RAF Snaith Garden of Remembrance

[Tinkicker]

Thought some might find it interesting.  I posted it on another site and thought some may be interested here... Copy and paste job.

 

Apropos to this day.
I came across a long dormant old flickr account of mine and perused the pics.

There are some I took maybe 10 years ago of one of my local WW2 airfields. Yep I live in heavy bomber country and I could almost land a pellet from my superstar in two old airfields from my garden. Snaith and Burn.

East Yorkshire round here was the Halifax squadrons. Lincolnshire was Lancasters.

I have not mentioned this topic before, so I thought I would put up some pics. It is the best memorial I have ever seen on the site of an old airbase.
Every crew lost has a plaque and a brief note as to what happened.

Very moving and very interesting. Well worth a visit on a nice summer day if you live fairly close.

RAF Snaith memorial

Garden.

Propellor from a Snaith aircraft dredged up from the North Sea. It has been feathered and the impact damage indicates the engine was not providing power when the aircraft ditched.

Plaque.

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by Tinkicker

[Old-codger]

A very sobering read the last 3 plaques, I went to my local service and dispite the appalling weather there was a great turnout.

[curlylegend]

Round here they don't forget either.  A Lancaster was on a mission to try to do some damage to the nearby submarine pens at St Nazaire.  I was shot down with no survivors. Just a few years ago a farmer was ploughing an unused corner of his field when he unearthed remains of a WW2 bomber. A full excavation was carried out and so much information was gathered from it that when the monument was being consecrated the widow of one of the pilots was a guest of honour.  When you read the memorial it is truly sobering to see the average age of these kids.

Because of the St Nazaire submarine pens there were a lot of downed Allied planes near here, All of the recorded sites have an elegant well cared for memorial with a full list of the crew.

Yes, they're not forgotten here.  So much so that we now have an Rue de Lancaster in the village.

[Tinkicker]

On 12/11/2023 at 19:50, Old-codger said:

A very sobering read the last 3 plaques, I went to my local service and dispite the appalling weather there was a great turnout.

 

Indeed.  More so the one that crashed on landing at Snaith.

 

Notice it had an 8 man crew?  The extra being Pilot Officer DJ Hovell, listed as 2nd pilot.  British heavy bombers did not carry co pilots, but usually the flight engineer had enough training to get the aircraft back over friendly territory if the pilot was wounded.  Most skippers insisted on it.

 

It seems fairly certain that PO Hovell was flying as a supernumary pilot to gain a little experience.

 

It was very common for the newly minted skippers of a new crew that had not yet seen combat to fly a mission or two with an experienced crew to pick up some tips and tricks before they were put on readiness.

Often these missions were not counted towards their tour of operations as the crew wanted to start their tour together and finish together.