Halifax III MZ924 KN-D    Ib Walbum - Information    HAL MZ924     Updated:  12 JAN 2018

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."