Flyhistoriker og dykker Ib Walbum har i årtier arbejdet med allierede
flyvere. Se en del af hans oplysninger om dette fly som pdf-fil.
Skal læses sammen med
artikler i Bogø Tidende 07.07.2010 og
foto WW2 flymotorer fra samme dag samt øvrige
oplysninger om
HAL MZ924.
Aircraft
historian and diver Ib Walbum has worked with allied planes and airmen
for decades. See a part of his
collection of data in Danish, here translated by AS: Must be read
together with articles in
Bogø Tidende (Bogø Times)
07.07.2010 and photo Two WW2 engines from the
same day and more about
HAL MZ924.
"When I was gathering information about air crashes
and forced landings on Lolland-Falster and surrounding waters, I was
told in 1988 that there were parts of a plane - wheels, engines and
propellers - in the waters south of Femø (Femø Sletterev).
The
information came from a team of underwater archaeologists from the
Langelands Museum who were searching for settlements in the
Smålandsfarvandet. Later I went out there with Benny Dam, a diver
from Agersø. However, we did not find any traces of planes on the
indicated position.
A couple of years later two divers
told me that they had seen a number of parts of a plane, but on a
position further to the north. In 2004 I was informed that parts of
a plane had been found and that they had been identified as being from a
Halifax plane. I got interested in the case as I knew that there was a possibility that a
"Halifax B III" had crashed in the area.
Shortly after I found out for certain that two propellers and a
tail wheel had been raised. I tracked down the parts and had them
examined. The wheel was
from a Halifax and so were the propellers, but as that type of propellers
were also used on
Stirling planes it did not bring me far. However, they were also
used with "Bristol
Hercules XVI" engines, an air-cooled sleeve valve radial aircraft
engine, 1.635 HK (HK=horse power - Wikipedia states 1,356 hp at 2,750
rpm at 4,000 ft). Exactly this type was used on a "Halifax
B III".
If they were from a "Halifax
B III" one of the propeller blades would be marked 25A/553. If they
were from a Stirling the mark should be 25A/570. A further examination
proved to be 25A/553, so now it could only be a "Halifax
B III". The propellers also showed traces from oblique shots from
behind and the right. The bullet holes indicated that the projectiles
might be 12.7
mm (caliber .50). Also 7,7 mm cartridges (
.303 British)
were found marked with 1944
on the bottom for the year they were produced.
In order to
establish the identity based on further information we carried out a
diving trip on 2 July 2010 and we raised 2 oxygen containers, a fuel
container of rubber and 2 engines. It appeared that both engines
were "Bristol
Hercules XVI" engines, an air-cooled sleeve valve radial aircraft
engine, and that one of the engines had been exposed to fire, as there
was no insulation on the electric wires to sparking plugs etc.
The plane is scattered over an area of about 125x125 m and there are
indications that the plane exploded in the air after it caught fire. A
plane of this type has 12 fuel tanks, all of them placed in the wings.
The plane is loaded with fuel for a range of up to 4,800 km, and as it
has been established that the plane was lost on the return flight there
must have been quite an amount of fuel left in the tanks, when the plane
exploded.
It is impossible to know if the crew of 7 airmen, all
of which perished, managed to bail out before the plane exploded, as only
one of the crew members found was wearing a parachute that had opened
up. All 7 airmen were found washed ashore on coasts of the
Smaalandsfarvandet. Shortly after they were buried in the churchyards of
Skelskør, Stubbekøbing, Svinø, Brarup, and Bogø." |