Dark Peak Aircraft Wrecks: v. 2

This revised edition contains 26 stories about World War II airmen who came to grief on the Pennine Hills of North Derbyshire. Wartime aviation history is recorded in the crash sites, for each pile of rusting metal represents a chapter in the air war waged against Germany, from an early bombing raid to Europe by Hampdens of 83 Squadron, to every aspect of aircrew training, twin-engined Oxfords of Advanced Flying Units, Wellingtons of Operational Training Units, a Stirling from a Heavy Conversion Unit. Later Bomber Command operations are represented by the Halifax returning with one engine shot up - damage sustained over Frankfurt. A Spitfire on a training exercise running out of fuel and a night-fighter of a type disliked by its crews, abandoned and left to crash on the hills above Derwent, represent Fighter Command. American involvement is seen in the P47 Thunderbolt plucked out of the skies during a thunderstorm and a United States Navy PB4Y abandoned by its crew after being turned on a course that would take it over central England - its bomb-bays heavy with depth charges. Limited navigational aid, problems with radios, over-confidence, poor judgement, atrocious weather conditions, enemy action and cloud-covered high ground - all these factors played a part. Some of the best pilots and navigators came to grief in the Peak District and survived to tell the tale. This book, like its companion volume, tells their stories and, in doing so, offers a brief history of the air war from 1940 to 1945. The author has spent many years visiting the crash sites and examining wreckage, researching records and gleaning information from a wide variety of sources.