Wreckage of Short Stirling bomber LJ628 in the Dark Peak, Derbyshire, September 1988.
Photo: I walked up to the wreck with my Brother, we were both a bit more youthful then! He's a picture of him (looking a little younger. lol) holding up an engine manifold exhaust-collector ring from one of the four Bristol Hercules engines. In actual fact, he has a lot of photographs of old wartime airfields and aircraft wrecks that he took about this time, I wish that he would show some of them on Flickr or set up a website, as I know that there would be a lot of interest in them. I'll nag him again, when I next see him. lol
Stirling LJ628, 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF
Stirling LJ628, 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF, crashed on the 21st July 1944 on Upper Commons Map reference SK 202 957
The Shorts Stirling bomber was relegated to a training roles due to its operational shortcomings caused by the original design specifications that a maximum wingspan of 100 feet was required in order for it to fit into aircraft hangers.
It was notoriously underpowered and difficult to get airborne. The Heavy Conversion Unit was used to train pilots converting from smaller single engine aircraft to multi-engine bombers.
At 10.05 am on the morning of the 21st July 1944 Flying Officer O’Leary, as flying instructor pushed the Stirling bomber along the runway at maximum speed before eventual take-off from Wigsley. Once they where at 10,000 feet F.O. Gardiner was given the feel of flying a four-engine bomber. They began practising flying with one engine stopped and then started a rated descent into cloud cover.
In the nose Bomb-Aimer, Jim Coulson had began familiarising himself with the layout and swung himself up into the front turret, looking around he saw cloud swirling around, he then began making notes in his book. Glancing up briefly, he could hardly believe his eyes, and yelled into the intercom “Pull up! Pull the flaming nose up Skipper!” Ground was flashing past a few feet beneath the aircraft. F.O. Gardiner took action immediately and pulled hard back on the control column, the Stirling reared up and ‘bellied’ on the moor. They were forty five miles east of where they thought they were.
The initial impact bounced the rear turret off the plane complete with Van Nierkirk in it. The Wings ripped off as the aircraft bumped across the moor. The fuselage had broken into several sections. Six of the men were able to scramble out of the escape hatches that had opened on impact, the two flight engineers were able to walk out of the open end of the fuselage. With eight men relatively un-scathed, the Squadron Leader noticed two men were missing and detailed some men to run back to the rear gun turret where they found Lennox van Nierkirk under the broken tail of the aircraft, badly injured but very much alive. They found Bomb Aimer, Jim Coulson, still trapped in the front gun turret, but were able to cut him free in around fifteen minutes. Both of the injured were wrapped in parachutes to keep them warm and they both recovered from their injuries, and eventually returned to their flying units. Remarkably all ten men survived this crash.
Crew list:-
Pilot, Flying Officer Gardiner.
Co-Pilot, Flying Officer O’Leary.
Navigator, Sergeant McDonald.
Bomb-Aimer, Sergeant Jim Coulson.
Wireless Operator, Sergeant Burroughs.
Rear Gunner, Lennox van Nierkirk.
Mid Upper Gunner, Sergeant Austin.
Flight Engineer, Sergeant John Gittings.
2nd Flight Engineer,(un-named)
Squadron Leader, (un-named)
Update: The largest pieces of the wreckage were removed from the moor in 2005 for the www.stirlingproject.co.uk/
Extract from: www.astrecks.co.uk/peakaircraftwrecks.htm#68251772
Wreckage of Short Stirling bomber LJ628 in the Dark Peak, Derbyshire, September 1988.
Photo: I walked up to the wreck with my Brother, we were both a bit more youthful then! He's a picture of him (looking a little younger. lol) holding up an engine manifold exhaust-collector ring from one of the four Bristol Hercules engines. In actual fact, he has a lot of photographs of old wartime airfields and aircraft wrecks that he took about this time, I wish that he would show some of them on Flickr or set up a website, as I know that there would be a lot of interest in them. I'll nag him again, when I next see him. lol
Stirling LJ628, 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF
Stirling LJ628, 1654 Heavy Conversion Unit RAF, crashed on the 21st July 1944 on Upper Commons Map reference SK 202 957
The Shorts Stirling bomber was relegated to a training roles due to its operational shortcomings caused by the original design specifications that a maximum wingspan of 100 feet was required in order for it to fit into aircraft hangers.
It was notoriously underpowered and difficult to get airborne. The Heavy Conversion Unit was used to train pilots converting from smaller single engine aircraft to multi-engine bombers.
At 10.05 am on the morning of the 21st July 1944 Flying Officer O’Leary, as flying instructor pushed the Stirling bomber along the runway at maximum speed before eventual take-off from Wigsley. Once they where at 10,000 feet F.O. Gardiner was given the feel of flying a four-engine bomber. They began practising flying with one engine stopped and then started a rated descent into cloud cover.
In the nose Bomb-Aimer, Jim Coulson had began familiarising himself with the layout and swung himself up into the front turret, looking around he saw cloud swirling around, he then began making notes in his book. Glancing up briefly, he could hardly believe his eyes, and yelled into the intercom “Pull up! Pull the flaming nose up Skipper!” Ground was flashing past a few feet beneath the aircraft. F.O. Gardiner took action immediately and pulled hard back on the control column, the Stirling reared up and ‘bellied’ on the moor. They were forty five miles east of where they thought they were.
The initial impact bounced the rear turret off the plane complete with Van Nierkirk in it. The Wings ripped off as the aircraft bumped across the moor. The fuselage had broken into several sections. Six of the men were able to scramble out of the escape hatches that had opened on impact, the two flight engineers were able to walk out of the open end of the fuselage. With eight men relatively un-scathed, the Squadron Leader noticed two men were missing and detailed some men to run back to the rear gun turret where they found Lennox van Nierkirk under the broken tail of the aircraft, badly injured but very much alive. They found Bomb Aimer, Jim Coulson, still trapped in the front gun turret, but were able to cut him free in around fifteen minutes. Both of the injured were wrapped in parachutes to keep them warm and they both recovered from their injuries, and eventually returned to their flying units. Remarkably all ten men survived this crash.
Crew list:-
Pilot, Flying Officer Gardiner.
Co-Pilot, Flying Officer O’Leary.
Navigator, Sergeant McDonald.
Bomb-Aimer, Sergeant Jim Coulson.
Wireless Operator, Sergeant Burroughs.
Rear Gunner, Lennox van Nierkirk.
Mid Upper Gunner, Sergeant Austin.
Flight Engineer, Sergeant John Gittings.
2nd Flight Engineer,(un-named)
Squadron Leader, (un-named)
Update: The largest pieces of the wreckage were removed from the moor in 2005 for the www.stirlingproject.co.uk/
Extract from: www.astrecks.co.uk/peakaircraftwrecks.htm#68251772