One of our Spitfires is no longer missing
Oct 8 2007 by Liam Murphy, Liverpool Daily Post
A WARTIME Spitfire which crashed in a Merseyside park was resurrected this weekend, 65 years after the accident.
Enthusiasts and historical experts have dug up parts of the plane which locals said caused “quite a bang” when it plummeted out of the Wirral skies on October 14, 1942.
About a quarter of the aircraft, including its complete Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, all the cockpit instrumentation, part of the pilot’s seat, and even the remains of the pilot’s sunglasses, have so far been recovered from an 18ft-deep hole at Birkenhead Park.
Among those watching the excavation was Arthur Aspey, one of the few remaining eye-witnesses to the crash, which the aircraft’s pilot miraculously survived.
“It was quite a nice day,” recalled Mr Aspey, who was a 13-year-old schoolboy playing in the park when he heard the plane’s engine and looked up to see it “nose down, right into the ground”.
“I was not quite at the site, but I saw it coming down and there was a bang,” he said.
Mr Aspey, now a 78-year-old retired electrician, lived close to the park and remembers Sgt Woodcock, one of the park’s police officers, keeping people away from the crash site.
He said: “It was all such a long time ago. I saw the crash and all the people running towards me. Sgt Woodcock wouldn’t let anyone near it.
“I was told that at the girls’ school nearby, one of the teachers thought it was a bomb and ordered all the children under their desks.”
The plane’s famous silhouette, with smooth contoured lines and oval wings, helped to lodge it firmly in the public mind as the most instantly recognisable aircraft of World War II.
It is understood the pilot of the Birkenhead Park Spitfire, Sgt Goudie of the Royal Canadian Air Force, bailed out after experiencing engine trouble.
He believed he had aimed his stricken aircraft at the Mersey but it carried on farther than expected, fortunately crashing into the park rather than any of the surrounding buildings.
The pilot landed on the roof of the maternity hospital in Liverpool. He died in 1975.
Last week saw the culmination of two years’ planning by the Warplane Wreck Investigation Group (WWIG).
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The organisation has had an established museum at Fort Perch Rock since 1977, with a collection which includes various items from many aircraft and 20-plus aircraft engines as part of the Blitz over Merseyside Exhibition.
WWIG member John Molyneux said: “The engine is in beautiful condition, with everything else compacted on top of the engine itself.”
The excavation was undertaken with the co-operation of Wirral council and the Merseyside Archaeology Office.
Recovered items will be cleaned up and eventually put on display at Fort Perch Rock and Birkenhead Park Pavilion, along with eye witness statements and photographs.
The WWIG has asked anyone else who witnessed the crash or has any information about it to contact them.
Information can be sent to: Curator, Warplane Wreck Investigation Group Museum, Fort Perch Rock, Marine Promenade, New Brighton, CH45 2JU. Tel 0797 628 2120 , or email
d.darroch@ntlworld.com
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