The Mustang and Wellington Plane Crashes
During the war years us kids used to go out to view the crashed planes and collect souvenirs if we could. Push biking out to Hareshaw Head late in the afternoon then walk over the moors to get a glimpse of the plane which was about a mile from the road and over some quite boggy ground we came across the aircraft only the tail was visible above ground as it had gone into a very boggy part of the moor and we were told it was a Mustang. Returning to our bikes after a bit of a hike over the moors it was good ride home again as it was all down hill to the village.
The next aircraft we visited was a Wellington Bomber which had come down over on the Mesling. So off we used to go on our Bikes over Dunterley fell to the Quarry where we left our Bikes and started hiking west ward after 2 or 3 miles we came across the wrecked plane down by the stream, you could see where the plane had hit the ground first and bounced over the stone wall which had never been touched then nose dived into the side of the stream. We saw plenty of 303 ammunition in belts scattered about also a small bomb which we later learnt was a marker bomb used to mark the position of enemy Submarines and gave off a stream of orange smoke if one was sighted on the surface while they were on their way home. A timer was set to release the smoke plume at the required time of arrival of our torpedo bombers to do their job. Souvenirs were collected bits of Perspex etc then off we’d head for home until the next afternoon and off we went again. This went on for a few afternoons it was fun.
We visited the range (Target) as we used to call it almost every Sunday while the Home Guard were doing firing practice. As they used to run a shooting competition with the .22 rifle over 25 yards winner take all to enter cost a tanner, we, my brother and I, used to hope they would ask us to enter and one day they did we were over joyed and paying our Tanner we entered. The end of the competition saw Sergeant Major Jackie Johnston and I left in the final. After shooting it out 3 times I won it on a ½” group and collected my prize.
Later they asked if we would like to join the home Guard. We did once we became 16 years old, I was to become a radio operator and had to learn the Morse code etc in the upstairs rooms of the Railway Hotel on Tuesday nights. Harry Glass was our Captain. We got uniforms issued and a.303 rifle plus a clip of 5 rounds of ammunition. Every Sunday was our Parade Day we were very proud of ourselves now we could shoot the bigger guns on the range.