I have talked to many people who experienced the Manchester blitz over the years and one story sticks in my mind:

A young lad known to one witness wanted to do his bit and volunteered as a fire-watcher. His post was on top of one of the big mills and unfortunately it was hit and no trace of him could be found at first. The next day they found him two streets away, dead and completely naked, but without a mark on his body – I think he was sixteen and unfortunately the witness could not recall his name.

My wife’s grandfather volunteered as a fireman during the war as his religious beliefs meant he was a non-combatant. He was posted to Manchester right at the start of the blitz and I know he saw many terrible scenes and they affected him badly and he could never bring himself to talk about them – I still have his uniform buttons that he gave me – a sadly mute testament to the blitz, as he died several years ago.

Well they certainly crammed a lot in one half hour programme – two digs in 30 mins – we were spoilt, though of course I would like to have seen a bit more of them – Still that’s TV – well done to all involved – its on the HD player now, so will watch it again later 😀

Thanks Bruce, wasn’t sure if that was still the correct avenue. Does Father Christmas do aircraft transport and logistics solutions do you know?

Only involving sleighs and reindeer 😉 and it will stake more than that to shift this Canberra! BTW I understand the engines are still in situ i.e. still in the cut-off wings 🙁

Thanks for that – thought it might be – but didnt want to cold email – However, have emailed him now via the address on his profile page.

Missed this thread first time round, but here’s my belated contribution.

In addition, there was the ball turret, lots of propeller blades and radials…

Later on, members of the Pennine museum also visited the yard & spoke of the now diminishing huge pile of scrap & crawling into the fuselage of one aircraft – they had several of the prop blades – looked pretty rough to me – steel & off P-47s IIRC. Also they had a Wright? radial engine that I seem to recall took some negotiating to secure – they thought it was B-17, but I think it was later identified as being from a tank? – it was rough! Finally they had some form of periscope sight, which again IIRC, came from the B-26.

The same group also attempted to excavate a quarry in the area that had reportedly been filled with scrap from Burtonwood & capped off – at the limit of the digger’s reach they hit corrugated iron & railway sleepers and faced with the cost of hiring the machine a further day to ramp it in, they gave up – later another witness told how sleepers had been used to cover the aircraft engines etc to stop them being dug up later – Its now a housing estate…..

Slightly off topic – but still in your ‘neck of the woods’ for us down south – are stories of many surplus US WW2 aircraft ending up buried at Warton – on the Wirral side I understand…

There are many rumours re buried scrap at Warton – from the ubiquitous crated Harley Davidson’s to crates of 20mm 😮 No doubt there is no smoke etc & I have spoken with many older locals who have outlined credible stories of what they saw buried – No complete aircraft though! Also seen some very interesting earthmoving going on in some late war aerial photos – BTW all on the Blackpool side of the estuary – there would have been no access or point to dumping anything on the other side. There was however an massive open-air store of material on the Southport side along the main A565, though this was all removed.

There was a Waco CG-4 fuselage on Warton’s perimeter till the early 1960s…

Also during talks with locals, the Hadrians dumped on the marsh side of the airfield have been mentioned several times – local lads used the wings to make rafts which they used on the river.

Whilst on the subject of scrapyards, does anyone remember the yard sale at a scrappy near Preston around the same time? It had been advertised in Flypast so there were a few folk there viewing the lots. There was a complete, inhibited Merlin 61 or 66 on a stand which went for, if I remember correctly, about £1,200…

Yes remember the sale, but couldn’t get leave from work to attend + I was broke (as usual at the time!) It was also reported in the local papers & the auctioneers were surprised at the interest – seem to recall the Merlin went for over £2000 which also caused a further article in the local press – I recall it as we were negotiating a dig locally & the landowner had attended the sale & wanted £1000 to let us dig, which he thought was fair, as the engine we were likely to find must be worth at least half what he had seen one sold for 😡

limitations plate

Not sure if you can tell the aircraft type from the limitations plate?

But here is a Boulton Paul Defiant one for comparison (apologies for focusing – macro packed in :()

[ATTACH]190645[/ATTACH]

.

Bond

Hi Mark – Well spotted – yes it is! a 1963 GT 2+2 to be exact & it is well travelled and was seriously rolled once in the past – I have just brought it home! Bonds are another of my interests see: http://bondcars.net Always had a soft spot for lost causes!