Intact Crashed Corsair

I'll ask Tim Jordan about this, he's researched and found a large number of Air force crash sites, he may know more about it from his research at the national archives.

Right, answers to this myth. Called John Regan today. He spent a lot of time searching & re-searching for this aircraft, including archives. The pilot did not hit a willow tree, he was at low level and suffered a prop strike. John's brother apparently searched alongside him and found a wing being used as part of a fence/gate.

No more of this aircraft was found. John searched the site which was difficult to access and no sign of the aircraft was found other than the wing at the reported sight, which itself was difficult to access.

Hope this puts some minds at ease if any were still searching. John has owned other warbird aircraft and is a respectable source.

Ryan

I love this story. I think most of us here like these stories of finding an old gem in a barn, and I personally would love to think that there's a Corsair at the bottom of a swamp just waiting to be found. Here's hoping one day maybe the legend will be proven true.

I agree 100% smithy,but sadly with no funds and a general lack of ambition around my house, i had to make sure i couldnt get it out. Good luck to all who may try still. It would be great if he could join, check out 'Classic Warbirds', a book he co wrote. Great pictures and info. Off to pursue other commitments now.
Ryan

My uncle told me on the weekend that for a period in the war he and Dad were banned from biking to school and to scout meetings, etc because so many aircraft were crashing in the Ardmore area and there was a genuine fear that kids on bikes would be hit on the road. It sounds far-fetched but I know that Dad, Nana and Uncle Allen have all told me seperately about the various crashes of Corsairs and Kittyhawks on their farm (across the road from the aerodrome and at the end of the main runway!). People these days just don't believe it, but they had several aircraft end up in their paddocks due to overshoots, one of whom tied to get out as he slid along on his [aircraft's] belly, opened the cockpit and then hit a stump and the canopy slammed shut and cut his hands off. One another grandad pulled a guy from a burning aircraft - now I've tried to research this and have found other farmers and locals did similar things too, and were awarded medals like the George Cross. He wasn't. I don't know why. Dad said the fire engines would scream across the airfield over the drains and strait through the wire fences chopping the No. 8 wire as it went with wire choppers in the front. He said then the ambulance and then the recovery vehicles, and he reckoned within 20 minutes usually the aeroplane would be on the back of a truck and gone and airmen would be fixing the fences and filling divets, and after a half hour it was back to normal usually.

Dad also said after the war, well after, like late 1940's, the army from papakura were crashing around some big swampy fields near the Papakura base that were covered in thick gorse and they were in bren carriers knocking it all down. He said they came across a perfectly good Corsair that had lain there since the war because it bellied in, the pilot walked out and the recovery vehicles couldn't get in to it. Someone removed the guns and ammo and it sat there till the army re-found it later. I think he said they blew it up and carried the bits out (typical army mentality!). Those swamps are all homes now so it's ain't still there sadly.

It seems to me, after reading this thread, that things are pretty confused. Either the informants are (a) Telling porkies, (b) embellishing their memories (c) mixing different stories, (d) confused or finally (e) there was more than one intact crashed Corsair left littering the South Auckland/North Waikato landscape.

Shorty, which bits don't you believe?

Slightly off topic, but don't forget that there is also an F4U-1 (NZ5517) and an F4U-1D (NZ5542?) that both went missing in NZ during the war - and are still unaccounted for. Although my guess is that it's likely that both of those aircraft ended up in the sea somewhere.

I recall sometime during the late-70s - early-80s a bloke found a piece of wreckage in a river somewhere on the West Coast, which he reckoned came from NZ5517, and if I recall correctly the RNZAF was going to have a close look at the piece of metal he found to see if they could identify it.

Of course, nothing ever came of this...............and I believe it may have in fact been identified as wreckage from a Hillier helicopter that had crashed nearby in the early-70s?

There have also been reports of people having seen what appeared to be sunlight reflecting off metal on a mountainside up around Buller, but I don't think anyone has ever managed to pinpoint the exact location. I think one person believed it could be coming from Hood and Moncrieff's aircraft - but now I'm really wandering off topic......

By the way, isn't there a piece about P.O. Shepherd's incident in either Bryan Cox's "Pacific Scrapbook" or Alex Horn's "Wings Over the Pacific"?

I have a copy of "Wreckage Case Study NZ5517" from the RNZAF Flight Safety Officer which runs out to 10 pages and includes copies of affadavits , Police reports and a copy of the report from the Senior Flying Control Officer, Rongotai to Air Department on the search.
They should covered a lot of territory and makes interesting reading. Most of the searching was done by a DH-89B which spent 8 hours and 35 minutes over the search area over two days (27th and 28th November) . What does confuse me is that this memo is dated 7 Dec 1945.
Unless it was a typo and should have been 1944 which would make much more sense.