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Re: Dambusting Lanc

Posted by Richard Woods on Thu May 23, 2002 06:13:19 AM

In reply top Dambusting Lanc posted by simon king on Wed May 22, 2002 12:53:11 PM

Hi Simon,

It may just be a rumour, which could be why people start getting annoyed, but I've heard the story in several places.
Either way it's a good story.

We were up at the Dams for the 50th Anniversary, and got talking to this old guy when we were watching PA474 doing its runs over the dam. I have no idea who he was, or his name, to me he was just another person at a flypast with an interest in old aircraft.

We got talking about the Dams raid, and the practices, when he said,

"Do you know about the one in the reservoir?"

"No......

He went on to tell me that in one of the reservoirs up there, not the Ladybower, either Derwent or the top one, there is a Dambuster Lanc. Apparently it crashed during training, about a week or so before the raid. The MOD didn't do anything about it because they were worried as to who would be watching if they dredged it up off the bottom...

I didn't believe it either, so when I got home I got my Lanc records out. The aircraft, should it exist would have come from the EDxxx batch, I think it was 400 aircraft. The problem was when I counted the serials of this batch there were 398 serial numbers - so where the hell did they go?

There was one of the local newspapers doing a story about a new book on ghosts in the Peak District. I can't remember the title of the book but I remember they mentioned a ghost Lancaster. They said it was the ghost of one of the Dambusters which crashed in the reservoir during training, and on the night of the raid, if it is moonlit, you can see it rise up out of the reservoir and make its way eastwards, to try and make it where fate stopped it from going.

I think the paper was either the Sheffield Star or the Derbyshire Times. There was a bit in there about a couple who supposedly saw it. I can say it is well spooky up near the Dams at night time, and it wouldn't require too much of an overactive imagination to see a Lanc over it. When I was at RAF Syerston with the cadets one night I was half expecting to see a shot-up Lanc join the cicuit. It's that kind of wierd feeling you get as though there's something there but you can't quite see it; same as when PA474 is approaching in the distance at an airshow, and everything goes quiet.

The other bloke who told me the same story was a Peak Park Ranger, when I was up at the Lanc crash on the Snake Pass (A57) and his story was the same.

Makes you wonder whether the divers who were working on the dam a few years ago found anything.

I guess I'll have to keep my resolution and go up there one year on the anniversary. If I see it rise out of the lake I'll have a pretty well defined search area.

Cheers
Richard

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