WW2 Plane Crash Wreck Hunting

[Invisible man]

Captain Cadillac said:

There were a handful of B-29s in Europe at the end of WW2 but they never saw combat to my knowledge. After the war there were a few based in England.

I knew a chap who flew in them from Marham

[Eric Mc]

cazzer said:

Eric, you might be able to help here.....
When I was a kid, (i'd guess this was about 1975 or so) I remember watching a news report about the finding of two buried bombers on the moors. My brain has turned them into Lancasters over the years, but they may not have been.
They were found buried, wrapped in oilskins with the wings off and put at the sides down the side of the fusilage.
I seem to remember something about them being stored during the war in case of invasion or some such.
Do you know anything about this or is it so vague I have no hope of finding out what it was?


Or perhaps I just dreamed it

I certainly don't remember such a story - and I was well into aviation by 1975. Indeed, my regular fix was the newspaper "Aviation News" which had a feature in every issue called "Aviation Archaeology" and I cannot recall such a story from that time. It would have been a major find if it had happened so I doubt if it's true - at least, not in the manner in which you describe it.

In the early 1970s there were a couple of notable wreck recoveries. There was the lifting of the Handley Page Halifax from a lakebed in Norawy (the wreck is on display at Hendon) and the recovery of a Fairey Battle from Iceland. The Battle was fully restored - but not very accurately. It has now been redone properly and will soon be back on display at Hendon.

There have been many rumours over the years about deliberately buried WW2 aircraft but none have ever resulted in any proper recoveries. The best bet of exhumations are lake-bed finds. There is also the P-38 buried in the sand in North Wales and the Grumman Wildcat buried in the mud at Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland.

[Eric Mc]

Invisible man said:

Captain Cadillac said:

There were a handful of B-29s in Europe at the end of WW2 but they never saw combat to my knowledge. After the war there were a few based in England.

I knew a chap who flew in them from Marham

Was this during or after WW2?

[cazzer]

Thanks Eric.
It may have been a story about people looking (instead of finding).
I do vividly remember a picture of a couple of bombers in a hole as described. But it could have been a picture of them being buried not of them being found. (It's a black and white picture in my memory, with "men from the ministry" standing around,, but then I'm sure our TV was black and white too).

I was only 9 at the time so chances are I have a scrambled memory of it.
Cheers anyway.

[badgers_back]

The B29 crashed in 48 was on a mail and payroll run details are on the web

[LeeThePeople]

richw_82 said:

On the A57 Snake Pass in Derbyshire, the Pennine Way crosses it at the it's highest point. A mile to the north along the path, puts some big rocks to the west of you known as "Higher Shelf Stones". Up on the top of there is what's left of a Boeing B29 Superfortress. There's engines, landing gear, wings, and a memorial cairn.

The hills up here are that bad that there were over 140 aircarft hit them during WW2. Within the sighting distance of the B-29 are the remains of an Avro Lancaster, and a Douglas C-47.

Regards

Ric

Ive seen that!! If your not into looking hard or walking then Dovestones off Holmfirth road has quite a few just off the paths, you can see them on google earth.

[Invisible man]

Eric Mc said:

Invisible man said:

Captain Cadillac said:

There were a handful of B-29s in Europe at the end of WW2 but they never saw combat to my knowledge. After the war there were a few based in England.

I knew a chap who flew in them from Marham

Was this during or after WW2?

In the fifties I think with 57 Sqn, he didn't see active service in them.....hell of a character, Polish and seemed to absorb beer rather than drink it, he was an honoury member of 'The Probe and Drogue' which was 55 Sqns flightline bar of which I was a barman/committee member (and the only one permitted in the UK at the time)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No._57_Squadron_RAF

[williamp]

I just found this website

http://www.astrecks.co.uk/index.htm

Which lists aircraft wrecks on the moor. A fascinating subject, but sad at the same time

[Shar2]

I didn't think the RAF flew the B-29 during or even after the war, only B-50 Washingtons. (pedant off)

[Invisible man]

Shar2 said:

I didn't think the RAF flew the B-29 during or even after the war, only B-50 Washingtons. (pedant off)

conceded.....as my wiki link shows

[Eric Mc]

Shar2 said:

I didn't think the RAF flew the B-29 during or even after the war, only B-50 Washingtons. (pedant off)

As I said earlier, B-29s and B-50s were a common sight in the UK AFTER WW2 - from 1948 onwards. The RAF operated theirs out of RAF Marham for a couple of years in the 50s.

The RAF Washingtons were B-29s, not B-50s.

By the mid 1950s, the USAF had retired the B-29 as a bomber but they were used for weather recce and air to air refueling tasks for a few more years.

[Hurdsey]

richw_82 said:

On the A57 Snake Pass in Derbyshire, the Pennine Way crosses it at the it's highest point. A mile to the north along the path, puts some big rocks to the west of you known as "Higher Shelf Stones". Up on the top of there is what's left of a Boeing B29 Superfortress. There's engines, landing gear, wings, and a memorial cairn.

The hills up here are that bad that there were over 140 aircarft hit them during WW2. Within the sighting distance of the B-29 are the remains of an Avro Lancaster, and a Douglas C-47.

Regards

Ric

It crashed on the 3rd of November 1948....one year to the day before I was born.
There's loads in the Peak district, there is a book 'Aircraft wrecks of the Dark Peak' I have a copy, I use some of these sites as navigational exercises, some of them you have to be pin point accurate cos' there's very little left visible, The Higher Shelf wreck is easy access and there's lots of aircraft bits remaining.
On Sliddens moss, not far from Holme Moss transmitter, there are some tiny pieces of aluminium, the remains of two Meteors or Vampires (cant remember which) that collided in mid air sometime in the early fifties, you have to walk quite a way over open moor on a compass bearing to find them.

Paul

Edited by Hurdsey on Tuesday 10th February 11:52

[Crimson Tide]

There is a wreck somewhere on Kinder Scout I think - D of E practice led us to walk past it. I seem to remember it had radial engines, but don't think there was enough there to work out what it was from the knowledge I had then.

[Eric Mc]

That might be the B-29.

[Hurdsey]

Have a look here chaps

http://highpeakbob.piczo.com/?g=1908934&cr=3

As you can see all the sites are treated with the respect they deserve.

Paul

[Eric Mc]

An interesting selection. The rarest wreckage I would think belong to the Icelandic registered Airspeed Consul and the Blackburn Botha. I would hazard a guess that the wreckage of the Botha is the largest surviing piece of Botha anywhere.

[Hurdsey]

Hyah Eric

re The two Meteors I've been there a couple of times and not been able to find the large chunks of debris that guy has in his photo's, they must be spread over quite a large area, but that's what aircraft do when they land unintenionally, isnt it.

Paul

[THX138]

cazzer said:

Eric, you might be able to help here.....
When I was a kid, (i'd guess this was about 1975 or so) I remember watching a news report about the finding of two buried bombers on the moors. My brain has turned them into Lancasters over the years, but they may not have been.
They were found buried, wrapped in oilskins with the wings off and put at the sides down the side of the fusilage.
I seem to remember something about them being stored during the war in case of invasion or some such.
Do you know anything about this or is it so vague I have no hope of finding out what it was?


Or perhaps I just dreamed it

A little Googling turned up this, so it seems you are not alone with this legend of long lost ghost aircraft and countless others..
the first post mentions the possibility of Lancasters buried in Yorkshire!!

http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/archive/index.php...

Edited by THX138 on Tuesday 10th February 13:32

[Invisible man]

Blimey, who'd have thought burying old aircraft would be so prevalent?

[eharding]

A number of largely intact crashed airframes in remote parts the highlands and islands have been demolished with explosives over the years, the intention to deliberately render them as unrecognisable from the air to prevent spurious reports of newly downed aircraft -from other flights passing overhead - instigating unnecessary search and rescue activity.