132 Sqn Spitfire crash, 29 November 1941

[Degem]

I know what is written but have doubts about reports so still think of my uncle whom I never met was a great war hero.

[Degem]

Degem


Report shows that my uncle only had 44 hours flying in Spitfires, the report said he broke away without permission. Suggest because it said lost comm with ground station that the flight did not know they were in fog and told my uncle to find the cloud base

[Degem]

I remember how important it is to tell aircraft what the QNH is for the area they are flying. If my uncle took off in a high pressure area then flew out over the sea and even returned when the fog hit his altimeter was unreliable, required ground station to transmit the Qnh for the area otherwise the altimeter was useless. With only the few hours he had in this aircraft someone more experienced should have be task to find the cloudbase

[MacBeathan1545]

New to this site and noticed this item. I am a retired journalist, and in 1971 was working for the Press and Journal - a daily newspaper covering the north of Scotland - and heard of an aircraft investigation near Peterhead. A photographer and I arrived at Tillymaud Farm to find an RAF team examining well-preserved wreckage of a Spitfire which had been uncovered by workers laying drainage pipes in an extensive but boggy field.
Parts of the fuselage, including the wings and cockpit had been so well preserved in the peaty ground that even the instruments were still legible. The wartime camouflage and wing roundels were as they had been in the war. It was a remarkable and moving sight.
The RAF team were busy gathering up live ammunition and the guns from the Spitfire, and kept the cockpit clock and compass. The glass was still intact.
An elderly man came up and said he had been a school boy in autumn of 1941. It was a very misty day and he heard an aircraft overhead, then saw it fly with undercarriage lowered between two large houses nearby. He said the pilot obviously thought the large field was a safe landing place and the plane touched down and rolled on for some distance before plunging into the bog, leaving only the tip of the tail above ground. The pilot's body was recovered later.
After the 1971 find, the remains of the Spitfire were reburied at the site. It will still be there, the team saying the engine was far further down.

[Keith Bryers]

New to this site and noticed this item. I am a retired journalist, and in 1971 was working for the Press and Journal - a daily newspaper covering the north of Scotland - and heard of an aircraft investigation near Peterhead. A photographer and I arrived at Tillymaud Farm to find an RAF team examining well-preserved wreckage of a Spitfire which had been uncovered by workers laying drainage pipes in an extensive but boggy field.
Parts of the fuselage, including the wings and cockpit had been so well preserved in the peaty ground that even the instruments were still legible. The wartime camouflage and wing roundels were as they had been in the war. It was a remarkable and moving sight.
The RAF team were busy gathering up live ammunition and the guns from the Spitfire, and kept the cockpit clock and compass. The glass was still intact.
An elderly man came up and said he had been a school boy in autumn of 1941. It was a very misty day and he heard an aircraft overhead, then saw it fly with undercarriage lowered between two large houses nearby. He said the pilot obviously thought the large field was a safe landing place and the plane touched down and rolled on for some distance before plunging into the bog, leaving only the tip of the tail above ground. The pilot's body was recovered later.
After the 1971 find, the remains of the Spitfire were reburied at the site. It will still be there, the team saying the engine was far further down.

Thanks for this, which is fascinating! Did you take/keep any photos of the excavation?

Keith

[AL90]

Hi,
The article is in the Press and Journal 16th and 17th June 1971. Only one photo published of two RAF men with a compass.
Alan.

[MacBeathan1545]

Hi,
The article is in the Press and Journal 16th and 17th June 1971. Only one photo published of two RAF men with a compass.
Alan.

Yes, that is correct. I should have the cutting somewhere.
The RAF chaps removed quite a lot of .303 ammo and also took the clock from the cockpit, the instrument panel was rather bent but the dials incredibly intact thanks to the peaty and oily ground.
They also said the old man I had spoken to had earlier talked to them, and they had presented him with aluminium catch from the cockpit canopy (I think) that was inscribed with Supermarine or Spitfire?