There are hundreds of tales surrounding Dartmoor National Park and there's very little physical evidence for some of them. But that's also the case for 74 aircraft crashes which occurred within the national park’s boundaries from 1939 to 1966. At least, 74 particular incidents researched and documented by historian Graham Lewis.
There’s no mystery as to why very little remains of these tragic accidents for you to stumble across or explore. "67 Maintenance Unit, based at Taunton and one at St Eval, would go around to crashes and clear them up," said Mr Lewis.
He added: "Scrap was valuable for the war effort, 67 was the most productive unit in the whole UK and cleared the most tonnage, unfortunately for me."
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Mr Lewis was 11-years-old when his obsession for digging up aircrafts started. Through his hobby has found some ‘wonderful stuff’ in Devon and Cornwall, but says there’s not much left on Dartmoor. In 1992 Mr Lewis formed an aviation society, the group needed Ministry of Defence licences because even though relics have been underground for years, they still belong to the MOD.
Some of that ‘wonderful stuff’ he has unearthed can be seen at the RAF Davidstow Memorial Museum, including a flare gun from a fallen craft.
A near 30-year ‘dirt-under-fingers investigation’ into air crashes on Dartmoor resulted in a book containing those 74 incidents, in which 131 people died. A lot of these were caused by awful weather. Fog and mist drew planes into hidden hills.
There were thirteen airfields in the South West at the time. Plymouth had RAF Roborough, which became Plymouth City Airport, and RAF Harrowbeer, near Yelverton. Likely destinations or departure points for the downed planes.
Mr Lewis walked thousands of miles to compile his book, Wings over Dartmoor. We spoke for over an hour about some of the sites he’s seen near Plymouth.
The most recent example was on February 29 1956, Sergeant Donald Toogood was piloting a Boulton Paul Balliol. Following engine troubles, he entered clouds at roughly 7,000ft while attempting to make an emergency landing at RAF Roborough.
Sergeant Toogood did not bail out of the plane, which rapidly lost altitude before bursting into flames on impact with ground near Cadover Bridge. He was killed.
On September 12 1944, beside the clay works at Lee Moor, all seven crew were killed when a Short Stirling had a structural failure. The ‘massive bomber’ was on a training mission, and Mr Lewis had a hunch there may be remnants left behind.
He said: "I was there years ago to locate the site, and went over it with a deep seeking metal detector, the kind used for bombs. Most of it was still buried because when they tried getting it out, the clay was making it sink. They gave up.
"I wrote to the RAF about it and told them a lot was there, some crew were still missing. They’ve been recovered, as has the wreckage. We went back five years ago, the site where we got signals had been machined out and there was an oblong of fresh ground. Our metal detectors picked up nothing, and the RAF won’t say."
The biggest plane to come down on Harrowbeer was a Handley Page Halifax on February 28, 1943. Returning from St Nazaire, it experienced engine failure and tried getting into Plymouth after seeing the searchlights.
Also near Yelverton weeks earlier, on February 4, 1943, a Hawker Typhoon was taken for a spin by Officer ‘Killy’ Kilpatrick. The practice run reached 400mph when the plane’s tail broke off, a fairly common issue for that model.
He was thrown out of the craft, but pulled his parachute cord and managed to survive. In fact, Killy returned to the crash site in 1993 and was able to find some scraps from his wreckage. Astonishing, given nearly 50 years had passed.
On May 8, 1942, King George VI along with Queen Elizabeth were on a train bound for Exeter. They had been in Devonport the day before. Spitfire pilot Sergeant Oliver, a New Zealander, was one of those tasked with securing the journey.
Heavy rains that night meant the train was a safer place to be. He came down near Manaton, suffering awful injuries and was taken to Moretonhampstead hospital.
And way back in 1940, on January 18 in Yalland, a crew of five were on board an Avro Anson during a navigation exercise.
A terrible snow storm caused them to crash near Shipley Bridge. Pilot Officer Stevens, Sergeant Smith and Sergeant Chenery, along with Aircraftmen Heron and Wakely all perished. People on a nearby farm could hear this plane coming down, as well as the tremendous crash into the side of a hill.
Many years later, Mr Lewis returned to the site and managed to track down an eye-witness of this horrific happening.
He said: “It was the Hobbs family, one man was 12-years-old at the time and it was a night that he’d never forget. They were sat outside in the cold, around a blazing fire, when they heard a roar and a smash. Then, they went to look, and found all of these young lads spread out, dead. That one really struck a chord with me.
“The plane only took off in Swindon, it was a triangular course, they were meant to hit Plymouth and turn back. It just goes to show how the weather can deteriorate on the moors.”
You can read more details and plenty of other examples of fascinating stories in Mr Lewis' book, Wings over Dartmoor.
Thanks to Tim Sandles of Legendary Dartmoor for the recommendation.
