(More) WWII plane wrecks ...Longendale Valley 05-08-2011

[mistericeman]

Visited these 3 crash sites earlier in the year with the Mrs and our 5 dogs ....earlier (And warmer and drier) in the year,Not terribly far off the beaten track (or for that matter the Woodhead pass) But you have to know where to look,even with the GPS they took some finding .

There are the remains of 5 aircraft within approx a 1.5 mile radius,and consist of .....

3 Hawker hurricanes PZ851, PZ765, PZ854

1 42-67207

1 PA411

The loss of life in such a small area is thought provoking to say the least when you are up on the top of the valley looking down .
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Basic hand made memorial cross marking the general area .




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Lockheed P38 lightning

"This sad little collection of metal is all that remains of a USAAF P38 Lightning flown by Flight Officer Hugh Jones from North Carolina.

During the morning of the 10th May 1944 F/O Hugh Jones took off from Goxhill near Grimsby to take part in a cine gun / single engine flying exercise. However, once airborne he could not locate his flight due to cloud and as such requested permission to join a pair of aircraft whose exercise was a cross country navigation training flight.

They headed due west for roughly 20 minutes until reaching a cloud bank which they attempted to fly beneath, but could see the cloud ahead extended down to ground level. At this point 2nd Lt Gene H. Cole ordered the two other pilots to turn back. On turning back the flight leader found that F/O Jones was missing from the No.2 position.

It appeared that while in cloud F/O Jones had become disorientated and rolled his aircraft over. When he attempted to climb he was actually descending until the aircraft struck the ground."












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The remains of 3 ...yes three Hawker hurricanes ....
"Three Hurricanes from RAF Calveley were undertaking training in close formation flying when they crashed into Tintwistle Knarr in Longdendale on 22 February 1945, killing all 3 pilots.

The men served with RAFVR. Two were from Belgium - formation leader Flight Sergeant Ernest M L Marien and Flight Sergeant Marcel H L Orban, and their bodies were repatriated there. Flight Sergeant Robinson was from Hackney in east London and was aged 21.

It appears the formation leader failed to notice the looming hills in the industrial haze drifting across from Manchester and only saw the rising hillside at the last instant. He managed to pull back but it was too late and his aircraft hit the hillside flat on. The two flying in close formation behind him were watching their leader, and flew head on into the hill, seemingly not having had the moment's notice of their fate that Flight Sergeant Marien had. All three died instantly.

Today only a few fragments of debris remain at the site."









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Lancaster bomber PA411

"20 December 1948 on a training night flight from RAF Lindholme. All 7 crew were killed in the crash.
Crew;
Flight Sergeant Jack Sherwood Thompson, pilot
Flight Lieutenant Peter Maurice Maskell, navigator
Flight Sergeant Robert Smith, signaller
Flight Sergeant Vincent Graham, Flight Engineer
Sergeant William Allen Love, Signaller
Flight Lieutenant Thomas Lowerth Johnson, Instructor
Flight Sergeant David William Henry Harris, Instructor"

















The history's i have quoted are mainly from Peakdistrict airwrecks .

[Trampit]

Awesome mate, well done. Some great pics there & a top report too.

R.I.P fellas.

[simonix]

That is so interesting, well done.

[mistericeman]

Cheers guys,
It's an interesting and thought provoking way to spend some time searching these out and taking pictures.
The shame of it is as time goes on the amount of wreckage get less and less as unscrupulous types remove bits from the sites (a lot of which are war grave)to sit on a shelf in their house/garage.Makes my blood boil

[ROYALBOB]

Nice, I like stuff like this, top report

[Flyboy]

It is so intriguing to see how all that remains of these aircraft has been just left here. I suppose it really is far from any civilisation!

I think these wreckages are a very poignant memorial to the men killed.

Thanks for taking the effort to photograph and document this site.

[mistericeman]

Some of them are remarkably close to main roads ....The ones above were less than 45 minutes walk from the main A628 Woodhead pass And not too difficult to locate (well apart from the Hurricanes....they took some searching for even with grid references and a hand held GPS)

Well worth the effort though IMHO

[jay6600]

Cool pics m8 you actually motivated me to revisit the lancaster site from your great photos i was very surprised how it had all grown over since my last visit about 18 years ago, back then it was baron with no grass just washed down peat and gravel n rocks and the wreckage seemed quite more visable you could find smaller peices rightdown the scar to where the edge starts to slope to the lowmoor..i initally found the wreckage as a teenager by accident when mooch the moors with my dog wow i thought,,ive been to the memorial youve photoed with the homemade brass plaque still has its poppy aswell ,but the other 3 wrecks you visited will have to wait untill its warm enough to use my gps without gloves on.. keepup the goodwork m8