Curtiss Tomahawk AH744

Curtiss Tomahawk AH744

Ian walking past a pit probaly used to bury the wreckage ...the magpies have been busy , as usual !

On the 10th February 1943 on the slopes of Little Dodd in County Durham this aircraft crashed in low cloud on a training exercise flying out of Catterick .
The 29 year old pilot was a relative novice . It was three days before the wreckage was found on this bleak desolate moor.
The pilot who was killed was 

P/O Harry Emmerson Wright

He is buried at Catterick.

This aircraft was part of a batch intended for France in 1940 , but before they could be delivered France fell to the Nazis . The British agreed to take over the order but the Tomahawk proved a poor fighter in the European theatre , so was reduced to being used as a training aircraft .This squadron was used in conjunction with Anti aircraft defence training .
It had poor armament , no self sealing fuel tanks , no armour plate or armoured glass to protect the pilot and was deemed unsuitable to fight  German aircraft.

The aircraft must have cartwheeled across the moor for the wrecakge is spread along a narrow axis  for quite a distance .

Some interesting wreckage remains on the moor , part of the cockpit floor , a wing part which includes the openings for loading the guns and some wiring amongst the usual assortment of scraps 

wing section with gun loading openings

Wing section salvaged from the site now held at North East Aircraft Museum , this is a shot from their website

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 upper wing section  , this could be the bit next to the fuselage that remains on site and may link up to the bit at NEAM