Avro Anson N9853

Avro Anson N9853

 On the 11th December  1944 , this aircraft flying from RAF Newton to RAF Millom and  piloted by Flt.Lt. Aleksander Chelstowski , crashed into the plateau on top of Kinder Scout in the Dark Peak . He was accompanied on the flight by his wireless operator a Flt Sgt Stefan Pasinski and 4 passengers . Happily all survived the crash on the snow covered top .



After a couple of clearances little remains apart from the two engines and a few panels .

I,ve visited the site on a couple  of occasions . Never in very clement weather though . Our last visit was in pouring rain ,our first in snow and low cloud .

Avro Anson N4919

Avro Anson N4919

Pictured here with the crags in the background are the few remaining scraps of wreckage , including two wing front edges. 

 This aircraft crashed on Wolf Hole Crag in the Forest of Bowland on 9th February 1944.

Flying out of Millom the pilot , Flight Seargent Dobson , had little choice but to descend due to icing up of the wings , realising he was over high ground he attempted and succeeded in a forced landing . All of the 5 crew members survived .

This crash site is a fair old trek out into the middle of nowhere , and once there the wreckage took some finding . So much so , that I only found it just as I gave up looking and started to return back to the car. I had scoured over 100s of metres of ground and looked through the Rocks in search of the wreckage and found nothing at all.
It was almost a very frustrating trip out , but turned out to be a good one in the end !

This location is at SD 6293 5771 as much as   80m from the only given location  that I had .
Not having a Sat Nav I confirmed this location by pacing on a compass bearing, North, to a wall that was only 50 paces away  and then another 18 paces  along the wall  to a turn so depending on the OS map accuracy I am fairly sure of this location . I am not gonna be far out over such a short distance  and am certain anyone using this 8 figure  GR will have no problem finding the wreckage for as long as it remains in this location. 

Below, my sticks mark the exact GR I had in relation to this site . I could find nothing visible at all , despite over an hour of searching in a grid pattern from this point .
I did though eventually find the wreckage pool , if not the impact point , a long long way away .
This point , the sticks , GR ....SD 630577
 I was on my own today , Ian would like this place , its the middle nowhere surrounded by mile upon mile of featurless moor !

Avro Anson EG686

Flying out of RAF Cark (nr Cartmel ) on a night navigation exercise the aircraft crashed into the South -Eastern flank of Swirl How .
All three of the crew members were killed .
They were :
Sgt. K.M. Snelling Pilot
Sgt. K.J.Brettell Co-Pilot
Sgt. W.W. Younger Air Gunner

This area is dotted with crash sites , some famous such as the Halifax LL505 which hit the summit of Great Carrs much of which can be found below Swirl How on the Northern flank in a coombe called Broad Slack and others whose exsistance are almost spurious in that the exact location of the sites have yet to be located such as Hurricane AG 275 , an unknown Spitfire that was found close to this very Anson during the search for the Anson and another unknown aircraft upon the Old Man of Coniston whose engine is alleged to still be in the tarn . Low Water !
Here is a short video of our finding and travel down the wreckage trail from this crash site .
youtu.be/tnQxRbFaXhg

looking back up the mountain to the impact point

Avro Anson N9855

Crumpled wreckage

Undercarriage

On the 8th November 1943 this aircraft flying out of RAF Halfpenny Green on a night navigation exercise crashed close to the top of Pen yr Ole Wen in Snowdonia ,North Wales . There are few small bits of wreckage to be found on the steep slopes , and trace evidence at the impact point itself . Although I only looked over the edge at it and it didnt seem worth the risk going down for a proper look.
There were five crew members all of which lost their lives. The aircraft crashed into the mountain and caught fire, then dropped onto the plateau below beside the lake.

Below is an exerpt from a report that can be found on Aviation Safety Network website. There are flaws the largest one being a picture of the wing from the ventura crash that is perported to be the Anson (the anson had wooden wings which by their own report were burnt).

'' During the evening of the 8th November 1943 to crew of five took off for a night navigation exercise. The route was to have covered approx. 320 miles passing over of close to the following points Base - Rhyl - Conwy - Douglas - Maughold Head - Chetton - Base. A short way into the flight the crew received a QDM from RAF Tilstock of 050 degrees with the location of the aircraft being assumed to be in the area of 4 miles NW of Shawbury roughly on course for Rhyl. It was next plotted by the Royal Observer Corps on a route that appeared to be a direct track from Wrexham to Conwy.

A direct track from the Wrexham area to Conwy would not normally have taken an aircraft into Snowdonia, but on the night there was a 15 mph wind blowing from west north west which the Court of Inquiry remarked on as "if correction for drift was not taken the aircraft would drift south of the second turning point"

At around 20:30 the ROC observed a fire near Carnedd Dafydd, shortly before this the aircraft while flying in a north westerly direction had impacted the upper slopes of Pen yr Ole Wen. The aircraft's engines had been torn off and rolled almost 1000 feet down the mountain and the fuel tanks had ruptured with their contents igniting. The fuselage was destroyed but was not burnt by the fire. ''
The crew who were all killed were
Sgt. Ernest Andrew Hoagg RCAF Pilot
Sgt. John Hedgley Lewis RAAF Nav
Sgt. William Gavin RAF BA
Sgt. Leslie John Hill RAF WO/AG
Sgt. Douglas John Roberts RAF WO/AG

There does seem to be a great deal of confusion as to which wreckage comes from what aircraft here . Definatively the undercarriage sections at the tarn side came from the Anson and panels painted yellow also came from the Anson ....but some of the wreckage contained Lockheeds factory mark so were definately from the Ventura despite reports that state only the wing was from the Ventura.

this could be from a number of aircraft not just the Anson.