I note the very impressive list of Blenheims detailed by L9172 and in particular those that were lost, and was wondering if he could offer some assistance.
Last weekend a small group of us went for a yomp on the moorlands of the Aberdare Mountains here in Kenya in a quest to try and find the three Harvard bombers that crashed during the Mau Mau. We had three possible sites, but only made it to the first one which was something significantly larger than a Harvard.
Not much remains but there is the tubular steel framework onto which the undercarriage was mounted. There were two of these, with a pair of 'compressed air rams' about 7cm in diameter and about 1-1.2 meters long. I took various photographs and have sent the details to a friend in teh UK to try and get an ID on the plane itself. However looking at the size, and various photos I have a strong, albeit very amateur, opinion that it could have been a Blenheim.
On L9172's list, were there any Blenheims that were completely lost from 70 OTU, or any record of a plane that crashed at about 10,000ft below the peak at the northern end of the Aberdares not too far from Lesatima peak (aka Satimma/Satima)? And hopefully this might help us narrow down the search using the serial numbers of various bits of the plane.
Just to avoid any confusion, this plane is different to the one positively identified by John Romain (Z 7763) in 2002 -that was on Mt. Kenya and crashed in thick bamboo.
Any info would be most appreciated.
Thank you,
Tom