Remarkable. But I’m puzzled by the Castle Brom stamps (presumably VACB). I don’t think Wellingtons were built at CB but I may be wrong about that. Perhaps they just made certain components. Squires Gate (Blackpool) aircraft had VABL stamps.
According to Air-Britain, MF113 was built by Vickers at Squires Gate, served only with 26 OTU and was sold as scrap on 11.2.49.
I wonder if this was the Llanbedr Bellman they flew through. A Meteor lost an engine on take off, tore a wing through the roof and ended up inside the Bessonneau hangar in the background. The pilot survived and eventually flew 748s for Emerald Airways up to his retirement. Sadly, he is no longer with us.
I would suggest it’s a Wildcat and the photo was taken at the training establishment at Milmeece, Staffs, known as HMS Fledgling. I think it was exclusively for training Wrens as ground crew as seen in the photo, but I may be wrong about that.
Well at least he did what he was told when I was a trainee tower controller at Bournemouth/Hurn 🙂 The voice was unmistakeable!
The answer might be that the crash position published at the time was deliberate misinformation by the authorities to prevent looting or disturbance.
There is a 4th Fighter Group page on Facebook with 104 members.
More or less. It used to be known as the Monopolies Commission, I believe, but has gone through several changes of name in the past few years.
An interesting development …
There was a ground-to-air firing range out in the Dee Marshes, its boundary not much more than a mile from Neston. It was used, amongst others, by No 60 OTU’s Mosquitoes for night intruder training. They sometimes dropped flares to illuminate the target. I doubt if three shells would fall together like that but there might be a connection. Overflying Neston was a no no in theory, but in a wartime blackout it was easily done! A Mossie operating over the range crashed in a field just outside Neston killing two New Zealanders.
Oh dear, sorry, I misinterpreted what you meant! Will crawl back in my box, alongside a Spitfire, of course …
Very subtle, Trumper! 🙂 I still think it’s worth checking out and it’s marginally nearer than Burma …
Some years back, I heard a story that the remains of Flt Lt Cruikshank’s Catalina are still where he beached it in Shetland. Nobody seems to have investigated this, to my knowledge anyway.
I would imagine that TIGHAR’s licence to recover it will be long expired by now. As for structural integrity, it is likely to be a in a lot better state than the Dornier. Judging by a P-38 – more accurately, an F-5 – wreck on a Welsh mountain not so very far away, the type was built like the proverbial brick outhouse …