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Sad reminder from 70 years ago.

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Nigel Goodwin

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Been a walk this morning, up on the moors where I've never been before, purposely to visit this site - which is pretty tricky to find, but I pre-loaded my Garmin GPS with the co-ordinates. The B29 was called "The OverExposed", and crashed in November 1948 - even sadder the top of the hill is only 20-30 feet over the rise to the left, so it was a close thing. There's a fair bit of wreckage there, and some of it is still shiny, I was amazed to find the engines were 18 cylinder! - you can see them in the background.

A57_B29.jpg
 
Yes, sad to see. I tend to not like staying in places where people suffered horrible experiences.

Not intending to trivialize your post, I find the mint cake suggestion made here, kind of weird. :(

Warnings and disclaimer
If you are planning on visiting the site, the usual warnings about having the right kit and plenty of Kendal mint cake apply; map and compass and the ability to use them, waterproofs, good boots and so on. Low cloud makes for an atmospheric visit but it also increases the chances of getting lost. On Bleaklow that’s at best an inconvenient and frustrating experience and at worst a call out for Mountain Rescue. At the risk of sounding paternalistic, I’d advise those dressed for the pub and using a GPS app on their phone against it. It is nearly always wet and boggy. One of the biggest risks is in walking along the paved sections when they are iced up. The details below are accurate as of January 2016 but do not constitute professional guidance, so of course you use them at your own risk.
 
Kendal mint cake is virtually unknown in the US. I've seen it in one R.E.I. store years ago but I'm sure it was only there out of traditionalist sentiment. The modern equivalent would be trail mix, power bars and beef jerky. I'm sure the author of that guide was just trying to provide useful information in a slightly light-hearted way.
 
I believe that Kendal Mint Cake is a favourite with the hill walking people as a quick energy boost.
I have never had any myself.

Kendal is a town in the English Lake District, an area very popular with hill walkers etc.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kendal_Mint_Cake


JimB
 
I find the mint cake suggestion made here, kind of weird. :(

That's because you presumably don't know what it is?.

It's basically a survival food, used for decades in expeditions all round the world - it's name comes from the town of Kendal in Northern England where it's made.

Essentially it's a big bar of sugar, so not terribly healthy, but high in energy and good for keeping people alive. Today was fairly decent weather, and I have hand-held GPS, but even though the site was only a 2.5 mile walk from the road it would be easy to die up there if unprepared. And no, I didn't have any Kendal Mint Cake with me :D
 
Been a walk this morning, up on the moors where I've never been before, purposely to visit this site - which is pretty tricky to find, but I pre-loaded my Garmin GPS with the co-ordinates. The B29 was called "The OverExposed", and crashed in November 1948 - even sadder the top of the hill is only 20-30 feet over the rise to the left, so it was a close thing. There's a fair bit of wreckage there, and some of it is still shiny, I was amazed to find the engines were 18 cylinder! - you can see them in the background.

In the winter around christmas time my family flies down to the south west US region to travel around for abut two weeks and we make a point to visit the old largely long forgotten ghost towns and such places, so seeing this fits right up my ally. :cool:

We did Jerome Aizona two years ago and it was fascinating!

http://azjerome.com/jerome

Well worth playing a good long day or several visit for anyone who ends up in that area someday!

Also, last year we went to Rhyolite Nevada for a bit.

http://www.google.com/search?q=rhyo...hrome.1.0l6.1540j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

There's not much left of Rhyolite Nv but some buildings and a few abandoned shaft mines you can look around in but it was still interesting.

The old buildings are neat but the damn nanny state protectionists have boarded up and fenced off pretty much everything of greatest interest to where the place is too locked down to be as interesting as it used to be.:mad:

Still its a place a person could burn up half a day or more hiking around if they wanted.:cool:
 
...
We did Jerome Aizona two years ago and it was fascinating!

http://azjerome.com/jerome

Well worth playing a good long day or several visit for anyone who ends up in that area someday!
...

I live about 40mi from Jerome, and drive through it several times a year, or fly over it on the way to Cottonwood, AZ, where I buy most of my aircraft fuel.
 
I live about 40mi from Jerome, and drive through it several times a year, or fly over it on the way to Cottonwood, AZ, where I buy most of my aircraft fuel.

I found the rather colorful old school hippies that were there keeping the town going rather enjoyable too. :cool:

The Gold King Mine collection of antique mining and like machinery just up the hill from Jerome was well worth a revisit as well! :woot:

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/gold-king-mine-ghost-town
 
In the winter around christmas time my family flies down to the south west US region to travel around for abut two weeks and we make a point to visit the old largely long forgotten ghost towns and such places, so seeing this fits right up my ally. :cool:

We did Jerome Aizona two years ago and it was fascinating!

http://azjerome.com/jerome

Well worth playing a good long day or several visit for anyone who ends up in that area someday!

Also, last year we went to Rhyolite Nevada for a bit.

http://www.google.com/search?q=rhyo...hrome.1.0l6.1540j0j4&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

There's not much left of Rhyolite Nv but some buildings and a few abandoned shaft mines you can look around in but it was still interesting.

The old buildings are neat but the damn nanny state protectionists have boarded up and fenced off pretty much everything of greatest interest to where the place is too locked down to be as interesting as it used to be.:mad:

Still its a place a person could burn up half a day or more hiking around if they wanted.:cool:


I think the nearest "abandoned" equivalents in England are places such as Cheddar Gorge and Creswell Crags - the remains of stone-age cave dwellings..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gough's_Cave
http://www.stone-circles.org.uk/stone/creswellcrags.htm

There again, we do have buildings anything up to 1000 years old that are still in use..
 
I was serving in Libya, Tripoli in 1958, courtesy of HRH, when the U.S. bomber USAAF B-24D Liberator 'Lady Be Good' was found in the libyan desert by British Petroleum.
The 1943 crew thought they were going down in the Mediterranean.
I remember them finding the bodies and the coffee flasks that those that found them claimed the coffee was still drinkable!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lady_Be_Good_(aircraft)
Max.
 
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how soon people forget that not very long ago the freedom and liberty we enjoy today came very close to being wiped out by totalitarian governments run amok. people forget what it took to remove those governments from power. it took total commitment of personnel, industrial production, and technological innovation to win that war. there were a lot of guys who took off in those B-17s, B-24s, Lancasters, and Mosquitoes that never came home...

on my "to-do" list are:
visit Pearl Harbor
visit Normandy
visit the Jeremiah O'brian liberty ship
visit one of the WWII aircraft carrier museum ships
visit the Aberdeen Artillery and Tank museum

there are more, including some of the cold war museums (missile silos, Hanford Reactor, etc...).
 
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There is nothing more sobering that standing in the Libyan dessert at a war graves cemetery and seeing the crosses seemingly go on to the horizon.
If you were were interred there aged about 30, you among the old men.
Max.
 
There is nothing more sobering that standing in the Libyan dessert at a war graves cemetery and seeing the crosses seemingly go on to the horizon.
If you were were interred there aged about 30, you among the old men.
Max.

Last year, while in the Netherlands, we visited the Canadian War Cemetery, here's a picture of one small corner of it - it's beautifully looked after, and in the middle of a forest. We didn't get to see much of it, as at the time there was a film crew making a video about it.

Canadian.jpg
 
I am not sure if Canada is included, my first guess says it should be, but these things are maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Identical headstones anywhere in the world, made I think from Portland stone.

Some years ago I was on a helicopter landing at a place called Labuan (Part of Malaysia), as we turned to land we passed over a cemetery which was very obviously a CWG site and very well tended.

The engineer in me always asks:
"Who made those headstones?"
"Were they cut by hand or machine?" They are identical.
"How long did it take?" There are millions around the world.

JimB
 
Last year, while in the Netherlands, we visited the Canadian War Cemetery,

When I was in Libya the war graves commission had a local Arab looking after the site.
I was more than a little disgusted to see some of the rebels causing destruction there during the Arab Spring!:arghh:
Max.
 
Something that I have been thinking about since this thread started is about just how historically young my area I live in is. Up until the mid 1800's when the railroad made its way up the valley about 2 miles from me there was almost nobody and nearly nothing here whatsoever no local towns in my area really existed to any extensive degree before then.

Local historical account puts the majority of them that sort of existed before then as barely functional homesteader outpost tent camps but not exactly real incorporated towns as we see and know them today. In fact most of our smaller towns primary street and avenue reference points are centered right from where the railroad stop point was located when they put in the depots, water towers and car loading areas.

Given that, its interesting to note that pretty much every well worn prairie trail and remains of any coal mine is less than 150 years old. We have several that run through various places on the family property!

In fact the hill up behind my house was one of the primary and larger coal strip mines of sort about 100 - 120 years ago. I don't have any major historically significant mining machinery to show off but I have found a number of small metal pieces likely from conveyors and or simple loading machinery and odd rigging and there is a fair amount of old trail routes worn into the ground that radiate out from the area.

Mostly what I have to look at is overgrown spoil piles and a good sized side of a hill that's been dug out in various places and old trail ruts that run in odd locations for proof that anything was ever here.

The only other significant proof of anyone having been here is a handful of old field border ridges. Most fields back then were maybe 1/2 - 1 or 2 acres in size and by many of our modern rural standards garden sized and nothing remotely close to what we see as crop farming fields. :p
 
Some years ago* I was giving a training course near Bristol.
At the weekend we did not work, and the USA people went for a good look around, notably the Clifton suspension bridge.
On the Monday morning as we were re-starting the course, one of the guys was showing his photos and commented that the bridge was older than most of America.
The bridge was opened in 1864.

I guess in the UK, the Victorian era engineers and entrepreneurs build stuff to last, working on well established foundations.
(If in doubt, build it stout, using stuff you know about).

Where as in the USA, a lot of people and organisations were just starting out and had to take a short term view to get things going from nothing.

JimB


*Why do I often find myself starting posts with that expression?
Maybe I am just old.
 
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