html
It’s a pictorial history of the 345th BG who operated B-25s up through New Guinea and the Philippines and the photos are incredible.
Well worth getting or reading.
Thanks for posting these photos and on the Classic site…great shots!
I suspect the Venturas in the last photo are RNZAF ones..occasionally they accompanied the Marine PBJs on missions and there are some photos of them in formation with some PBJs during a raid on Rabaul.
Hard to pinpoint where the Australian aircraft are…the vegetation looks more like the ‘scrubby’ type found in Papua…Hollandia is a possibility, I was there 30 years ago and remember the vegetation as being more ‘tropical’…
Go to the Video Links on the website to view many movies of aircraft at work in PNG in the 30s and early 40s…fantastic stuff.
Betio is were the Marines landed in WWII [first amphibious landing of the war -interesting reading in itself]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betio
There was a small strip there that was built by the Japanese but was not used a great deal.
The ‘Tawara’ airfield is a boat ride away from Betio.
Flew in there many times in the mid ’70s – only thing left from the war was a large concrete bunker and numerous 6″ [?] guns reputedly from the capture of Singapore…no aircraft wrecks.
Don’t think you’ll find many wrecks on Pacific atolls now – weren’t many left then and the restorers have been out in force over the last twenty years.
Would be great if GE could penetrate the bush in Papua New Guinea to find some of the many aircraft still missing…a lot of families still waiting for closure.
Looks like ONCs from pilot supply shops in the States eg Sporty’s don’t include PNG anymore
Charts were published by the Aust.CAD, just wish I hadn’t lost mine from the early ’70s, too many moves…
If your friend gets out there I’m sure he’ll be able to get some kind of map from other pilots..not the kind of place where you use maps much anyway…just local knowledge up the valleys as well as getting up early in the morning…
Does ‘Somerset at War’ include any names we could check to confirm date?
No, it just gives it as a Norseman – doesn’t mention the Mossie as Zeals is technically in Wilts…
However , in ‘Wiltshire Airfields of WWII’ it mentions two accidents that day;
Mosquito NF XIII HK510 which crashed at Pen Mill, Penselwood to the west of Zeals [mentions engine out missed approach/bad weather as a cause] which is some distance from the Tower…
The Norseman wreckage [details as before] ended up in Brewham Farm [Somerset] which is the first clear area just west of the tower
A Mosquito did crash at night but that was in the Zeals circuit area.
It’s given as a Norseman in ‘Somerset at War’ with a plausible account and the body count is higher than a Mossie crew…
Date could be wrong of course.
There was a letter to the Editor’ in the Telegraph a few weeks ago from someone looking for more info, it included a photo from the ‘rear end’…