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By: 20th September 2019 at 19:13 Permalink
-There used to be a small USAAF museum by the lake years ago. Don't know if it survives still after they built the holiday cabins there?
By: 20th September 2019 at 21:50 Permalink
-I remember that museum from my childhood (I lived just down the road at Haddiscoe). Long gone. I'd be interested to know what happened to the parts. From memory divers jumped in off the jetty after loads of research and the wing was laying there in full view.
Fritton Lake was used for the highly secret testing of Duplex Drive tanks (one is in the lake still and a filled-in escape chamber with the top half of a tank is allegedly somewhere on site (Somerleyton estate) and there were also Auxiliary troops stationed in the woods there.
By: 21st September 2019 at 08:14 Permalink
-Fritton Lake is no longer open to the public as far as I know, so I guess further searches will be unlikely?
By: 21st September 2019 at 10:57 Permalink
-I think the engine cowling from one of these P47's is on display at Flixton. It still has the nose art if I recall correctly.
By: 22nd September 2019 at 09:53 Permalink
-Recovery by RAF Coltishall sub aqua club. see https://forum.keypublishing.com/forum/historic-aviation/141728-any-salvagable-wreck-s-left-in-the-uk-s-lake-s
By: 22nd September 2019 at 18:10 Permalink - Edited 23rd September 2019 at 11:24
-Found them at Flixton. 2 modified prop blades, two panels. Will put photos up soonish
By: 23rd September 2019 at 11:45 Permalink
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By: 23rd September 2019 at 22:41 Permalink - Edited 23rd September 2019 at 22:42
-Isn't that the "dig" where they were just about to give up on finding the engine when a diver accidentally sat on it!
Lots of display captions contain information which is absolute tosh - and the one, above, about the blades is one of them!
Anon.
By: 24th September 2019 at 22:56 Permalink
-There must be other parts stored elsewhere, I have seen pics taken by RAF Coltishall photo section of a verey pistol and a large wing section with panels open. Vis was poor with most of the search by hand. Quite likely there are smaller parts sill in the silt.
By: 25th September 2019 at 12:51 Permalink
-There could be some other small parts in the display elsewhere. It's one of those proper museums where there's just a billion pieces of junk, artefacts, treasure and trash with matching stories, tales and histories. I was massively engaged and was in there for a few hours - and will head back again soonish. Far more pleasurable than the big interactive modern museums, I absolutely loved it.
It's all crap visibility around here, I've been in the sea and seen no more than the inside of my mask (carried on for ten minutes as I was wet anyway).
Took my mate just off the beach one time to show him a substantial piece of wreckage, we couldn't find it and tried again at the end of the dive just before surfacing - low water springs so about 1.5m depth when I signalled to surface and stood up. He was quite a bit taller once we had, but is usually shorter so when he asked where the wreck was I told him to hang on, bobbed down, and the height difference was explained as he was standing on it.
I'd be interested to know more about the divers recovery as it's a long time since I read about it in flypast.
By: 25th September 2019 at 14:41 Permalink
-To my mind Flixton and Thorpe Abbotts are a prime example of differing collecting policies - TA are very focused on their airfield and resident units, Flixton collect EVERYTHING! Both are great Museums but to my mind (and I say this as person what helps run a Museum) TA is the best small aviation museum in the country - closely followed by the Jet Age Museum. In fact worthy of a separate thread!
TT
By: 25th September 2019 at 20:35 Permalink
-Bizarrely I've never been to Thorpe Abbots.though I've passed it a million times. Best I correct that. Flixton I first went to around 35 years ago I'd guess, last time probably over 10.
Posts: 2,172
By: CeBro - 20th September 2019 at 15:49
Hi all,
In the book by Ian McLachlan "Final Flights" there is a chapter about the two P-47's that collided and both fell down into Fitton Lake. Many items were recovered but mostly from one aircraft.
Does anyone know if the investigation is still ongoing?
Cheers
Cees