Embedded Files
A Wellington bomber in flight
Last April (2013) the owner of the Quesnel farm near OUTREBOIS, discovered a propeller hub during work on his property. He then called one of the members of the Somme Aviation 39-45 Association and informed him of his discovery. After a quick consultation of our archives, it is obvious that this propeller hub belonged to a British bomber, which fell during the night of 8 to 9 April 1943. This aircraft was a Wellington Mk III belonging to 166 Squadron of the Royal Air Force.
Enlargement of the article opposite which appeared in March 2013 in the Courrier Picard
The hub after a first cleaning
The renovated and coated hub
The aircraft
The fuselage was constructed from grooved duralumin beams forming a large lace. To form the outer shell of the aircraft, wooden strips were attached to the surface of the aluminium and then the whole was covered with 'Irish textile', which was in turn covered with many layers of coating. It was this metal braiding that gave the aircraft its great strength. Even if the side beams were torn off, the structure of the plane remained intact. Wellingtons with badly damaged fuselages returned to base unlike other types of aircraft.
The Wellingtons of Bomber Command flew 47,409 missions, dropped 41,823 tons of bombs and 1,332 of them were lost.
Source photo Imperial War Museum
General characteristics
Wickers-Wellington Mk III, twin-engined medium bomber, commissioned in 1938.
Two Bristol Hercules XI engines of 1500hp each.
Length: 19.68m
Height: 5.33m
Weight : 8.417Kg empty 11.703Kg maximum load
Maximum speed : 410Km/h
Ceiling: 6.710m
During the night of 8 to 9 April 1943, operation on DUISBURG. 392 bombers (156 Lancaster, 97 Wellington, 73 Halifax, 56 Stirling and 10 Mosquito) are dispatched on this objective. 19 aircraft were lost during this mission.
One of them, the Wellington Mk III BK361 AS - F of 166 Squadron (RAF), got lost on its way back and drifted over northern France. The gauges indicate that the fuel level is very low. Fearing that they would not be able to cross the Channel, the radio sent out an S.O.S. and set the position at 50°30' N - 02°06' E. The crew parachuted out, but three of them were captured and ended the war in a camp. The navigator who is Canadian and speaks French manages to get help near Mézerolles, taken in charge by the Comète network, he crosses the Spanish border on May 10th 1943. The escaped machine-gunner at first will be caught in Perpignan.
The plane finishes its race and crashes near the farm of Quesnel in the S.W. of the village of OUTREBOIS (80)
THE CREW
Recently in September 2017, thanks to the magic of the internet, we received an email from George Barclay' s son Jim informing us that his father celebrated his 94th birthday on 2 May. We send George our best wishes from the association.
George Barclay
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse