I visited the RAF Museum at Hendon yesterday and had an opportunity (accompanied with consent) to have a closer look at the undercarriage of “S-Sugar”. The attached photo shows the top of the mechanic’s step on the landing gear strut for comparison with our pieces 45 and 50.
The flurry of activity in France has slowed, but there have been a couple more finds. The first was another brake shoe at location 53 in similar condition to those found at location 12 – no need for another picture – and a few more items at location 45. Here, there is what appears to be an intact flanged rectangular piece with two bolted attachments on the left with a decidedly golden hue, and what is presumably an electrical fitting marked Z126143 5X/112 (see picture). If anyone has any ideas about these, I should be glad to hear.
It is time to pause and reflect on what has been found and also what has not been found. On the eastern edge of the forest (items M5, M6, 40, and 45 to 49) there are items that are clearly engine parts and pieces from the undercarriage. The recent finds, 50 to 53, were mostly located along the northern edge of the forest (see the attached detail from the map of the site) and include the second piece of the mechanic’s step on the undercarriage (50), the unidentified spindle (51), an AGS fitting (52), and a brake shoe (53). Two brake shoes have previously been discovered at location 12 where it had been thought that the undercarriage had fallen. The two pieces of the mechanic’s step (45 and 50) were found about 100 yards apart from each other and all these pieces are over 200 yards from where the main fuselage came to rest.
It is beginning to look as if the (presumed) port undercarriage was shattered on impact (or by an explosion) and that parts were scattered, mostly ending up on the eastern edge of the forest, but possibly with a few pieces along the northern edge. It could be that part is buried near location 12 with the remains of an engine, but what may be more likely (as there no evidence of any intact wing parts) is that whatever substantially sized pieces of wreckage survived would have been removed from the site at much the same time as the main fuselage. This would probably have included whatever was left of the port engines after the mid-air explosion.
My guess is therefore that all that is now likely to be found after Laurent’s recent efforts are more fragments like those already unearthed. But when the weather improves, who knows what could come to light at the corner of the forest?
In the meantime if anyone has any more ideas about anything in the recent postings, please let me know.
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