RB-29A 44-61999

[VH-WAL]

A few years back when I was planning to walk the "Pennine Way" I bought a book listing aircraft crash sites in the UK with the intention of have a look at some whilst on the walk. As it turned out the days walks were plenty long enough without doing these extra diversions so I gave it a miss. Since then I have gone out on a few day trips and today retraced part of the Pennine Way and took the diversion to Shelf Moor Stones to practise some map reading and compass tracking, as it turned out the path I took actually went all the way to the wreck even though the map showed no trace of that path. So no need for compass other than checking.

Anyhow we found the wreckage and memorial (13 USAF aircrew died in the CFIT incident) Amongst the sorry scrap are 4 engines in various stages of stripping and souveniring, outer wing panel with some faint yellow paint remnants, turret mounts, undercarriage legs one wheel rim partial tyre and god knows what else. I was surprised by many metal panels being bright and shiny (though crumpled) still. most of the aluminium skin was well corroded. Also surprising was the weight of some of the smaller pieces of rib frames and other unidentified bits and pieces, do you recognise any bits?
Besides the official memorial there are many personal tributes strewn around the site, poppy wreaths, mini wooden crosses, stones laid out in cruciforms and heart shapes. Also pictured is my GPS track of the route taken (you dont think I was going to rely solely on map and compass do ya?)