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picture to enlarge
£25
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Vickers Varsity
Airframe Part 1(pg3 air)
Here we have a Part of
Airframe From the Vickers Varsity
This has Part Number
6483347
The
Varsity was developed by Vickers and based on the Viking and
Valetta to meet Air Ministry Specification T.13/48 for a
twin-engine training aircraft to replace the Wellington T10
and the Valetta T3 and T4. The main differences were the
wider-span wings, longer fuselage and tricycle
undercarriage. There was also a ventral pannier to allow a
trainee bomb aimer to lie in a prone position and a bomb bay
with a capacity for 24 x 25lb smoke & flash bombs. The
prototype first flew from Wisley on 17 July 1949.
Vickers Varsity
|
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pictures to enlarge them
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pictures to enlarge them
It carries an Avro
inspectors stamp. R3 680. seen above. |
Avro Lancaster Rudder (pg1 relics
) Here is a substantial piece of a
Lancaster . It forms part of the rudder on the tail, It measures
2m by 0.7m at its widest point. Looking from the front of the
aircraft it is the RHS rudder.
It was recovered from IJsselmeer,
former Zuyderzee in the Netherlands and was purchased by us on a
recent buying trip to Holland..
Although
still known as the Zuiderzee to the crews, this large inner sea
in fact became the IJsselmeer when the Afsluitdijk dyke was
finished in 1933. The dyke became a familiar pinpoint to the
bomber crews. Having done some research it seems many Lancasters
met their fate over the Zuyderzee/ IJsselmeer here is a record
of one such loss.
Aircraft
Type: Lancaster
Serial number: ED 357
Radio call sign: PH – S
Unit: ATTD 12 SQN RAF
Summary:
Lancaster ED357 took off from RAF Wickenby at 2240 hours on the
night of 11/12th
June 1943 to bomb Dusseldorf, Germany. Nothing was heard from
the aircraft after take
off and it failed to return to base.
Crew:
RAAF 409256 Flt Sgt D McN Thomson, Captain (Pilot)
RAF Sgt J L Osborne, (Flight Engineer)
RAF Sgt K Bowes, (Navigator)
RAF Sgt W M Ward, (Bomb Aimer)
RAF Sgt D N Campbell; (Wireless Air Gunner)
RCAF Sgt W T Pingle, (Mid Upper Gunner)
RCAF Sgt C W A Sparling (Rear Gunner)
It was later established that the aircraft
crashed into the Ijsselmeer in an area known as
the Oosteelijk-Flevoland polder, near Dronten, Netherlands.
Five of the crew were killed and Sgt Pingle and Sparling were
POW’s.
Sgt Sparling later stated “ The aircraft was shot down over the
Zuyder Zee and the crew
baled out into the water. I heard the crew calling for help
during the night and when I was
picked up the next morning there was no trace of the others. As
far as I can ascertain
Thompson must have been drowned. A 3 hours search found no
trace.”
Flt Sgt Thomson and Sgt’s Osborne, Ward and Campbell are buried
in the Amsterdam
Bew Eastern cemetery, Locality Noordr-Holland, Netherlands. The
cemetery is in the
south-eastern district of Amsterdam in Kruislaan, a road in the
Wsatergraafsmeer area of
the city.
Sgt Bowes has no known grave and his name is commemorated on the
Memorial to the
Missing, Runnymede, Surrey, UK
A propeller from the aircraft now stands in front of the town
hall at Dronten, where an
Air Gunners parade is held each year.
Shown under the the left
tail; plane and rudder but the construction is visable.
Find this and other
Lancaster panels in the
relics section |
