Recent Excavations

B-17 found off Croatia

The Slovak Technical Diving Section have located B-17 G  44-6630. 15th Air Force, 5th Bomb Wing, 97th Bomb Group, 340th Bomb Squadron. Lost 6 November 1944.

For full details and remarkable under water pictures click on:

http://www.warplane.org/pressreleases/b-17-found.htm

Mustang and Missing Pilot found in France.

Ju88 from Norway

Fairey Battle in Iceland

 Lancastrian found in the Andes

Argentine aviation enthusiast, Juan Carlos Mouso, found the remains of the plane's fuselage on a mountainside in the Andes. The British South American Airways Lancastrian "Stardust" crashed during a storm in Mount Tupungato, Argentina, in 1947, killing six passengers and five crew.

The remains of Paul Richey’s Hurricane I, L1685, shot down in combat with Bf 110s of I./ZG2 over Brunehamel on 11th May 1940, have been recovered. Pilot F/O P.H.M.Richey baled out safely at 19:15 hrs near Rumigny west of Charleville, France. He claimed the destruction of two Me110s in the combat and I./ZG 2 lost two machines:

The most significant part of the Hurricane discovered was the Merlin II engine with parts of the Watts two bladed wooden propeller. The engine has been donated to a local military museum by the English based recovery team. The museum is 'Musee du Souvenir Militaire de Thierache' at Martigny. Phone 03.23.58.02.54. Small fragments of the Me110s were also recovered from their crash sites.

FW190 A-8 recovered in Germany

The Arbeitsgruppe Vermißtenforschung (work group looking for Missing Airmen) excavated the wreck of a FW190 A8 near Molschleben, North East of Gotha, Germany. Digging in the impact crater, when when at a deep of about 4 feet they began finding bits and pieces. A member of the group found a mask with skull fragments and teeth and it is assumed that after the crash the locals took away the debris they could find and filled the rest into the crater to get rid of it.

Thanks Roland

 Lancaster Mk.1 NG294, 625 Squadron, Priesberg Hill, Germany. 15-16/12/1944

11 p.m. on December 15, 1944, at Priesberg Hill, Bosen, Germany. It was bitter cold, ½ inch snow covering the ground. High above the village of Bosen big formations of heavy bombers flew eastward. The whole village was outside starring above. Suddenly there was another noise, nearer than the others. But you couldn't see anything. The grouching became a howling, created by over revving aircraft engines. From the direction of the Lake Bostal a big bright burning plane approached, passed Bosen, and the sky over the Priesberg hill turned red.

The Crew

Pilot: Pilot Officer James Fletcher, 28 years old. Son of James and Christina Fletcher, married to Agnes Fletcher from Renfrew.

(Arbeitsgruppe Vermißtenforschung)

B-17 and crew recovered by American Authorities - May 2000
The crew of an 8th Air Force B-17 has been recovered from a crash site in the Harwich Estuary. More details to follow.

BV 138 recovered from Denmark

Full Story? Visit Luftwaffe in Denmark

THE FIRST IN FRANCE

The recovery of the first Luftwaffe aircraft shot down in France by Fighter Command in WWII

No 1 Squadron pilots arrived in France five days after the declaration of war in September 1939. Flying from their peacetime base at Tangmere they were the first of the four RAF Hurricane units to land in France. Originally part of the Air Component; with 73 Squadron they were attached to the Advanced Air Striking Force as cover for their Blenheim and Battle equipped squadrons. After short stays at Octeville and Norrent-Fontes they made their home at Vassincourt, where they would remain until the following May and the German invasion of Western Europe.

During the first months of the ‘Phoney War’ the Hurricane squadrons duties revolved around patrols and chasing off Luftwaffe reconnaissance aircraft. However it wasn’t until Monday 30th October that the RAF was able to claim their first German aircraft shot down over France since 1918. The Operations Record Book of No. 1 squadron records the incident in matter of fact fashion;

“30/10/39 Local patrol maintained throughout the day. At 14:30 hrs three enemy aircraft were seen at a high altitude over the aerodrome. The aerodrome defence section immediately took off in pursuit and one of the raiders was overtaken at 18,000ft ten miles west of Toul and shot down by P/O Mould. The other two escaped in cloud. The enemy shot down was a Dornier and appeared to have been taken by surprise as no evasive tactics were employed and no fire was encountered by P/O Mould”

P/O Mould had been one of the 16 pilots to fly to France seven weeks earlier. Born on 14th December 1916, Peter Mould was the first son of Charles and Ethel, he had elder sisters, Rosemary and Cynthia, and three years later a brother Charles. He was brought up on the family estate at Great Easton, and later at the Rectory at Stoke Dry, both in Rutland. After leaving prep school Peter joined the Royal Naval training ship HMS Conway, but changed to the Air Force when he joined Halton Apprentice School. Out of about 180 boys of that intake at Halton, four were considered good enough to be transferred to RAF College, Cranwell, to train as officer pilots. Peter was one. Cranwell was close to his home in flying terms and locals can still recall him flying low over the Rectory. On graduating from Cranwell, where he had represented the college at Rugby, Cricket and Athletics, he was posted to No. 1 squadron at Tangmere, on the English south coast. Here he became known as ‘Boy’ Mould.

A fellow pilots P/O Paul Richey and Sgt Soper took off in pursuit of the Dornier, but to no avail, after a fruitless 15 minute search they returned to Vassincourt. Peter Mould had just finished refuelling after a patrol when the German flew over, he took off immediately and using the supercharger override climbed to 18,000ft where caught up with his victim as Paul Richey recounted in his famous book, ‘Fighter Pilot’

P/O Mould

“He did an ordinary straight astern attack, and fired one longish burst with his sights starting above the Dornier and moving slowly round the fuselage. The Hun caught fire immediately, went into a vertical spiral, and eventually made a large hole in the French countryside. It exploded on striking the ground, and there were no survivors. The remains of a gun from the machine, together with a bullet-holed oxygen bottle now adorned our Mess.”

When No1 Sqn left France, P/O Mould took the MG15 home and it remained in his family’s possession until it was left behind in a house move, and following an IRA arms cache scare [!] it was passed back to No1 Sqn at RAF Wittering.

Whilst home on leave in January 1940 Peter married Phyllis, returned to France and was heavily involved in the air battles during the German invasion of western Europe. His actions there were recognised with a DFC and, in common with most of the No.1 squadron pilots, a posting to quieter units once back in Britain for rest. Therefore he took no active part in the Battle of Britain, but in May 1941, with rank of Squadron Leader, he took command of 185 Sqn in Malta. Leading a patrol to intercept an Italian raid on 1st October 1941, he was shot down and killed. At that time his tally stood at 11 aircraft shot down. He was posthumously awarded a bar to his DFC. His brother Charles also served in the air force but was killed in 1947 whilst serving with 56 squadron in Germany.

The Dornier Do17P, a twin camera equipped photo-reconnaissance aircraft from 2(F)123, was destroyed in the crash. All three of the crew were killed. Hauptmann Balduin von Norman und Audenhove, Oberleutnant Hermann Heisterbergk and Feldwebel Friedrich Pfeuffer were buried locally by the French. They were later reinterred in a common grave in the German military cemetery at Andilly. 2(F)123 were based at Wüzburg under the direct command of Luftflotte 3; Von Normann led the unit of 12 aircraft until his death in the crash.

The location of the crash site is Traveron, a very small hamlet on the Meuse in Eastern France, about 20 miles South West of Nancy. Annexed to Sauvigny, it was here that local enquiries by our French colleagues, revealed eye-witness descriptions fitting exactly what we wanted to hear. It had apparently crashed with great ‘violemment’ leaving a crater 4 metres deep and 7 to 8 metres across, and as far as anyone there knew, the engines still laid buried at the site. We were soon sent a large-scale local map with a rather large dot, which probably covered about an acre, marking the crash site. We were hoping that we could dig it on the 60th anniversary, but the field had been re-sown with oil-seed rape. Luckily our contact in the village, Monsieur Jean-Claude Cazuguel used his influence as an old and respected mainstay of the community to persuade the farmer that, for some small compensation for the damage to the sown crop, we could dig on the 9th October. Therefore an exact anniversary dig evaporated. Monsieur Cazuguel arranged a digger for us,  meanwhile we were  busy arranging the various permissions required on his side of the channel, while we let our MoD know what we were doing as a matter of courtesy.

Arriving in Sauvigny as it was starting to get dark, we found   M. Cazuguel waiting to show us the site. After a few minutes in the gloom we were able to spot fragments littering the surface, the first piece still bearing light blue paint. This was just as Paul Richey’s account promised. The Förster gave two indications, about fifteen feet apart, and only a faint signal between them. Here a trial hole was sunk. The subsoil appeared softer at about 3 feet and with pieces of varying condition coming out of it. One of these when wiped clean was a Blohm und Voss plate identifying our plane as Do17P Werke No 4414. We retired to the hotel happy in the knowledge that we had found our goal.

M Cazuguel had told us the night before that the wreck had been allowed to burn itself out for two days. The truth of this was evident from the large amount of ash and corrosion present. Although we went through this carefully, the only evidence that this was the fuselage area was 2 small coins and some pieces of cockpit glazing framework. To either side of this area were the remains of the engines, one at about 9 feet deep was totally destroyed, the other was a little deeper, but almost as badly damaged. Above the second was an undercarriage unit, and three very corroded propeller blades. This engine, even though it was the better one, was mainly the propeller hub. Unfortunately we couldn’t persuade Buzzard to put it in the back of his hire van, although he did accept the undercarriage leg. The generator / starter units of both engines yielded makers plates confirming the power plants as BMW 132N radials. A couple more plates came to light, both with the rare, for us, Do17P stamp.

Despite both the report and M. Cazuguel stating that the Germans were shot down by one long burst of machine gun fire from ‘Boy’ Mould, only one piece was found with what we could confidently claim to be a bullet hole in it. Interestingly, although he recalled the attack as the report stated, he was adamant that the action had taken place at low level, but the depth and angle of the engines suggest that the Dornier came down from a greater altitude and at about 80°.

After lunch as guests of the locals in their hunting lodge in the woods all that was left to do was sort the pieces to take back home and ensure that the field was re-instated to the required standard. We left the engine remains for a small museum at Vraux and our largesse knew no bounds as we distributed souvenirs to our new found friends.

 
Thanks - Jeff Carless

Fw Ufer’s Focke Wulf FW190

Last summer the story of a Luftwaffe pilot's last combat was pieced together for the first time.

In the afternoon of Sunday, 13 July 1942 Oberfeldwebel Helmut Ufer was flying at 16,000 feet near the JG26 airfield of Abbeville in France. Ufer, a long time member of 4/JG26, was flying FW190A-1 Wn.10036, only the thirty-sixth production model.

At that time there was a group Spitfires on a 'Circus' to Abbeville. Leading 616 Squadron was Australian Flight Lieutenant F.A.O. 'Tony' Gaze. Gaze later reported:

'After a right-hand orbit around Abbeville at 21,000 feet I saw a single FW190 climbing up at about 16,000 feet between us and the coast, so made sure nothing was above and led Red Section down to attack. Fired a one-second burst from 400-300 yards from astern above seeing cannon strikes on the port mainplane near the cockpit. As I started to fire again the '190 flicked to the left emitting a puff of black and white smoke and spun down.'

Several other pilots reported seeing the FW190 carry on spinning down, apparently out of control, until it was lost to sight. It must be assumed that Ufer had been killed by Gaze's fire after being caught unawares from behind.

On the ground the villagers of Nibas, to the south-west of Abbeville, were on their way to mass in the village church. Alerted by the howl of an aircraft engine, some caught sight of an aircraft diving, absolutely vertically, towards them. With an earth shaking explosion the aircraft plunged into a field 300 yards away from the church. There was little to be seen of the aircraft. A smoking crater and a few fragments of metal was all that was left of Ufer's FW190.

The Luftwaffe recovered what was left of the pilot in the follow days and noted the crash location. This noting of the location was the clue that led me to Nibas in search of Ufer's FW190. The owner of the field, grandson of the war-time owner, was kind enough to point out the location of the crash and allow a team to excavate what was left of the 'plane. At length, the BMW801 engine, tail wheel, parts of the armament and other items were recovered from a depth of up to 15 feet.

Dornier Do217E-4 Wn.5314 U5+HS, 8/KG2

Unearthed by construction workers in November 1997, this bomber hit a balloon cable at Middlesbrough and dived straight through a busy railway line serving a steel works on 18.20 hours on January 15, 1942. Due to the importance of the line little of the aircraft was salvaged, but the rail track was simply laid back over the crash. Despite this the crew were accounted for and buried. They were:

Fw J Lehnis, Lt R Matern, Uffz H Manecke, and Oberfw H Richter.

It is reported that some human remains have been unearthed, which is hardly surprising given the unusual circumstances of the crash.

Sergeant Dennis Noble. Hurricane P3179, 43 Squadron

This Hurricane was shot down during the Battle of Britain on 30 August 1940 and crashed in a street in Hove, Sussex. As essential services were severed at the time great importance was placed on repairing the road so a very perfunctory recovery of the body was made and sadly little of Dennis Noble's body was buried in the coffin. In a radio interview a relative said that the coffin was rumoured to be full of bricks to make up the weight. Local legend also had it that the majority of the body remained under the pavement. Perhaps this was one reason that the wreck had not been recovered earlier as it would cause much embarrassment and distress if further remains of an already buried airman were to be recovered. Eventually, however, one of the new enthusiasts gained permission from the local for the excavation and, amongst much publicity, attempted the excavation. A short while into the dig the pilot’s parachute was unearthed followed by what the coroner described as ‘a substantial portion’ of the body. An inquest concluded that the further remains were of those of Sergeant D. Noble His relatives are now demanding that his original grave be exhumed and its contents be examined.

The Galland Brothers

Ranking high in the best known names of the Luftwaffe is Adolf Galland. Galland survived the war and died in 1996. Perhaps it was natural for a museum to have on display the remains of such a legend’s aircraft, but no such thing existed. The only chance of obtaining such an exhibit was to find the wreck of the Me109 that he had baled out of 1941. Adolf Galland had been in combat over the English Channel on 21 June 1941 and his aircraft had been damaged. The took off for a second time that day in Wn.6713 and was involved in a combat over the French port of Boulogne. His aircraft was again hit by gunfire from an RAF fighter and Galland beat a retreat back to his airfield. Before he could land his aircraft burst into flames and Galland was forced to take to his parachute. The aircraft crashed near Bellebrune in France and was destroyed.

The crash site of an Me 109 was successfully located in 1996, but so little remained of the aircraft that it could not be positively identified from the wreckage. Unless anyone else finds Gallands 'plane and identifies it, this is the closest you can get to solving the riddle of where it crashed.

Major Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland

One of Adolf’s three brothers was Wilhelm-Ferdinand Galland, who was killed on 17 August 1943 when he was shot down in his FW190 over Belgium. His aircraft, FW190A-6 Wn.530125 is reported to have crashed at Hees in Belgium, so local enthusiast Rudi Simons was keen to find the wreck. The aircraft had been seen to fall in a spin and so had only buried itself 9 feet in the ground, but the remains of the BMW801 engine and a pile of other items were recovered last year.

Liberator AL546

Liberator AL546 took-off from Boscombe Down at 1448 hours on the 24th March, 1942.
This was a Mark II aircraft with slightly over 47 hours on the airframe and its duty was detailed as experimental non-operational flying training with the A. and A.E.E.
At the controls as 1st. Pilot was Wing Commander J.W. McGuire, AFC. His hours on Liberators totalled 32 and on all types an impressive 1,760 hours.
His 2nd Pilot was Warrant Officer F.J. Robinson, this was to be his first flight on this type.
The 1st Engineer was Corporal R.M. Leach and 2nd Engineer Aircraftsman 1st Class B.G. Hibbs.
Also on board, as civilian technical observer, was Mr. J. J. Unwin of the Scientific Office of the Ministry of Aircraft Production.

After nearly two hours of flight, the aircraft was in the vicinity of Poole at 5,000 feet. The aircraft had been engaged on partial climbs at an all up weight of 50,000lbs. The flight so far had been troublesome, as electrical problems had been encountered from the outset of the flight. With these problems apparently overcome the crew noticed that the starboard outer engine nacelle was on fire. A sudden change in lateral trim was felt and McGuire immediately ordered "Abandon aircraft".
Ground observers stated that the fire was seen many minutes before anyone left the aircraft.

One of these ground observers was Mr. J. Soffe. He recalls seeing the aircraft flying a straight
course N.W. from Poole on a bright, sunny afternoon with black smoke pouring back from an engine. As he watched, part of the wing broke away and spun down, the aircraft then immediately went into a very fast spin. Simultaneously, he saw the parachutes of the crew members that had baled open out. This was quickly followed by a huge cloud of black smoke going up as AL546 hit the ground.
The whole scene was made more unreal for him as he heard the whine of the plane going down and the crash of the aircraft hitting after the cloud of smoke went up.

What had actually happened was that the engine fire had weakened the wing structure and this had caused the wing outboard of the starboard outer to break away. The starboard outer, RAF no. 8670, makers no. 204903, with 64 hours running time and seven months after installation, then broke away from the airframe. The 14 cylinder Pratt and Whitney Twin Wasp radial plummeted into the ground near the Beacon Hill anti-aircraft site at Upton.
Three of the crew and the civilian technical observer managed to parachute to safety out of the open bomb bay. W/O Robinson was injured in a bad landing and AC1 Hibbs landed upside down in a tall tree. All four came down around South Lytchett Manor.
Unfortunately, McGuire was unable to get out. He had held the aircraft steady against the changes in lateral trim whilst his crew had baled, but as soon as they were clear had become trapped by the vicious earthwards spin.

At 1650 hours, 2 hours and 2 minutes after take-off, Liberator AL546 crashed at Race Farm, behind Mr. Abbot’s farmhouse, killing McGuire instantly.

There were almost 1,500 gallons of aviation fuel left on board and this erupted into a terrific fire. Burning fuel cascaded onto the roof of the nearby farmhouse and set that on fire also. Pieces of twisted Duralumin sheet, many stamped "Alclad" were scattered across the Huntick road and around the massive crater.

The Accident Investigation Branch of the RAF investigated the crash and spent several weeks at the crash site. Arc lights were set up around the crater and the recovery operation and search for the engines continued into the hours of darkness each night.

Although the four that baled were extremely lucky to escape when they did, their luck did not hold. Mr. J. Unwin was killed when Halifax W7917 crashed at Sutton Scotney on the 4th February, 1943; again he was acting as technical observer.
Warrant Officer Robinson was promoted to Flight Lieutenant and was killed in a mid-air collision
along with R.M. Leach on the 10th September, 1943. The Lancaster he was piloting, JA894, was in collision with Oxford EB987 near High Post airfield.
Only the 2nd Engineer survived the war and, indeed, Mr. Hibbs now lives in Dorset.

Today it is difficult to see where AL546 crashed as the RAF were fairly efficient in their recovery operation; also the area has been planted over with pine trees and this has softened the contours of the crater. But some relics were missed and I have a twisted propeller blade, an engine valve and a plate stating "Curtiss Electric Propellers" from this aircraft.

Small testament to the sacrifice of McGuire.

Sean Welch.

B-24 Liberator 'Black Widow'

Robert Lehnherr and Joe Adams were boyhood friends in Kansas and both entered the USAAF and became bombardiers. They were sent to the 8AF and 15AF and never saw each other again. Robert survived 51 missions in B-24s with the 15AF and Joe was shot down on his 17th mission in B-24 "Black Widow" with the 466BG/707BS/8AF.

Details of the aircraft:

B-24H Serial 42-7542. 446BG, 707BS, JU "Black Widow"
Pilot Lt. Marvin W. Garber KIA North Manchester IN
Navigator 2Lt. John T. Carmody KIA Montclair NJ
Co-pilot 2Lt. Foster J. Hinton POW La Feria TX
Bombardier Lt. Joseph B. Adams KIA Albuquerque NM
Top Turret T/Sgt. Earl W. Lee KIA Medfield MA
Radio Operator T/Sgt. Anthony J. Nardozzi POW New Rochelle NY
Ball Turret S/Sgt. Francis A. Stewart POW Marshville NC
Right Waist S/Sgt. Vincent L. Riel POW Flushing NY
Left Waist S/Sgt. Adrien W. Kieley KIA Queens Village NY
Tail Gunner S/Sgt. John D. Fletcher POW New Port Richey FL

All 5 POWs survived the war and 2 have since died.

The bodies were returned for mass burial in Jefferson Barracks National Cemetery, St. Louis MO.

This account has been compiled by Maurice Rowe, who has interviewed some of the survivors:

On the 4 February 1944 the 446 BG took off on a mission to Frankfurt, they crossed the coast at Clacton and were 15 miles from the coast on a heading of 095 degrees, when 42-7452 "Black Widow" turned to a heading of 180 degrees and left the formation. The PRO hold a file on the raid which gives a few clues, as it gave plots of German interception messages during the raid, south of the main raid was an isolated track starting west of Abbeville at 11.35, the track ended at Amiens at 11.58. It was shot down by Leutnant Waldemar Radener of Staffel 6/JG26 flying a FW-190A-8 "Brown 4." It was his 20.5 claim as he previously shared a B-24. Radener would end the war with 37 claims of a/c of all types and about 196 crew members..

What actually happened ? Well the Black Widow was initially intended as a reserve, but another a/c fell out so it joined the main group, then the intercom failed and at 18,000 feet No. 3 engine was smoking so the a/c pulled out of formation. Later the supercharger failed. The pilot decided to opt for a target of opportunity, most likely a V1 construction site around Abbeville. They bombed on the second run and dropped 4 delayed action bombs in the Abbeville area. Just after bomb release the plane was attacked, the first pass came from below, killing Lt Adams and severely wounding the navigator. One of the waist gunners was wounded during the battle, flames were coming from the bomb bay. number 3 engine was on fire and the a/c difficult to control. The pilot gave the order to bail out, the top turret man Earl Lee was shot after landing, the pilot Garber stayed with the a/c. The ball turret gunner left via the camera hatch and the tail gunner was attacked by a German fighter which holed his parachute. The Black Widow crashed behind a line of trees, near Bray sur Somme and smoke and flames were seen.

Simon Parry (left) and 'Leo' Lyon point to the crash site of Black Widow on a First War battlefield in the valley of the Somme.

Robert will honour his friend Joe by relating for local newspapers his story during Veteran's Day festivities in their Kansas community (November 11th). There is also to be a display of all related information in their local museum. In honour of Joe's sacrifice and in his memory, Robert very much wanted a memento from "Black Widow" to highlight the museum display. Simon Parry, from Air Research Publications, took on the challenge to locate any remains of Black Widow on his next visit to France. With the assistance of locals the crash site was soon found. The 'plane had crashed onto a First World War battlefield and exploded, the fragments lying alongside shells and shrapnel from that earlier battle. Some small parts of the aircraft have now been sent to Robert for his display.

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