In the Strathspey and Bedenoch Herald

Quoted Text

Badenoch wreckage will help keep last Lancaster in the air

Published:  01 July, 2009

AN AIR rescue miss-ion with a difference has been carried out on a remote Badenoch mountain-top with the recovery of the wreckage of a Lancaster bomber which crashed during World War II.

The parts will be used to help keep the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Lancaster – the only one in Europe of 7,377 built which is still airworthy – in the skies.

The Avro Lancaster from 463 Squadron (RAAF), which had been based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, broke up mid-flight at 10,000 feet near Kingussie on the night of August 31, 1944, with the loss of all seven crew...................

Yet another night training loss:

BBC report:- Propeller memorial to lost crew

A propeller blade from a crashed World War II Lancaster bomber will be unveiled in a Highland cemetery on Sunday as a memorial to lost airmen.

Six Royal Australian Air Force personnel and a RAF crewman died when the aircraft came down on Balavil Estate, near Kingussie.

A team from RAF Waddington, Lincoln, from where the bomber flew missions, recovered the blade.

It has been erected in the graveyard at Balavil House.

The estate owners - Allan and Marjorie Macpherson-Fletcher - have been protecting the crash site of PD259 from souvenir hunters.

It will be unveiled on the 64th anniversary of the crash.

The crew from 467/463 Sqd were on a night training flight over the Cairngorms and Monadhliath mountain ranges when the bomber came down.

The cause may have been damage as a result of anti-aircraft fire, or freezing conditions, encountered during a mission the previous night.

Once removed, the propeller was transferred to RAF Waddington for restoration.

It will act as a memorial to the 1,306 personnel of 467/463 Sqd lost during World War II.

The six Australian crew members of PD259 were interred in the Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Cambridge, while the sole RAF airman was buried in Glasgow.

BBC report is wrong, there are no Australians buried at Carrbridge.  The only foreign burials are some Newfoundland Overseas Forestry Unit.  The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald report says they are buried at Rutherglen.

CWGC site says Cambridge!


MB

BBC says Cambridge - that's it I quoted by cut & paste above :-/

The Strathspey and Badenoch Herald report only says Warrant Officer George Middleton was laid to rest in Rutherglen Cemetery - it doesn't seem to refer to the burial place of the Australians.

You're slipping, or the heat's getting to you ;)

Ooops, definately the heat perhaps also going through about a hundred or so pictures of war graves I took on Monday.

(Only mentioned this one as there were locations involved - just to be sure lest anyone plan a visit without checking separately).

I found this site dedicated to the original squadron, and it has a surprising amount of content, not immediately evident on first glance:

467/463 RAF/RAAF World War Two Bomber Squadrons

Don't know if it's just me, but a few of the interesting pages look as if they are going to load, then appear to divert to a blank page :(

First found the crash site in the late 1980's with Dumfries & Galloway members. We were given permission to visit the site by the estate on the condition that nothing was removed. It was an 11 mile walk in and was well worth it. The location was kept quiet for years at the landowners request.
The Lancaster had broken up over a wide area scattering parts for over a mile. All the parts were in remarkable condition. There was confusion over the identity for years as PD259 was listed as being shot down on a raid the same night. We found the rear fuselage with the serial still visible upside down in the peat along with the buried wings. One engine had suffered severe fire damage and may have caused the crash.
Strangely, PB 456, the Lancaster which crashed on Conic hill two weeks later had also broken up in mid air and was a mirror image of PD259's crash. both were following the same Navex route and both broke up in the same way.
The link below shows the wreckage as I remember it and the recovery last week.

http://forums.airshows.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=11959&p=121555

Thanks for the additional detail, nice to see the pieces being rescued and saved.

It's a shame that people today seem to be incapable of showing respect (and I obviously don't mean the sort of "respect" that street scum refer to) to such remains, and that they can't be left alone safely to serve as memorials.

Although I'd prefer to see such things left in place, it may be time to start collecting them for museums or similar, as the generations that understand what they represent die off, and those taking their place just don't seem to "get it" and treat the parts as trophies and souvenirs, or just destroy them as if they are scrap and rubbish.

There is a well know wreck hunter in Yorkshire who, had he got his way, would have salvaged and sold as much of PD259 as he could. Over the years he has plundered nearly every site in Scotland.
Unfortunately a lot of wreckage has been sold for scrap unofficially- the B-29 at Strachur is a shadow of what was there in the 1970's. The hudson on Ben Lui has also had a beating over the past 20years with the fuselage hacked to remove the flare tube - again for profit.
At least in amuseum preserved parts serve as an easily visible memorial for future generations and are not allowed to be sold under BAPC rules.

In the 50s/60s all this stuff would have been regarded as junk left over from the war and as such fair game for any souvenir hunter or salvage hunter.   It is only in the past decade or so that some sentimental value has been placed upon it.   Lets face it Councils still allow the demolition of WWII sites without a thought of their historic value.  If you don't believe this, cast an eye over the HAA Battery Bellsmyre page.  It led to the discovery of a whole new class of cold war battery but has now gone and is being replaced by a retail development.