Top Left Building are the ex-AWE compound its a secure facility inside a secure facility.

A Rocket testing facility has also been on the site as well as jet engine testing, and of course

Aera X

Southend Memories 2

it was originally released on VHS but a DVD copy has just been released they have it in the info centre at the pier.

Old Fart Not as in age… well not quite!

Old as feeling old

Fart as in a body function I am quite proud of! that and the other way to let gas out which I am famous for! well when I say famous I should have said infamous.

After much seaching for the photo I finally found it.

This part of the wreckage is help by the Southend Museum it was on a rare outing when I was just visiting the museum so grabed a shot of it, I was also alowed to pick it for for a close up view.

If your giving away I’ll rip both your hands arms and legs off for it or swap it for a complete 190 Southend Airshow Gift Pack including Hat, Badge, Poster, Map and a leaflet advertising the event.

Fantastic!!!! I’ve just stumbled across this thread after trying to find some photo’s of FH768.

I was the lucky winner when this aircraft was re listed in e-bay. She’s been bought buy a group of 4 and is based in Lincolnshire. Her new registration is G-CEVL.

Does anyone have any more photographs of her from her earlier days?

Moondance, is that how she arrived in the UK? I see MerlinPete says is was hoped that she would fly here, but she looks a long way off being airworthy in that photograph!

I have to say, the quality of the work carried out by JME is outstanding… Second to none.

Bruce, I didn’t realize that you were the same ‘Bruce’ we met when we came to collect her.

Anyway, The restoration continues and with a bit of luck, and lot of hard work, she’ll be flying again in the not too distant future (relatively speaking).

Well done that man any chance of some photos of her as she is at present,
been researching the museum for what feels like a million years!

Here are the pictures of the V2 remains salvaged from the Southend foreshore.

The salvage of the remains of a V2 V2 Terror Weapon is salvaged by crews at Southend Pier, the rocket fell just 60 yeard West of Southend Pier in October 1944 (exact date not published)

The salvaged remains are inspected by the crews on Southend seafront, Soputhend Pier is one of the Admiraltys most important bases dispatching convoys to aid the forces in thier relentless push accross a Europe.

The V2 still sticking out of the mud after it scored a direct hit on the Southend Pier Pavilion passing through the roof and the floor before embedding itself in the mud below without exploding the rocket was later salvaged and taken to a secret location for investigation.

hope you find them intresting.

from the notes I have in scrible form sadly not much detail:

March 1916: Zepplin L15 shotdown crashing East of Southend Pier
(My godmothers farther was one of the gunners to take it dowm he recived a medal and a section of the frame as reward sadly after they was lent to a museum they lost both items)

Thursday 15th August 1940: Hurricane shot down by Bf110

Sunday 18th August 1940: Unknown German Bomber seen to crash off Shoeburyness, Hawker Hurricane crashed in to Esturay pilot safe.

Wednesday 25th September 1940: Ju88 shot down during raid on Southed, crashing into Estuary.

Saturday 4th January 1941: Amy Johnson’s Airspeed Oxford V3540 only the rudder was found at the time but an experdition found what could be the remains of the aircraft last year.

Monday 3rd February 1941: Twin Engined Germon Bomber crashed 1mile off Southend Pier

Sunday 27th July 1941: German bomber shot down

Thursday 13th August 1941: German bomber shot down

Sunday 9th October 1942: 603sqn Spitfire

Wednesday 3rd March 1943: Ju88 downded by Shoebrness AA site

Tuesday 21st March 1943: Ju88 crashed just off Thorpe Bay seafront

Sunday 30th May 1943: Spitfire crash at North Foreland

Tuesday 17th August 1943: 91BG Boeing B17 shot down crashing off North Foreland

Sunday 12th December 1943: Unknown German bomber shotdown crashing mid Estuary

Monday 19th June 1944 6:20pm: Two B-17 bombers of the 379th Bomb Group collided in mid-air. The aircraft were flying back to base at Kimboltton, Huntingdon after a raid on a rocket site in occupied France 44-6133 captained by Lt A J Ramacitti was flying “tail end Charlie” this aircraft was seen to develop engine problems and lose height colliding with 42-97942 flown by Lt L L Burns. Ramacitti’s aircraft was seen to hit Burns’s aircraft just behind the pilot’s compartment; they locked together for an instant before falling away. The first aircraft (Ramacitti’s) was then seen to drop in to a power dive at around 8500ft before its wings were torn off by the stress and it crashing in to a minefield from where it could not be disturbed. The second aircraft (Burns’s) seed to be under control although it was rapidly losing height, it was at this point a number of the crew were seen bailing out. The aircraft was then seen to cross Canvey Point and make a left hand turn and head for towards the foreshore between Southend Pier and Canvey Point as if the pilot was to attempt to land the stricken aircraft on the mud. As the aircraft came down it took an angle of 45degrees and crashed nose first on to the mud and exploded burning with an intense heat leaving behind a deep hole. In total eleven crewmembers were killed. A few parts of wreckage can still be found because of the constant tidal action.

Saturday 29th June 1944: Southend bombed by large number of Incendiaries five Germans were shot down.

October 1944: V2 rocket falls 60 yards west of the pier. (I know it not a plane just included it as intrest)

1949:Geoffrey de Havilland, Chief Test Pilot of the firm bearing his name is killed after his DH108 Tailless aircraft blows up in mid air and crashes in the Thames Estuary. The Southend Lifeboat “Greater London” find oil patches on the surface of the water where the fuselage is later discover resting, but there was no trace of the pilot.

Also a
Propeller from a Vickers Wellington has been recovered along with a section of wing spar & undercarriage from a Messerchmitt Bf110 (there was a photo in a Flypast back in the early 1980’s with the remains of Bell Whalf at leigh on sea

Another V2 rocket hit was on the Southend Pier Pavilion passing through the roof then the floor before embedding its self in the mud below with out exploding. there were some photos published in a book soon after the war the only time they were published.