The Welney WebsiteAircraft crashes in or near Welney in WW2page created 31st July 2010; last updated Thursday, 09 October 2014 |
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INTRODUCTIONA number of aircraft accidents occurred locally during WW2. Some have been fully or partially investigated, others are just vaguely remembered. The late Ernie James, a well known Welney wildfowler, ferry operator, raconteur and 'fen-tiger' recalled a number of wartime incidents in a book 'Memoirs of a Fen Tiger' written in 1986 by his daughter-in-law, Audrey. These included:
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Ernie's nephew Raymond James recounted the crash of a Junkers in May 1941 (report in link
below), and
another source mentioned a Typhoon. A very comprehensively investigated incident was the crash of a Halifax bomber just over the Welney border at Colony Farm, Manea in 1944, researched by Michael Harrison. Various voluntary aircraft reaseach groups have physically investigated crashes all around the area, and there are many websites showing details from offical records and personal accounts. Jeff Carless of East Anglian Aircraft Research Group has been particularly helpful and has supplied information (some very detailed) on several crashes and has corrected errors on some earlier postings. |
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CRASHED AIRCRAFT and LOCATIONSThe accidents that this website has information about are listed below. Click the aircaft type to view the report and associated links.
APPROXIMATE sites of crashes - this is a large file and may take a while to display. Click to enlarge in new window or tab. If you would like exact locations please contact Webmaster. back to top of page |
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RAF Stirling coded MG-L s/no P8623, "L Love", of 56 Sqn Bomber Command. RAF Wellington coded O-LF "O Orange" of 37 Sqn Bomber Command. USAAF P51B Mustang coded QP-N "N Nuts (?)" of 334th Fighter Sqn 4th Fighter Grp, 8th Air Force (under RAF control) Luftwaffe Ju88 coded 4N+EH "E Emil" of 1. Staffel (H) Aufklärungsgruppe 22 (4N) |
WW2 AIRCRAFT IDENTITY CODE MARKSRAF aircraft had a 3-letter code painted each side of the fuselage, 2 letters indicating the squadron, the other the individual aircraft, the two parts separated by the RAF roundel (which had an extra yellow outer ring).These codes were also used by the RCAF, SAAF, RNZAF, and for a while after America joined in the war, by USAAF units of the 8th and 9th AF. Later, the USAAF codes changed to a completely different system as the number of craft and units increased. The single letter also indicated the aircraft's call sign, which would have been a name or word from the phonetic alphabet of the time - in the table above, the Wellington was called "R - Robert". (Phonetic alphabets varied, there was no standardisation in those days, see link on right.) Very occasionally the single letter would have been followed by a single-digit number, painted much smaller than the letters. It indicated an additional or replacement aircraft. Sometimes the aircraft serial number was shown, also very small (see MG-L on left). German aircraft had 3 letters and one number - see link on right for details. |
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LINKSMany of the links I originally posted are no longer working. One is Lostbombers.co.uk which had a very useful searchable database. There was a lot of controversy about that site contravening copywrite or intelectual property - see link to forum. A new similar site, Lostaircraft.com run from Germany, may be useful so I have added a link to it. |
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The usual convention when recording codes is to use a minus sign to indicate the RAF
roundel or US Star, and a plus sign to represent the Luftwaffe cross. Codes could be changed or re-allocated. |
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