Stirling Bomber Wreck

[Phil Lloyd]

I was in Worthing recently enjoying the Summer sun with my wife and kids and stumbled upon a piece of interesting Short Stirling information.

Along the seafont was a temporary exhibition of maritime artefacts and one of the display panels showed a Stirling Bomber. I scribbled down what it said...

...'Found in 1970, this bomber was lying on it's back with its wheels down at 50 46 21 N;00 14 00 W. The divers found her when recovering a trawl which had caught on the aircraft. The Stirling, a Mark III from 76 Squadron was returning from a raid on Frankfurt and ditched offshore. A Supermarine Walrus floatplane picked up the crew and dropped them of at Worthing Pier'...

Along with the Goodwin Sands Dornier recovery it would be great to see this one raised to fill in the Bomber Command 'gap' at the RAFM. Back in May I spoke to a few ex-Stilring crew at a signing event for the Bomber Command Memorial and they had been campaigning to get a Russian built Stirling brought to England but as yet without success.

[rafcommands]

Hi,

76 Sqn flew Halifax. The aircraft was from No.75 Sqn, BF455 lost on 10-11/04/43.

"Stirling III BF455 captained by F/Sgt Rothschild was hit over the target by AA fire and also chased by enemy fighters.
This caused him to run short of petrol over the English Channel on the way home, and he eventually crash landed in the sea, 3 miles off Shoreham.
The wireless procedure had been perfect, and Spitfires escorted it from the French coast and a Walrus flying boat was waiting for it to crash land.
Dinghy drill was perfect and all the crew got in safely after an immaculate landing - the Stirling floating for 25 minutes.
The final scene was enacted in the Channel as the Walrus collided with the dinghy and dropped all the crew in the sea. No ill-effects except for Sgt Grainger, the flight engineer, who suffered from shock."
AIR27/646

Regards
Ross

[Phil Lloyd]

Great info Ross. No wonder I couldn't find anything else about this a/c, I was searching for 76 Sqn! :-)