Luftwaffe crash site Newcastleton scotland

[lmg1972]

HI Dave, Thanks for helping out as I was thinking that I may well have a hard job.Anyway I have a bit more info from the owner,The plane some sort of bomber crashed on a place in the village called Boghall hill in late May 1941 and two crew bailed out and were taken pow.I hope this may help??

[obdl3945]

Hi...

Is Boghall near Bishopton (Renfrewshire?) ?

The reason I ask is because I put some information into Google, including 'Boghall', and the one thing it threw out was a report by BAE Systems Environmental, Preliminary Risk Assessment for Land Contamination, Bishopton, which refers to the old munitions factory at Bishopton. It would make sense that the Luftwaffe would target such a facility. The report is 69 pages long, and for some reason I can't easily cut and paste, so the undernoted is an extract from same, page 42:

" 6.15.19 German air-dropped unexploded ordnance: Although there is evidence of aerial reconnaissance being carried out by Germany in the early years of WW2, the new factory escaped the heaviest bombing in the region that occurred in November 1940 and between March and May 1941.

A number of minor isolated raids affected villages and towns surrounding the Site, including Renfrew, Kilmacolm and Houston, and ICI's factory at Ardeer was badly damaged during bombing in July 1940.

The Site was affected by one such raid in October 1940. Six bombs were reported, all unexploded and subsequently dealt with by bomb disposal squads. Three 250kg High Explosive (HE) bombs were recovered from craters of between 2.5 and 5.5 metre depth. One unexploded HE fell on a building and caused minor damage. Two 250kg unexploded incendiary bombs also fell on o pen ground and failed to ignite. The exact locations of the bombs was not recorded.

The nearest other raid involved the dropping of 2 No. HEs on Halton (or Hatton) Farm to the north-west of Bishopton village.

Given that you're looking into an incident in 1941, might it be that the aircraft that came down was perhaps involved in the March to May 1941 operations? If memory serves me, the Clydeside Blitz was underway at that time, and it may be worthwhile for you, as has been suggested, to contact the local newspaper offices, and enquire about headlines and articles during those two months that could help you narrow down your field of enquiry. I'm not sure if any of the Glasgow newpapers would have carried the story... depends on how much interest it may have generated at the time, I suppose. The Clydeside Blitz, however, would have been covered, so that may be a good starting point.

Regards...

Paul

[Brian Bines]

Would it be JU88A1 VB+KM w.n. 615 of 2(F)/Ob.d. L which was shot down at 1430hrs by F/L DuVivier in a Hurrcane of 43 Sqd at 1430hrs. on 28th May 1941. Ff Uffz Herbert Niepol and Bf Uffz Josef Lindorfer baled out POW and B Ltn Fritz Gortan and Bs gef Heinrich Matthias killed. Crashed at Boghall Hill ,Riccarton, Kilmarnock.
NB old note so sorry if any spellings wrong.

Regards

Brian Bines