De Havilland Vampire VZ874

DE HAVILLAND VAMPIRE VZ874

A 'VZ'  in rocks denotes the location the aircraft impacted the mountain

 On the 12th October 1956  at 1910 hours this aircraft , the De Havilland Vampire VZ874 took off from RAF Valley on nearby Anglesey.  The pilot, a member of the Fleet air Arm, Sub-Lt R. Davies was in training on Vampires and had just begun his night flying training having already flown a total of 110 hours in the type. His brief that night was to fly locally and do circuits (landings and takeoffs at the airfield).
Flying by instruments alone and only ten minutes after taking off the aircraft crashed into the West of the summit of Mynydd Mawr in Snowdonia. Unfortunately Sub-Lt Davies was killed in the crash.
The aircraft is said to have exploded on impact many parts of the aircraft continued across the summit and fell into the the cwm below  on the East face of the  summit.
The alleged impact point is now marked by the aircraft's letters in the scree a V and a Z .We found nothing here now...but possibly didnt look hard enough because photographs of small fragments can be seen on the internet.
On descending into Cwm Planwydd we had more success finding engine parts and aircraft spars.
The Aircraft a D.H. 100 F.B.Mk 5 was built at Broughton as a batch order of 63 machines.

A spar and some engine parts in the Cwm

 De Havilland Mosquito MkII W4088

Undercarriage

On the 1st November 1944 this Mosquito Aircraft crashed into Mynydd Mawr in  North Wales.
Flying out of RAF Cranfield on a night navigation exercise the crew became misplaced and crashed into the hillside at a col below the summit. The aircraft broke up and was scattered over a wide area, the bulk of it coming to rest and burning out.
This location can still be seen. a liberal scattering of brass screws from the wooden aircrafts structure and molten alloy from the engines cover the site.
Further down the hill a substantial section of undercarriage remains still with timber extant attached.
Other smaller pieces of wreckage can be found with a careful search of the area.
Unfortunately both crewmen were killed in the crash. They were

Captain J. De Thuisy
and
Pilot Officer J. Marchal

Location where the aircraft burnt out

Our visit took place on the 71st anniversary of the crash.

Avro Lancaster NE132

Avro Lancaster NE132

Wreckage lays amongst the scree in the foreground 

Reduction gear still with stubs of the props attached

 On the 6th February 1945 flying out of RAF North Luffenham  , Lancaster NE132 crashed into the flank of Rhinog Fawr in North Wales whilst on a cross country training flight .
The aircraft apparently entered a Cumulo-Nimbus cloud,  ice formed upon the  fuselage and wings causing a catastrophic airframe failure . The aircraft broke up in flight plummeting down into the mountainside .

 Fatigue may have played its part for the aircraft had completed many missions over enemy territory before being 'retired' into No. 1653 HCU for use in training .

Engine parts

The whole crew of 7 men died.

F/O David H.R.Evans    Pilot
F/O Maxwell W. Moon  Navigator
Sgt. Charles W. Souden   Bomb Aimer
Sgt. George E.W. Hodge  Flt. Engineer
Sgt. Arthur D. Gash          Air Gunner
Sgt. Harold Neilsen          Air Gunner
Sgt. Alfred E. Oliff      Air Gunner/Wireless Op


F/O;s Evans and Moon were  Australian and members of the RAAF.
 Sgt Neilsen was from Chile .

It is known that two of the men managed to bale out but were too low for their parachutes to open properly .
The bodies of two other crewmen, F/O Evans and Sgt Gash  have never been found . This makes the main  impact point a war grave . Their names are on the Runnymede Memorial . F/O Evans on panel 283 and Sgt Gash on panel 272 .

Bristol Blenheim L4873

wing spar

impact crater

On the 23rd March 1940 Bristol Blenheim L4873 flying out of RAF Upwood on a formation flying exercise with two other Blenheims became lost in cloud .
The two other aircraft found clear sky and returned to base but the pilot and crew of L4873 became increasingly disorientated in the cloud .
Eventually, it is presumed, they decided to try and descend under the cloud cover to try and get a fix on thier position.
Instead of finding the cloud base they found the shoulder of Foel Wen in the Berwyn Mountains ,North Wales. The aircraft was utterly destroyed on collision with the mountain.
A teardrop shaped impact crater can still be clearly seen , its shape indicative of the angle of descent .
A substantial amount of still painted (in part) aircraft fragments can be seen amongst the deep grass . Fuselage parts showing signs of impact crumpling , wing sections less damaged but now heavily corroded.
The three man crew were all killed

Sgt. Maurice Charles Cotterell Pilot
Sgt Ronald Jesse Harbour Observer
AC2 Kenneth Charles Winterton WO+AG

Bristol Blenheim IV in Finnish colours

Douglas Boston Z2186

On the 17th October 1942 this aircraft crashed into a grassy slope on the Carneddau mountain massif in Snowdonia North Wales.
Flying out of the 418 squadron base of RAF Bradwell Bay on a cross country training flight . They entered cloud an hour into the flight and navigated using their compass and radio bearings . Unfortunately they were off course and flying at 3000 feet smashed into the mountain . A few hundred feet higher and they would have cleared it.
Two of the crew died in the crash but one ,the pilot , survived with some major injuries.

Sgt. Mervyn Sims RCAF DFC Pilot
F/Lt. Harold Longworth RCAF Nav
Sgt. Ronald Walker A/G

Sgt Sims lay close to the aircraft under an improvised shelter of wreckage for two days before being discovered. He sustained a broken leg , fractured skull, broken spine and multiple other injuries ....he also contracted gangrene whilst recovering .
Despite all these injuries he eventually made a full recovery and returned to his squadron where he went on to serve with distinction, completing a full tour, shooting down german aircraft and being awarded the DFC. A hero , who had a very fortunate break in hitting the flattest grassiest part of the Carneddau.

Wellington DV800

On the 19th of July 1942 this Wellington bomber of No27 Operational Training Unit crashed whilst on a cross country navigation training flight into an area of the Carneddau massif called Black Ladders.
It is aptly named , a pathless route out of this dark forbidding valley to the sunlit ridge above.
Above this small cairn of wreckage
a few hundred feet from the ridge itself is the crash site amongst the scree .
Little remains here today , just small fragments of alloy. Nevertheless it is a very dramatic place with the towering cliffs of the Carneddau looming above .
The crew of five were all killed.

Sgt. Eric H. LongbottomPilot
Sgt. Lionel D. Traylen Obs
Sgt. Richard I Bowen Obs
Sgt. Samuel J. WilsonW/O
Sgt. Rupert T. BannisterA/G

There is wreckage to be found in the stream below this site but by some reports it is not from the Wellington but from the Lincoln which crashed close by here 8 years later.

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.

Lockheed Ventura AE688

On the 18th August 1943 Ventura AE688 of the RAAF 464 Squadron crashed into Carnedd Daffydd in Snowdonia ,North Wales.
The crew were, as is common place for these incidents, on a nightime navigation exercise .This time though the weather was clement and therefore the reasons for the crash are not clear . The time
of crash was noted by an army traing unit down by Llyn Ogwen (perhaps utilising the pillbox) as 22.38.
All the crew were killed .
Flt Sgt James Alexander Johnston RAAF Pilot
Flt Sgt Eloi Joseph Emile Beaudry RCAF Navigator
F/O Lawrence Fullerton RCAF Wireless Operator / Air gunner
Flt Sgt Archibald Sidney Clegg RCAF Air gunner

Pictured in the main shot is a wing section of the Ventura , beyond that is an alleged pool of Anson wreckage but some of which clearly shows the Lockheed manufacturers stamp .

I am fairly disapointed with todays shots .....somehow i have managed to make them all blurred .....perhaps the efforts of walking up the hill made me shake too much .:-)

Factory stamp can be seen

impact point

MOSQUITO LR412

Located on Aran Fawaddy in Snowdonia National Park ,North Wales.

Propellor and hub with partial reduction gear .

On wednesday the 9th February 1944 Mosquito Mk.IX LR412 of Squadron No. 540 of the RAF, crashed onto the higher slopes of Aran Fawddwy , Snowdonia , SSW of the summit itself .

Both crewmen were killed in the crash .
Pilot- F/O Marek Slonski, PAF

Nav- F/Lt Paul Riches DFC, RAF


They were flying out of RAF Benson and were testing two new flaps .

Both pilot and navigator were very experienced , F/Lt Riches having been awarded the DFC in 1943.

The weather was not too bad ,some cloud but not extensive . The crash does seem to have some mystery surrounding it , the propellor does not appear to have been turning on collision with the ground ,yet a Mosquito could fly comfortably on one engine . Visability was reportedly quite reasonable and both were experienced men .

They are buried together at Chessington , St Mary, cemetery, Surrey.

The aircraft itself had taken part in many operations over enemy territory.

540 Squadron operated successfully has a photo -reconnaissance unit . Aircraft of this unit carried no squadron markings so has not to be easily identified if shot down over enemy territory