WW2 crash site memorials
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WW2 crash site memorials
I travel from Seattle to England every July to run a vintage car weekend (Pre-War Prescott ?). We race up Prescott hill on Saturday and then run a navigation rally on the Sunday around the Cotswolds. On the Sunday, I try to fit in as many fords as possible, and there is a great website - WetRoads Entertainment which pinpoints every surviving ford in England, county by county, giving grid reference, photos and details of their navigability, etc.
The rallies are light-hearted treasure hunts, but I always look for historically-significant points of interest to set clues to give the day some depth. Over the years, during my route researches, I have found numerous local memorials placed at the crash sites of various WW2 aircraft which are thought-provoking and offer an opportunity to keep the memory of the lost crews alive.
It occurred to me that I have not found a website out there, like the wet roads website, that brings together data on all of these local crash site memorials, most of which seem to be hidden away on footpaths, woodlands or remote hillsides.
So I'd like to throw out the suggestion that such a web resource would be useful, of interest and also help preserve the memory of those who perished for our freedom both returning from operations and in training exercises and collisions. I know that the aviation archaeologists have a pretty good handle on where the crash sites are, and there are plenty of resources related to 'lost' airfields, but is there a user-friendly resource that lists these crash site memorial stones and plaques, and details the lost crews?
The rallies are light-hearted treasure hunts, but I always look for historically-significant points of interest to set clues to give the day some depth. Over the years, during my route researches, I have found numerous local memorials placed at the crash sites of various WW2 aircraft which are thought-provoking and offer an opportunity to keep the memory of the lost crews alive.
It occurred to me that I have not found a website out there, like the wet roads website, that brings together data on all of these local crash site memorials, most of which seem to be hidden away on footpaths, woodlands or remote hillsides.
So I'd like to throw out the suggestion that such a web resource would be useful, of interest and also help preserve the memory of those who perished for our freedom both returning from operations and in training exercises and collisions. I know that the aviation archaeologists have a pretty good handle on where the crash sites are, and there are plenty of resources related to 'lost' airfields, but is there a user-friendly resource that lists these crash site memorial stones and plaques, and details the lost crews?
Join Date: Sep 2005
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The Airfield Research Group covers aviation memorials and covers these by County. Here is a link to the ARG's Lincolnshire subjects - click on memorials to see what they have in Lincs:
https://www.airfieldresearchgroup.or...m/lincolnshire
Other Counties are available.
https://www.airfieldresearchgroup.or...m/lincolnshire
Other Counties are available.
Last edited by Mandator; 9th Jun 2016 at 13:45. Reason: Spelling.
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Tous les monuments - A?rost?les covers wartime and post-war, by departement
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Chap I know over the Bridge in Godmanchester has spent the last few years raising monies to erect a memorial to a Sterling crew which crashed along Cow Lane (not far from the A14 Junction) I admire what he has done and have attended a few of his fund raising events. He has put an awful lot of effort into tracing relatives and is holding a special day for them shortly. Only today he put a post up that Thwaites had donated a couple of slabs for the occasion. He has yet to determine the exact location of the crash site.
A quick search for Godmanchester Stirling on Facebook will take interested parties to the story. It has been fascinating reading with more or less weekly instalments with photos.
A quick search for Godmanchester Stirling on Facebook will take interested parties to the story. It has been fascinating reading with more or less weekly instalments with photos.
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On the Sunday, I try to fit in as many fords as possible, and there is a great website - WetRoads Entertainment which pinpoints every surviving ford in England, county by county, giving grid reference, photos and details of their navigability, etc.
I tried it because last night I was looking at one of my 1960/70s 1" rally navigation maps and remembering the hours it would take to mark up each new map with known or found out amendments, add grid numbers all over, write on the edges which was the next map, etc. Then it might just last 4 rallies if lucky or only 1 wet one. So I'm going to open it again because there were some hand-annotated fords on there -- sheet 141 Brecon.
I've still got hundreds of them
'a
Last edited by aerobelly; 9th Jun 2016 at 19:30. Reason: Wearing long-distance glasses, unsuitable for computer screens....
This mention of rallying and maps reminds me of a nav we had on 360 in the early days. Dave Carrington crewed one of the works Hillman Hunters in the England-Australia (World Cup?) Rally in late 60s - is he still around?
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Last time I was in Crickhowell I bought a very good book of aircraft crash sites in the Brecon Beacons. I'm trying to get round them all during cadet activities over the next few years. Some are quite hard to find now.
