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By: - 7th December 2015 at 10:21 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I suspect a number were thrown off carriers into the sea.
By: - 7th December 2015 at 10:51 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I believe that a number of Lend-Lease Aircraft were scrapped at Stretton (HMS Blackcap)
By: - 7th December 2015 at 11:24 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Most of the Corsairs would have been operating with the British Pacific Fleet by war's end, so were on the carriers around Japan, or perhaps in Sydney where the fleet was based. It's well known that hundreds of the fleet's aircraft were pushed into the sea off Australia postwar. That included Corsairs and Avengers. Some Corsair remains were recovered some years back from the sea too.
By: - 7th December 2015 at 13:00 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Large numbers were gathered at HMS Jackdaw near Crail, Fife. Most of these were flown to HMS Sanderling (now Glasgow International Airport) to be scrapped. I've seen an aerial photograph of HMS Jackdaw taken in 1946 with the airfield packed with aircraft of various types. It's available on the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments in Scotland website.
By: - 7th December 2015 at 14:04 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Not the answer to the question but I knew a guy who had been an FAA pilot flying Grumman Wildcat's during the war, he said after the war ended they were all dumped at sea along with everything else, spares etc, that must have accounted for quite a bit of gear
By: - 7th December 2015 at 15:10 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Hi Rob,
Your inbox is full so I'll respond to your query here.
No, sadly, I cannot offer any history for the Corsair lever other than it came from a well known North-western repositary of aviation scrap, in the early 1980s.
This wasn't some small scale Steptoe and Son operation where the proprietors might just have recalled where one particular item came from, it was a large company and seems to have obtained scrap from all over.
The only crumb of comfort is that the lever probably was attached to a scrap Corsair at one time, by which I mean I never saw any sign of scrapping of brand new, boxed spares. Many of the columns, levers, pedals and yokes that we rescued still had bits of airframe attached, bearing the evidence of having being hacked out of the aeroplane and chucked on the pile.
And what a pile it was, I wish I could find another like it!
By: - 7th December 2015 at 15:13 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thanks for the replies so far. My reason for asking is I have acquired an item from an early Corsair cockpit and it clearly has 'wear' from operations, so I'm thinking it's more from a scrapping or was an unserviceable part rather than a discarded new stock item. It also pretty much discounts those dumped overboard at sea.
The Stretton connection is plausible as is the HMS Sanderling one. And I'd love to know if there are any other Corsair parts surviving from similar circumstances and where they came from (im aware of the FAA museums complete KD431).
Rob
Edit... Cheers Alan, just seen your post. Inbox is now clear!
By: - 7th December 2015 at 16:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
When I was serving at RAF Ballykelly there were a number of Corsair wrecks to be seen at low tides, so clearly dumped.
By: - 7th December 2015 at 17:24 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I was told they were in crates and then taken to a desert Island for burial
By: - 7th December 2015 at 18:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Not.....Treasure Island?
Sorry Hat. coat. shovel.
mmitch.
By: - 8th December 2015 at 16:57 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Was it not the case that lend lease aircraft had to be paid for if they survived the war, thus many were dumped at sea as this could be classified as war damage / lost and written off ?
By: - 8th December 2015 at 17:08 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Was it not the case that lend lease aircraft had to be paid for if they survived the war, thus many were dumped at sea as this could be classified as war damage / lost and written off ?
I think payment was only required if you wanted to keep and operate a lend lease aircraft. Presumably this is what happened with the Harvards and Dakota's the RAF used postwar.
Richard
By: - 8th December 2015 at 19:25 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
When I was serving at RAF Ballykelly there were a number of Corsair wrecks to be seen at low tides, so clearly dumped.
More likely written off in service rather than dumped. Chances are that the wreckage is/was on soft ground or mud and difficult to recover, which is why the wrecks were visible.
By: - 8th December 2015 at 21:12 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I don't have a copy myself but I'm wondering if the Air Britain book 'Fleet Air Arm Aircraft 1939 - 45' might list any Corsairs that were scrapped in the UK?!
Rob
By: - 8th December 2015 at 22:53 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Nothing in my copy (1995).
By: - 9th December 2015 at 08:07 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thanks for looking anyway, snafu.
I notice that in the service history of the FAAM Corsair KD431 there is an apparent gap of some seven months between its last known deck landing and it going to Cranfield. Were Corsairs held in storage somewhere in the UK upon leaving the FAA or does this gap only apply to KD431, with others being returned to the US almost immediately following their withdrawal. Or did a couple of others get held back for possible similar uses but were subsequently scrapped sometime later?!
Rob
By: - 9th December 2015 at 14:16 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
wf: Blackburn/Sherburn-in-Elmet was Corsair Sister Firm, handling Heavy repairs there and by Working Party. So maybe thence...
CAD #13:The Lend/Lease Settlement was led in UK by Maynard Keynes and was subsumed into the 7/46 Reconstruction Loan (that we extinguished in 2005). For combat types US either required (us and other recipients, though USSR did not answer the phone) to convey them to Oberpfaffenhofen, Munich (and to sites in Cairo and India)...or not, and wrote them off as is, where is. We could only have kept them going by cannibalisation for spares (no $ in UK). In practice we could not man them, so most were rapidly junked. P.Butler/Arsenal presumes that ditching was at BuAer's specific requirement - it cost money and danger, and lost any scrap yield.
US placed notional value on types of civil potential; UK chose to "buy", within the net process of L/L Settlement: 672 C-47, 18 transport B-25, 25 C-45 (P.Butler,p.39); US agreed UK could utilise "an agreed number" of Harvards (and did so to 1957...except for 1 still active at Boscombe).
Other Users - like France - found ways of sustaining US combat types, including Foreign Military Sales acquisitions at not-to-be-repeated prices. For a while US was less flexible with UK, seen as oozing with $ from GIs. So we abandoned F-51s etc, until that nice Mr.Stalin woke us all up, and Mutual Defense Assistance flowed from 2/50.
By: - 9th December 2015 at 16:06 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Interesting, never knew that Blackburns had anything to do with the Corsair, thanks for the input alertken.
So, judging by that information although it's not Corsair specific, "In practice we could not man them, so most were rapidly junked. P.Butler/Arsenal presumes that ditching was at BuAer's specific requirement - it cost money and danger, and lost any scrap yield".
So, if I've got this right, ditching only took place as a specific requirement, failing that aircraft or aircraft types were scrapped?
Therefore the question regarding the Corsairs is - where?
Rob
By: - 9th December 2015 at 17:48 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Hi Rob,
According to the book "The Blackburn - Dumbarton's Aircraft Factory" by Alan M Sherry, Blackburn were asked to set up modification and repair units because of their experience with carrier borne aircraft. They set up six sites. Three around Brough and the others at Prestwick, Abbotsinch and Renfrew (all run by the Dumbarton factory with staff transferred from there) handling Martlet, Hellcat, Avenger and Corsair. The book doesn't give a breakdown of the numbers unfortunately but it does state that a total of 4,000 mods and repairs were carried out by the three Dumbarton-run sites.
By: - 9th December 2015 at 18:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
When I was serving at RAF Ballykelly there were a number of Corsair wrecks to be seen at low tides, so clearly dumped.
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By: Wyvernfan - 7th December 2015 at 09:56
After their withdrawal from use at the end of WW2 were all lend lease Fleet Air Arm Corsairs returned to the US or were some scrapped in the UK?
If yes to the second part then where did the scrapping take place?
Rob