If memory serves me right, but doesn’t Henlow have Belfast truss hangars?
Or am I loosing the plot???

My wife did her dissertation on Belfast truss hangars for her building surveyors degree and we had a good look around Bracebridge Heath, especially the rare if not unique triple span element.
I can assure you DX were offered the necessary original materials, FREE OF CHARGE, particularly from Bracebridge Heath in order for them to re-build a hangar on the site of the single span base………………………………..
they were not remotely interested!!!!
Too much aggro they said!!!

Don’t forget also that apart from the main hangars that were constructed using wooden supports and are a smaller span than say the DX ones, they also had the small single truss hangar that was connected to the old Grahaeme White hangar that was moved a few years ago.

Bomberboy

My father served in 53 sqdn then equipped with Liberators whilst at St Eval and I am in the RAF St Eval Coastal Command Association 1939 – 1959 where I may be able to help.
However and probably of better help would be the 53 sqdn Air Brittain publication written by Jock Manson which may be able to help.
I know it has a section covering when 53 had Hudsons.

Bomberboy

Sorry guys, Greasy errk here at last glad Im not on QRA 🙂 after I spoke to you last night Milt my PC died, literally in smoke, I did go down in flames old boy, Im using the work PC today, keep it to yourselves 😉

Anyway this is what Milt said about the place now:
A few of us visited Charles at Binbrook last week. Not much left. C hangars and LTF main hangar are still there, as well as main gate and quarters. Bomb site is still there, and there is a chunk of probably Runway 21 threshold left and thats it. Difficult to tell which runway is which since its hard to get a handle exactly where you are, its such a mess of mounds, concrete wire and soil. The Western QRA sheds look to be intact, and the dispersal pan in front of where the tower was is untouched.

Except that it is full of engines and various car panels etc!

Here we go

Andy B[/QUOTE]

Taken looking in a northwesterly sort of direction I believe, I am very familiar with the far right hand tree in the distance.

Bomberboy

During my quest to find downed aircraft in Lochs in Scotland I read the ORBs for 63 and 56MU and there is the description of a recovery operation on one of the islands. A DC3 went in on the island there is a very detailed description of how they dug the hole for the fuselage and buried it. This shows that they did have the habit of burying aircraft. They got a digger from one of the farmers on the island and dug a hole and pushed it in after getting all the good bits off.

63 MU ORBs are an interesting read… I even found out how many doses of the clap everyone had. None amongst the WAAF I might add. 😀

Ali

I have no doubt in what you have posted but the example seems to be an unusual and perhaps seemingly one off, on an island for a crash site, not just a pile of old scrap on airfield dump.

Why is it they didn’t do the same thing everytime an aircraft crashed in a remote location such as the peak district crash sites?
Yes they would salvage some but the rest was left in situ…read the Dark Peak Wrecks books for the dozens of examples.

I would GUESS that in most cases, if an aircraft was wrecked at an airfield, if not straight away, they either used it as a hanger queen and then sent them to a proper scrappies afterwards.
For example Pulham St Mary in Norfolk was a huge aircraft scrapyard intended exactly for this purpose.
It just does not makes sense to have proper facilities put into place, to deal with such things and then not use them.
I would also guess that crashes that happened away from the airfields which did not ‘go in’, also found themselves in the same place.

Bomberboy

Bomberboy,

You haven’t read enough threads on this board.

The burial of scrap parts on or adjacent to wartime aerodromes is a matter of fact..

I am aware of that, but what I was trying to say was that as far as I am aware, there has never been a find of any substantial quantity found on any airfield.
I am more than happy to be proven wrong, but it’s never happened yet!
There are many stories abound, even on this thread, but it all seems to be heresay and supposition and whenevr there is a “definite case” of stuff being buried in the ground, the story behind it semms to do the same and go to ground, without any further knowledge.
This is just about the very reason this thread is here now is it not

I doubt whether every ‘drome has such buried treasure but the possibility that towisuk is on to something at Hemswell is tantalisingly real.

I cannot comment on this individual possibility.
But I can ask, how long has this been known about and if it’s quite a while, why has it not already been dug up yet, like so many wrecks that have gone before.
If it’s not been known long then how come?
Why would somebody start telling anyone about it now and not umpteen years ago.

Like some others have said, there are things that just don’t add up!

Bomberboy

It’s a very good watch!
I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The content is very nicely balanced and interlaced between the history side of things and the epic event itself.

Oh how I remember it well!
It seems hardly a few months ago, not a year!

Bomberboy

My aunt edited the book, so am looking to meeting up with her to get my signed copy

A chap I’ve been working closely with over the last year or so told me his dad Dick Russell was part of this crew.
He said something about that at one point, one of the Victor tankers broke off it’s refuelling probe?

Bomberboy