Bristol Beaufighter RD210
 |
| looking up the mountain toward the gulley which contains much wreckage |
On the 10th of February 1945 this aircraft flying out of RAF Pershore to test fuel consumption rates crashed into the rockface of
Aran Fawddwy presumably they had become lost whilst flying through some bad weather . They were part of No1 Ferry Unit .
The two man crew were killed .
They were
F/O Alan L. Roe Pilot RAAF
W/O Derrick R. Newbury Nav RAF
The gulley is very steep and has a 'bad step' not far down . We descended in fairly deep snow which made the going easier at least at the top . luckily it had recently avalanched and seemed as safe as something like this can be , with broken snow till it became to thin to matter .
The bad step was a pig and covered in ice if youre gonna go down be sure of your abilities ! Its probaly easier to go up in summer!
It was though great fun ....less fun was climbing back up and over the mountain to get back to the car ...a basic error of thought ....Aran Fawddwy is a big mountain and we did it twice the hard way !
This is the highest bit of wreckage we found , its quite large , there is probaly more higher but the snow cover prevented us from seeing it .
That is my ice axe giving a bit of scale .
 |
| Looking down hill at the foot of the gulley , a peice of undercarriage is eveident in the foreground . Ian can be seen looking back up giving scale to the scene . The snow is definately thinning out here . |
 | |
| A small section of panel |
 |
| Ian looking at a chunk and looking like he has enjoyed the scramble down the gulley |
 |
| there are largish chunks all the way down to the water . Although we never did find one of the engines that was reportedly at the waters edge . |
 | |
| Ian at the top of the gulley close to the summit , the snow on the rocks doesnt look that deep but it was over knee high in more sheltered places and on the North side of the mountain it was a punishing climb to the top despite being a more gentle gradient |
 | |
| Thats me , rolling down the gulley , nimble like a fox ! It looks sunny but it was just a brief respite from the snow showers that came and went all day . Its amazing where this hobby can take you . |
This was a grand day out. It was bloody hard graft trudging back up but then the Mosquito prop made up for it!
ReplyDeleteYeah , it certainly was a terrific day .... Reckon we were much fitter back then ....we searched high and low through the forest ,then made our way off path (through deep snow at the top end) to the summit ,descended to the lake then searched across and up and down scree for another crash site before reclimbing the mountain and then cross country though driving sleet to find the Mossie site before making a descent through forestry land walking miles to cover yards on those winding never ending forestry tracks . that doesnt even cover the 6 hours of driving too ! :-) ..... a very great day though !
DeleteI read somewhere that people removed the engines some 15 years ago for some kind of promotion tour to raise money for a monument. Visited the site myself in the summer of 1978 and 1980, and went all the way up to the gully as well. A steep and dangerous climb but what a view from the top.
DeleteYes its an underated mountain for sure
Delete