Ian,

No worries about not being able to check your e-mail yet. I tried phoning Jim earlier but he is out. Will try again later when I get home. BTW, you can possibly check your e-mail via your ISP homepage using the web mail option. I can check mine this way and I think we use the same ISP.

Cheers

I visited my 89 year old grandfather today and took him a poppy as he had been unable to get out and buy one himself. He was in the Army during WW2 and served overseas in India.

He used to play the organ in his local village church and had been having his own little Armistice Day service at his piano when I arrived. He played me a tune called Voluntary to Armistice Day which reduced me to floods of tears, it was an incredibly beautiful and moving piece of music. When I asked him where it had come from he explained that he had composed it himself. I asked how you went about composing something like that and his answer was simple but made perfect sense…….he said “you write what you feel”.

True. But 2 Lancasters of 97 Sqn were SCHEDULED to fly top Tain and attack the German fighter aircraft known to be based at Vaernes Aeropdrome. They did not actually undertake this mission as 1 crashed on take off, and the mission was scrubbed due to ‘grounding of aircraft’

The two Lancasters from 97 Squadron did not take part in the raid. One crashed on take off from Woodhill Spa, the other landed at Lossiemouth rather than Tain as was planned. There then followed some confusion, during which the Lancaster at Lossiemouth believed that the operation had been cancelled, and it returned to Woodhill Spa on the 28th March. The operation against Tirpitz was not flown until the night of 30/31st March.

‘Tirpitz the Halifax Raids’ by Nigel Smith is an excellent book on these ops and covers most but not all of the Halifax losses in detail. The reason that the Halifax W1048 TL-S (at Hendon) is covered in such detail in the book is that Nigel Smith is the son-in-law of Vic Stevens (FE onboard W1048 TL-S).

It should be noted that the cliffs at Fitful Head on Shetland where Halifax R9438 crashed are almost 1,000 feet high.

I forgot to add;

There is a memorial at Fitful Head on Shetland to commemorate the crew of Halifax R9438 TL-H which crashed on the return journey from the March 30/31 attack on the German Battleship Tirpitz. The memorial reads as follows:-
To the memory of the crew of Halifax R9438 (H), 35 Squadron, who crashed into the cliffs here on returning from an air raid on the Tirpitz, 30/31st March 1942.
Captain F/Sgt J B Bushby 1057442
2nd Pilot Sgt A J Peach 1268062
Observer Sgt G N E Powell 922967
1st W/Op A.G. F/Sgt J P B R Buckley R56144
Tail Gunner Sgt J A Wood 9011460
Flt Engineer Sgt R H Meredith 937585

In the UK, the remains of all aircraft which have crashed in military service (whether on land or at sea) are protected by the Protection of Military Remains Act 1986. It is an offence under that Act to tamper with, damage, move or unearth the remains unless the Secretary of State has issued a Licence authorising those things to be done and they are done in accordance with the conditions of the licence.

Recently in Norway a British couple were stopped and arrested at customs attempting to leave the country with a van load of WW2 aircraft parts recovered from a crash site which they did not have permission to recover.

Take only photographs, leave only footprints.

QUOTE
Glad to know people have heard of the site and use the database.

Of course, it was well publicised online. Perhaps once your links page is activated we could exchange links? 🙂

thanks guys..!
too far for me to trek and have a look! Great idea on the leave only footprints and take only your own garbage with you!

Sorry Peter, didn’t note your location prior to posting. I’m afraid I’m not genned up on any crash sites there might be in your part of the world. Hey ho, you’ll just have to enjoy making cyber visits which involve much less effort and hard slog to get there and you can enjoy a beer or a glass of wine while doing so.

Steve those look suspiciously like Kevin Bloody Wilson lyrics? 😉 Haven’t heard any of his stuff for yonks.