Other areas of the UK

Sabre F4 XD712

On the 16th June 1955 whilst flying in a four aircraft formation XD712 broke up in mid air killing the pilot  Flying Officer  Lawrence Michael Percival Harryman.
The official report states ''This a/c No.3 in a tail chase was seen to commence to pull out from a dive. Shortly before the nose came above the horizon the a/c rolled onto its back and entered cloud. It was next seen by ground witnesses with the forward part of the fuselage on fire and cartwheeling through the air. When the remainder of the a/c crashed the pilot, still strapped in the ejector seat, was thrown clear and killed.''
It goes on to say that ''It is considered that the pilot blacked out when attempting to follow his No.2 and on regaining consciousness overstressed the a/c to such an extent that it broke up''

A reliable witness on the ground says that the aircraft was flying level when it broke up rather than pulling out of a dive. This same witness visited the area in which the aircraft fragments fell to earth. They were scattered around a land drain near a road bridge across the drain south of the Humber in Lincolnshire a few miles from Elsham.  The pilot was found still in his ejector seat in the drain itself.

No trace of the crash is now visible in the area. There may be fragments in the fields or the waste from dredging the drains but we found nothing.

Looking North toward the Humber

Vickers Valiant WZ363

 remnants of the impact crater today

On the 6th May 1964  at 23.50 ,WZ363 crashed into farmland near Market Rasen in Lincolnshire .
flying out of RAF Marham on exercises they had just finished doing a practise PAN rolling landing at RAF Binbrook  and  had been cleared to turn in a southerly direction to return to Marham .
  It is thought that the tailplane actuator malfunctioned in some way , this though as never been  proven . The crash was so violent as to make an absolute  reason for the crash impossible to work out .  However the pilot was in contact with  Radar Approach Control at Brinbrook only moments before the crash  and seemed relaxed , so it must have been a sudden and quickly developing event .
All 5 crewmen were killed instantly .
 They were :

F/Lt  F.C. WELLES        Captain
F/Lt  G.A. MILLS           Co-Pilot
F/Lt  J.R. STRINGER     Navigation Plotter
F/Lt  L.R. HAWKINS      Navigation Bomber
Sgt R. NOBLE                 Air Electronics Operator

I have never visited the site myself . These shots were supplied by my friend and  keen aviation fan and historian Al who has kindly given me permission to use his shots .

There is a webpage on the 207  Squadron website worthy of note which covers the crash in very great detail , so much so that it leaves nothing new to be said . I include a link here, just copy and search .  http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/valiants/welles_060564.htm

 At the local railway station a plaque and memorial has been raised in memory of the crew

Two more shots of the crash area

As a footnote . The aircraft type flew its last missions (as tanker and another in a conventional role) on December 9th 1964 . The type was struck off in early 1965 . The change in tactics during the Cold War required Britains   nuclear V-force bombers to fly in at low level to avoid radar contact . The Valiant was not designed for this and its airframe could not stand the extra stresses involved . A glorious aircraft whose operational life was brought to a sharp end due to technological advances in other areas of warfare.
ASN as the crash record for Valiants as this

WB210                   12/1/52               1 fatal                    prototype

WP222                  29/7/55                4 fatal

WP202                  11/5/55                3 fatal                   

WZ398                  13/9/57               

XD869                   11/9/59                6 fatal                  at   Marham             

XP864                    12/8/60                5 fatal

WP205                  17/11/60             

WZ399                  3/11/61               

WP200                  14/3/61

WZ363                  6/5/64                   5 fatal                    Rasen crash

WZ396                  23/5/64

Thanks Al for finding this out for me .

Dornier Do 217K-1 U5+CM

A small fragment we found which indicated the field in which the crew and aircraft parts ended up in after the explosion of the first bomb  , Its our cross of course !

The shot of the crater taken by Lt Gidden

On the 22nd September 1943 , Dornier Do217K-1 U5+CM crashed into a feild at Out Newton on the Yorkshire coast .
The aircraft was caught in searchlight beams as it came in over the coast and attacked the searchlights with machine gun fire , it is not known if any return fire caused the crash or simply that the pilot flying at only 50 feet above the ground got it wrong and hit the ground or a tree !
 The aircraft on crashing did not explode but broke up into large pieces . The main fuselage of the aircraft coming to rest across aditch some 250 yards from the impact point . All four crewmen were killed in the crash .
The story does not end there though ,On arriving at the scene members of the armed forces quickly realised that the aircraft contained two huge 1000lb unexploded bombs /landmines .
Bomb disposal teams were called in  before  clearing of the site could commence .
Unfortunately whilst the Bomb Disposal team   were working on the first one the firing mechanism  activated  and the bomb went off .
The three man team must have had a few seconds warning of the impending explosion and  attempted to get as far away from the explosion as they could for they were not vapourised in the blast .All three though were injured and taken to a Convalescent Home in nearby Withernsea , it was the closest thing to a hospital there was at the time . Two of the men died of thier injuries later that day . The injured but surviving  Bomb disposal man was Lieut. Frank Price.

A huge crater was formed in the blast (see picture above) , the aircraft was ripped apart  and the bodies of the crew were scattered across Hodgsons field .   

Hodgsons field  looking towards Southfield Farm

The unexploded bomb where it was blasted to in the explosion

Centre of hedge centre of shot was  probable location of the second bomb

close up of bomb

Al inspecting damged hedge

One of the bombs did not explode and was flung some distance coming to rest near a hedge on the North side of Hodgsons field . The location is difficult to place exactly but in the picture to the left my friend Al is inspecting a still damaged bit of hedge   which could easily be the place the second bomb ended up . The shape of the trees in the distance indicate that we are somewhere in the correct vicinity for nothing else matches the details on the contemporary shot above.

A Lt Gidden went to disarm the second mine , it is his shot of the crater made by the first mine .
He reports walking up through a field scattered with wreckage and the dead German crew .

The crew who died were :

Fw.Helmut Rumpff   Pilot
Fw. Siegfried Vomweg   Observer
Gefr. Arno Ehemann   Radio op.
Obgfr. Kurt Stiegler   Gunner

The Bomb Disposal men who died were :

Lieut. Commander Peter Tanner
Able Seaman Percy Fouracre 

Withernsea Community Hospital now stands where the institute once stood . This section of  perimeter wall is thought to be from the time of the incident nothing else remains of the original building   .

St Nicholas church tower

There is another thread of story involved in this crash .
At some point , presumably before the aircaft was destroyed in the explosion , a group of youngsters managed to take from the aircraft a machine gun with 300 rounds and a cannon with  200 rounds . (amongst a number of other smaller items too ).
They carried the weapons to St Nicholas Church in Withernsea hiding them in the belltower .
There intent was to shoot down a German aircraft . The Germans apparently used to come in low over Withernsea possibly using the Church tower and the lighthouse as markers .
The lads even managed to test fire the guns on the beach after clearing a path down through the minefield !
They were nothing if not intrepid .
Eventually though they were found out and the weapons confiscated before thier daring plan came to fruition . Although they did escape detection for two weeks .