😀 at Nermal, ta 🙂
Macky42…now what’s the point of getting a nice clean glass dirty when you can drink it straight out the bottle? 😉
But seriously…the answers:
1) Bristol Pegasus engine
2) Wellington bomber
3) Z8721
4) Hartland Quay Museum at (surprisingly!) Hartland Quay, North Devon (Join the A39 at Barnstaple, and continue west past Bideford, past Clovelly, and take the turn for the village of Hartland on the right, then follow the road signs to the Quay)
5) (The following is what I can remember from the displays – I did make some notes which have since gone into hiding!) Z8721 belonged to 172 Squadron, based at RAF Chivenor. 172 Squadron’s Wellingtons were equipped with powerful searchlights to carry out anti-submarine patrols, and it was on a training flight for such a patrol that Z8721 came to grief in April 1942 (I believe the date was the 13th, but not 100% about this) It was a very foggy night, and the crew of the Wellington became disoriented. Attempting to return to base, they failed to see the rugged cliffs of Hartland looming ahead in the gloom, and flew straight into the cliffs. There were no survivors. Z8721 had a multi national crew – the pilot was Canadian I believe, and one of the crew hailed from New Zealand. All were buried in a cemetery in the area (although I have a feeling that the body of the pilot was repatriated to Canada after the war ended) Most of what was left of the aircraft was removed by the MOD, but one of the engines remained embedded in the rocks until it was salvaged in the 1970s, and put on display at the Museum (I will post the full photo of the engine tomorrow as the disc it is on is at home today!)
Hope some of you found this a little bit interesting…
Becka
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