Like many high ground sites it is on open ground with access from many directions if you dont mind a walk.

This is just scaremongering claptrap. The site is on a hillside miles away from a public road. It is too remote and uninteresting to be visited by anyone other than estate workers or aviation scrap dealers. I suspect that the limited pilfering that has happened here has been done by estate employees who are housed near it during the stalking season. Do you, the guys from Waddingto or the estate owner really believe that anyone is capable of manhandling a Lancaster mainwheel – complete with smooth tyre – the six miles or so to the nearest road without the assistance of the estate?

So I maintain that all sites should be cleared and if needed a simple memorial marker placed on site.

Do you trade in aviation wreckage by any chance, and why did you name this particular site? It seems to me that naming this source for Lancaster parts on a public forum is not exactly the smartest thing to do if you are concerned with the well-being of this crash site. I just get the feeling that you are more concerned with selling parts than preserving the sites.

Best wishes
Steve P

Most deaths were recorded in England and Wales, notable exceptions being US service personnel, Free French and some other European volunteers (not Polish and Czech though).

All of the crew of the a/c I came across are on the GRO register but I have not got copies of their death certs.

I have not checked to see if some none recovered crews are on the GRO, I think there was a seperate register for them within the GRO.

Thanks for that, Alan. I have used the parish registers pretty extensively for Scottish crashes. They are generally pretty good and often give a far more precise location than the RAF records. Only downside is that some of them have been scanned poorly and are unreadable.

Best wishes
Steve P

There is one site in Wales that I know for a fact all of the crew were recovered from, one is still recorded on Runnymede though. I got that from the ORB of the RAF station that dealt with the crash, they found the last man several days after “near the crash site” but still he stayed on the missing list.

Wasn’t it usual for all deaths within parishes in England and Wales to have been recorded in a Register of Deaths. This was certainly the case in wartime Scotland. If a body was recovered, a note would have been made of the cause of death, the location of the incident, and who took responsibility for the body. Have the MoD looked at these records?

Best wishes
Steve P

Can’t find it – link please?

This any good? Used the ended items search.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/WW2-Photograph-BRITISH-SOE-LYSANDER-RARE_W0QQitemZ270380247474QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Collectables_Militaria_LE?hash=item270380247474&_trksid=p3911.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2|65%3A13|39%3A1|240%3A1318|301%3A0|293%3A1|294%3A50

I’m not convinced that its an ASR Lizzie now, one of the chaps looks remarkably like a squaddie.

Best wishes
Steve P

There’s a nice shot of a SOE Lysander presumably about to transport a dingy to France. The shot of French resistance fighters in Paris has appeared in countless books.

Best wishes
Steve P

The B/W tone in the second indicates that orthochromatic film was used. This lightened blues and darkened reds so, based on the similarity of the dark toned red with the fuselage squares, leads to the conclusion that they are red.

Err, I’m maybe missing something but wouldn’t black squares look like that as well, regardless of what film type was used?

Best wishes
Steve P

Also, a Short 184 carried this serial. More probable than a Defiant.

Best wishes
Steve P

Can you quote the failed to return rate of these 3 Squadrons?… I heard the loss rate was 0.0000%….

That is simply incorrect. If you research the records of Rolf Harris you will find that his Boomerang never came back.

Best wishes
Steve P