WW2 wreckage found by grandson on Norwegian mountainside

The grandson of a World War Two fighter pilot has journeyed to the wreckage of the plane in which his grandfather died.

Royal Navy Commander Phil Richardson, from Hampshire, found the plane in Norway after footage of the site was posted on YouTube.

His grandfather Lt Cdr Ron Richardson died in a crash after his plane was hit during a daring raid on a German warship.

Flying his Grumman Hellcat Fighter Bomber, Lt Cdr Richardson's mission was to attack the battleship Tirpitz, the pride of the German Navy, that was mounting attacks on the Arctic convoys.

https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-46922010/ww2-wreckage-found-by-grandson-on-norwegian-mountainside

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Naval officer spots crash site of grandfather's missing Second World War plane on YouTube
The grandson of a British Second World War pilot has tracked down the wreckage of his grandfather’s plane on the Norwegian mountainside after footage of the crash site emerged on YouTube.

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Royal Navy Commander Phil Richardson, from Hampshire, journeyed to Norway to locate the remains of the Flying Grumman Hellcat Fighter Bomber, which was hit during a daring raid on a German warship.

His grandfather Lt Cdr Ron Richardson was 27-years-old when he was sent on a mission to attack the battleship Tirpitz, the pride of the German Navy, that was mounting attacks on the Arctic convoys.

Although he was pronounced dead during the war, the wreckage of his hellcat fighter remained unknown up until now.

It was only after footage which identified a crash site 3,000ft up a remote mountain appeared on YouTube that Mr Richardson was able to pinpoint the exact coordinates of the aircraft's landing point.

A spell of warm weather also helped to expose the site, situated in a secluded area 500km inside the Arctic Circle.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/01/21/grandson-british-ww2-pilot-tracks-wreckage-grandfathers-plane/

That metal detector worked well!

Shame they didn't identify the date Lt.Cdr Richardson was KIA, and whether it was the single Hellcat lost during Op Tungsten in April '44, or one of the ones lost during one of the 3 x Op Goodwood attacks in August '44?
When a school boy, our next door neighbour had served in the RN all through the war on MTB's, and went with them when they moved from the Med up to Norway at the end of the war, and he had a photo of himself taken standing on the upturned hull of the mighty Tirpitz, and for years he had a small piece of it sitting on a shelf in his garage!

.......and if you go to Tromso you can go to the site of the Tirpitz sinking. ( or rather the capsizing) There is a small private museum and at the site you can still see some craters left by the Tallboys and the remains of the staging used during the dismantling of the wreck.

The site is just a couple of miles from Tromso.

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Shame they didn't identify the date Lt.Cdr Richardson was KIA.

From CWGC... https://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/c...hibald-ronald/

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That metal detector worked well!

Yes, I can picture him walking around the crash site and scanning the ground with his metal detector. "It's here somewhere..."

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Originally Posted by RetiredBA/BY (Post 10366996)

And don't forget the Lanc that never made it back from the raids on her, it was almost complete until some scrapper chopped it up, but was prevented from hauling her away.

https://www.urbanghostsmedia.com/201...ncaster-nf920/