lost bomber

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MYSTERY OF THE LOST BOMBER

By Chris Brooke
Daily Mail, Saturday March 29th 1997

There was no warning. Not even time to scream or whisper a final prayer. One moment the mighty Lancaster bomber was soaring above the Peak District, the next it had smashed into moorland - exploded in flames, splintering into a thousand pieces.

Ironically, pilot Anthony 'Sonny' Clifford and the crew of the plane they cheekily named 'Vicky The Vicious Virgin' had survived countless raids over
Nazi Germany during three years of action.

A few weeks earlier they had returned safely from their final mission
targeting Hitler's Eagles Nest at Berchesgarten, and now victory in Europe
had been officially declared.

Their spirits high from the intoxicating euphoria of peace the young Canadian Air Force fliers took an unscheduled detour to break the boredom of a training exercise. Without his full-time navigator, Captain Clifford - a seasoned veteran at 21 years of age - became lost after buzzing Manchester and reduced altitude to catch sight of a landmark. Like many other, before and after, he failed to see the infamous 'Dark Peak' - shrouded in cloud and camouflaged by dark
gorse.

The date was May 18, 1945, and tragically six young men lost their lives on the desolate hill top.

Now move forward 52 years to March 1997. Again it's 10pm at night. A few miles from the crash site a couple out driving to see the 'Hale-Bopp' comet suddenly notice a strange plane flying very low, as if about to crash into the ground. Not very far away a farmer ducks instinctively as the silent aircraft flies above him. Moments later a gamekeeper and his wife dash outside after hearing an explosion, they see a plume of smoke and an orange flash in the
sky.

With several independent witnesses reporting matching stories, a full-scale rescue is launched. It involves two search helicopters, 141 mountain rescue men, 100 police officers and tracker dogs.

After 15 hours no wreckage is found and no aircraft is reported missing.

The moors have produced another baffling mystery.

But by nightfall talk in the pubs of Bolderstone and surrounding villages is turning to one possible explanation - the 'ghostly bomber' has returned to
haunt the sky again.

Ridiculous as it may sound, there have been numerous stories and alleged sightings of ghost planes and spirits of their crew appearing in this 50 square mile area of rugged moorland between Sheffield and Manchester.

True there is no solid evidence or proof to back up such fanciful tales, but many are convinced of their truth. Certainly, this stark area of barren moorland is an eerie place. In the black of night, the whistling wind sends pulses racing and fires the imagination.

In October 1982, David and Helen Shaw were returning home from a visit to relatives and pulled up by the side of Ladybowere Reservoir on a bright moonlit night for a breath of fresh air.

"I was just turning away from the reservoir when out of the corner of my eye, I caught sight of something flying over the water towards me," said Mr Shaw. His wife, spotting the object asked; is that a hang-glider?"

Then it turned and was just 400 yards away - suddenly visible in all its glory. "Just then there was a sudden burst of moonlight and I realized we were looking at a World War II Lancaster bomber," he said

A number of other hikers and walkers have claimed over the years to have seen a similar silent flying Lancaster.

But there is also evidence of at least one other ghost plane - thought to be that of a U.S. Airforce Dakota which crashed on the same hill less than 100 yards from the Lancaster.

Once again the pilot dropped altitude after becoming lost and failed to see the dangerous peak in his path. Just two months after the Lancaster was lost, on July 24, 1946, Flight Lieutenant George Johnson ignored advice to avoid bad weather and take a diversion towards the coast during a routine supply trip from Leicester to Scotland. He paid the ultimate price.

The pilot and his five-man crew died in the crash, along with two passengers
(one an RAF officer). But like the Lancaster, the spirit of the Dakota is said to haunt the skies.

Almost exactly two years ago postman Tom Ingle, 53, was out walking his golden retriever Ben near a caravan site when he claims to have seen the Dakota fly overhead. The plain was desperately struggling for height just 60ft above the ground. As the aircraft banked, Mr Ingle was convinced it had crashed into an adjoining field. He raced to the scene and was staggered to find a peaceful scene of grazing sheep.

Yesterday Mr Ingle said "It is fascinating to hear of the latest reports. I don't believe in ghosts and I have racked my brains for a logical explanation but I can't find one. "The strange thing about my experiences is that, although I could see the propellers going round, there was just an eerie silence." Mr Ingle, who is returning to the same campsite this weekend, added: "To this day my dog Ben refuses to go up that lane".

Other local people who heard about Mr Ingle's experience later came forward to recount similar close encounters. Another hill walker, John O'Niel, claimed to have seen the Dakota flying very slowly at 600ft.

"What struck me was the very slow speed at which it was travelling, it seemed almost stationary. I carried on walking and a few seconds later looked across in the direction it was flying; expecting to see it just disappear over the low hills towards Mayfield Valley. There was no sign of the plane."

Another local couple, Steve and Barbara Morgan, recalled the time when they saw a "big old grey war plane", heading towards the hillside. "We were just waiting for the bang, but heard nothing, they wrote an account of the sighting. Aviation historian Ron Collier has spent the past 30 years of his life studying the crash sites - he has identified 55 on the Dark Peak and written tow books on the subject. His research has shown a majority of the wartime accidents were caused by human error, with inexperienced pilots of 18 or 19 losing their way in bad weather that often shrouds the peaks.

"I do not believe these ghost plane stories. It's typical of a night-time phenomenon where things go bang in the night and they get blown out of all proportion. "All I know is that there is a force that acts around us in this particular area. And I do accept there is a spirit world which we come across from time to time", he said. He does, however take seriously the occasion when his hill walking-friend and fellow crash investigator Gerald Scarratt encountered the 'ghost' of Captain Landon P. Tanner, the pilot of a U.S. 'Super Fortress' that crashed killing 13 during a routine flight on November, 3, 1948. During the mid-eighties Mr Scarratt was up on the 2,000ft high shelf, near James Thorn, showing a group of aircraft archaeologists the crash site. It was a typical misty day. The visitors suddenly spotted a man in flying gear standing behind Mr Scarratt, and they asked who he was. The hill-walker turned round and no one was there. Then Mr Collier recounts the occasion, just two weeks ago, when a woman of 35 knocked on his door seeking information about a fourth crash in which a Canadian Wellington Bomber with five men on board came down in bad weather in February 1943. "She said she had seen five airmen walking around the Hope Valley and went
into great detail about how their plane had lost power and died when it crashed into a stone wall as it landed," said Mr Collier. "Everything she said tied in with my research." Mariafrance Tattersfield, a former special constable and one of this week's 'witnesses' to the 'crashing plane' appears to be a sensible level headed woman. Yet days later she still cannot explain what she saw. "I couldn't hear the plane and it was some distance away towards the moor.

But I could definitely see an aircraft. It was flying very low as if to come into land and then disappeared behind some trees. It's mind-boggling. What I saw was not a ghost. It was a plane." Mr Collier is also baffled. Any business or commercial flight would have been logged on record, while it would have been a recipe for disaster to fly in that area at that time of night, in a small private aircraft," he insists. I cannot give a logical explanation. But Phil Shaw, the Peak District mountain rescue controller, can. "I believe there was an aircraft, I am convinced of that. I don't think it was a ghost plane, it was probably someone in a light aircraft doing something illegal. If he knew the area like the back of his hand he could have
disappeared down a valley and vanished into the night. And so the mystery lives on.