I stayed quiet through the Merkle debacle as it quickly turned into a slanging match, although I do feel he has been rather misrepresented, not least by himself.
Aviation Archaeology has worth on several levels. First are the personal stories. Each dig is a commemoration of what is usually a long forgotten event. Often the fact that an airman cheated death or was smashed to pieces in a village has been lost to memory. Visiting these sites reminds people of their local history and the sacrifices made. After arecent recovery the landowner was sufficiently moved to rename a paddock in memory of the pilot killed in it. His daughters also had some interesting items to talk about on show and tell day. ‘Yes Miss, it’s a bit of Pratt and Whitney R2800 and it helped rid the skies of Nazis.’
Secondly it has archaeological worth. Even the excellent work done at the Fleet Air Arm Museum on KD431 cannot tell a full story. There are very few airframes around which can claim to be in their original operational condition. These crashes represent an instant frozen in time. Details of colour scheme, equipment and instrumentation can be found (if you’re lucky). You may not find out much new about Wellington O.T.U colour schemes but did anyone know the RAF was flying a Hawk 75 in it’s French colours with the underside over sprayed in trainer/prototype yellow?
Finally is the simple fact that an ordinary person can get to handle pieces of a real aircraft. Having started like so many on Airfix models and Warlord comic (I moved up to the Beano, more highbrow) I still never lose feeling of awe at having a piece of history in my hand, part of something that thundered through the air long before I was born.
There is a responsibility to record and preserve what is found, (now a legal responsibility under the Protection of Military Remains Act). Report writing is a slow process but worthwhile. It is an eventual aim to establish a virtual museum so the results can be shown to a wider audience than the British Aviation Archaeological Council and County Archaeologists as at present. The group I’m with has a thorough, and in it’s own way historic, database listing most of the (archaeological) air war over the UK and this is constantly being updated. It is an expensive and time consuming hobby, in diesel, plant hire and insurance. I don’t believe the ‘accused’ was out to make any sort of profit from his dig, only to offset enough of the overheads to allow it to go ahead.
I personally find it abhorrent that anyone is making personal profit from the sale of fatal crash remains. The debate over the originality of ‘relics’ does not alter the fact that men and women died in these aircraft to defend our freedom.
Sorry to rant, Ian.
Sign In
