Wrekin crashes,

Spitfire P7746,all that was left at the crash site was the cockit rear view mirror,plus a few very small pieces of alloy,some old rope,presumably used during the recovery,and an old wartime newspaper,still readable,before it disentigrated,a Beaufighter was also supposed to have hit the wrekin,a P47,in spout lane,a P47 at overly hill,this was dug just before the new road (A5/M54 link)went through,a P47C-5RE,416585,(mid air collision with Master,)rudder found just below plough depth,followed wreckage down to 16 feet to reach engine,an Oxford and I believe the last plane to hit the Wrekin was a light plane a few years ago which crashed into the rock face near the top during bad weather conditions on Ironbridge side of the Wrekin,not verified is the report by a local that a Walrus made a forced landing in the fields near the shooting range but was repaired and flown out,there are I believe some more sites but memory fades with age,
BEIHAN62

Battle,

I visited Cosford some months ago and the Battle restoration was on going as was the Hampden,the restoration personnel deserve all the credit they get,
Regards Don,

P8088

Hi Les,thanks for your interest,I am sorry I could not supply pics,if and when I manage to get the piece of P8088 cylinder liner back from that museum it is yours if you want it,
I expect it will be a fairly big task to replace all the controls in your model,will you need to do major surgery to fit the new controls in and are you changing the power plant,ie to electric motor,much easier to start and far less wear and tear on fingers,
Good luck with the rebuild,
Many thanks,Don,

P8088

Hi Les,sorry I cannot help with pics of the dig,if my memory serves me right,it was in the mid 70s,there were only about four of us on the dig and niether of us had a camera handy,we did not have to dig very deep but it was hard going,what was left of the engine was smashed to the point that it split the cylinder liners,some were squashed flat others were in strips,shiny chrome on the bore side and bare metal slightly rusty on the coolant side,some were even wrapped around the pistons,the impact hole was only about 5 feet square and about the same deep,it must have been a phenominal impact,I would imagine that a lot of the fuselage was scattered about round the impact point,The late Pete Lambe had what was left of the gunsight and most of what little wreckage there was,I had a piece of cylinder liner which I later loaned to a local museum,which for a variety of reasons I now regret,
some years ago Corgi did a diecast display model of P8088 depicting the aircraft when it was the Borough of Lambeth presentation aircraft coded NK K,
Kind Regards,Don,

P8088

At the time we recovered the remains of P8088 it was said that it dived in from about 8,000ft and during the dive both wings were overstressed and broke off,the impact was in very hard ground and even the engine was smashed to pieces,(I still have a section of cylinder liner from this aircraft),yet surprisingly there was still oil in amongst the remains of the engine,the wreckage was recovered from a depth of about 5 feet,we were told by a local farmer who witnessed the crash that the engine was at full power and screaming as it neared the ground,there was talk of an investigation which concluded that the pilot was incapacitated by oxygen failure threrefore was unconcious at the controls,I have not seen anything to substantiate this report,the investigation and recovery was started initially by the late Pete Lambe and concluded some days later with the help of other members,
Beihan62

Port en bessin wreckage,

We visited the museum last year and we were told the main wreckage was from a B17,hope this helps,
Don,