We fly to save
BV417
This picture shows a Warwick with the lifeboat under the bomb bay.
BV417 (P4)
One of the groups most important and exciting projects for 2009 is the hunt for the wreck of Warwick BV417 which ditched into Scapa Flow on 10th June 1944. F/O Jack Murray and his crew left Wick on 9th June 1944 to search for a Catalina belived to have been shot down by a U Boat 120 miles north of Shetland. Late that night the search was called off with nothing found, BV417 started her long trip back to Wick. At 12.45 next morning while over Orkney they suffered an engine faliure and F/O Murray dumped his lifeboat and then skillfully brought his aircraft down into the waters of Scapa Flow.
All the crew survived and the group are in touch with two of them, Ted Russell and Cledwyn Evans who have added so much to this project.
After many hours research looking through ships logs and reports we now have very good idea of where this aircraft will be.
(Photo Ted Russell)
The above photograph shows the crew of BV417 & later BV411 in front of their Warwick BV417.
L to R: Obs. F/O John Bartholomew, 2nd Pilot H.Bath, W/AG F/Sgt Ted Russell, Pilot F/O Jack Murray, W/AG F/Sgt Cledwyn Evans, W/AG F/Sgt Colin Acton & F/O C.H. Haywood.
Note: H.Bath was not on BV417.
photo Ted Russell
Canadian Pilot F/O Jack Murray
A dropped airborne lifeboat lifeboat set up being tested
Both BV417 & BV411 (see Shetland Projects) worked with 281 Sqn out of Wick, NE Scotland & both flown by the same crew. These aircraft were used for Air Sea Rescue, looking for ditched aircrew well out into the Atlantic or in the North Sea over to Norway & Denmark.
Many aircrews owe their lives to these large but lightly armed aircraft, and brave crews, who would fly in all weathers and risking contact with enemy fighters to drop a liftboat that would offer more chance and hope than the flimsy rubber liferafts that most aircraft carried !.
12/9/2009. ARGOS reports with great sadness that Sgt Colin Acton, Wireless Op/Air Gunner in F/O Jack Murray`s crew from Warwicks BV411 & BV417 passed away on 3/9/2009 aged 86, he was the youngest member of the crew.
Sgt Colin Acton. Photo: Ted Russell.
Lyness Museum.
Warwick Lifeboat.
Above: The Airborne Lifeboat from Warwick BV417 now in Lyness, having been modified somewhat from it`s original status, fibre glassed, renamed ZULU and used as a sailing boat. For years it lay on a trailer at Ness Point, Stromness where it unfortunatly broke its back but was saved ten years ago it now lays in a shed at the museum badly in need of some TLC. Photo: Kevin Heath.
Above & Below: 2 more recent photos of the airborne lifeboat at Lyness Museum, top pic shows in good detail the hull and storage compartments, and the shot below the general scale of the LB. Photos: ARGOS Collection.
A video of some of the Warwick wreckage found in Scapa Flow can be found on our videos page Here: http://www.crashsiteorkney.com/page32.htm
(c) Copyright 2010. Aviation Research Group of Orkney & Shetland.
All rights reserved. Due to the imense amount of research that enabled us to build this site we would like to point out that all material on this website is owned by A.R.G.O.S though photos are credited to their repective owners. Anyone wishing to use material for their own website or any other purpose are requested to contact us first expressing their wishes. Permission will usually be granted to none profit making ventures, i.e. websites for educational and/or historical purposes, though a link to this website and aknowledgement to the original owners of any photographs will usually be requested.
