Saw this on BBC Archives FB page. https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=472627253110310 Bit more here. Army's Biggest Manoeuvres Same as last vid but on you tube. This one shows a crashed Vampire at the end. Selected Originals - Army Manoeuvres Anyone know if it was fatal or did the pilot survive ?
Engineers of the 6th Armoured Division erecting a Bailey Bridge across the canal at Pewsey during exercise 'Surprise Packet', the biggest army manoeuvre ever held in Britain. October 15, 1951 Licence Bailey Bridge Pictures | Getty Images
Isn't it fascinating. Like a 'what if' had the war dragged on a few more years. 146 photos & a 'narrative log' held at Kew, but sadly nothing online on IWM collections yet. Found it interesting the downed Vampire is skipped in the BBC film: BBC Archive on Twitter Looking into it, but getting the impression they fell out of the sky quite a lot (recently read Winkle Brown's biog. Sure he mentions similar) Exercise seems to have been October '51, if that helps. There's a Canuck crashed that month in the UK, but his machine was listed as 'repairable'. Leconfield based Vampire crash landing Maybe the planiacs will know what happened with the film crash...
No fatal October Vampire losses in Wiki (I know!) list: List of fatal accidents and incidents involving Royal Air Force aircraft from 1945 - Wikipedia
Troops running through the stones at Stonehenge in that first BBC Archive film!....but then anyone could do that in those days. How times change.
1951 Vampire accidents Scroll down this list - there are 1 or 2 in Oct 1951 - Aviation Safety Network > ASN Aviation Safety WikiBase > ASN Aviation Safety Database results TD 12 Oct 1951 - de Havilland Vampire FB.Mk.5 WA143 Accident, 12 Oct 1951
607122 P/O. Nigel Robert Lumsden Saunders, Age 21 - 98 Squadron Royal Air Force. Vampire FB5 WA143 Crashed at Asherton Farm, Horse Down, Larkhill, Wiltshire. Pilot thrown clear from the aircraft during the crash landing, but received fatal injures. "Last Take-Off" by Colin Cummings. Buried at RAF Cranwell Churchyard. I visited his grave just last week. Hope this helps?