I'm attempting to model this atm and its tricky as its such a complicated WW2 Bomber, It's design is nothing short of beautiful (for a war machine), i used to walk up Greestone Steps to collage the pathway leads up to Lincoln Cathedral its such a tiny stairwell it made me wonder how the heck did that happen? amazing. Thats half a Bomber in the space of a match box. Dont know where the 18 crew members bit came from tho as it only had a crew of 4?



Edit : think that was a bit of over exaggeration

The chapter also contains a vivid description of a crash which occurred on Greestone Stairs between the Christ’s Hospital Girls’ High School (LHS) and the staff boarding house. Hurt wrote that, in the early hours of Thursday 22nd July 1941, Hampden bomber AD 983 flew low over St Hugh’s Church and the Sessions House and crashed into a building half way up Greestone Stairs, off Lindum Hill. For those interested in the detail it was from the No 44 Squadron based at RAF Waddington, and was returning from laying mines off the Friesian Islands in north-western Europe. Immediately Auxiliary Fire Service members Fred Hughes and Charles Brader arrived on the scene and found the plane’s tail lying crossways on Greestone Stairs and burning fiercely.

The High School gates were locked so the men had to find another way round the accident. As the fire brigade arrived on the scene the plane’s fuel tanks exploded. However, Hughes and Brader managed to get into the building and searched the first two floors, but flames on the staircase prevented them from reaching the third floor. Later the body of senior French mistress Miss Edith Catherine Fowle was carried out. She had been found trapped in the window frame, suffocated by the billowing smoke. The four airmen in the plane, Donald Bruce, William Robert Bain Relyea (Royal Canadian Air Force), James Aloysious Connoly, and Peter Joseph Lynch also lost their lives in the accident. A plaque at Lincoln Christ’s Hospital School (LCHS) commemorates the event and includes the following Prayer for All Souls:

Perhaps the 18 crew members lost is the total from all six planes that crashed?

Aye probably Jerry, the thing that's quite amazing about this whole picture is which i presume was the camera angle kind of make it look wider than it actually is i used to walk those every day and its tiny so for half a bomber to actually be across it is totally mind blowing The Hampden's were pretty much based all around here with quite a few others Manchester's, Lancaster's mainly, and the US base with the Fortress's we used to find all sorts of parts etc etc as kids as our house was actually on the airfield.

That's not exactly half a bomber there mate, that's not even half the length of its tail.

Its always been a little dream of mine to one day fly an old WW2 plane. Not such a large model though.

The Hampden bomber was actually really small, it's overall length was only 16m, which sounds a lot, but when you consider the Typhoon (the current UK fighter planes) is 15.96m long, you realize it was quite small for what it was.

Aye m8 but like the stairs are like 2m wide lol, was chatting to a m8 today who's in well his 60's and very into WW2 aircraft put me straight on it all, the 18 killed crewman we're from crashes within the City itself not all Hampden's e.g a Lancaster from Skellingthorpe (the airfield i used to live on) crashed into buildings on Highfield Ave, as Jerry said there we're 6 in total throughout the war and 18 lost in those 6, but they now think there we're possibly another 2 and loads outside the city itself. Me and a m8 pulled out half a machine gun as kids which duly went off to the museum and we got a pat on the back and a bag of goodies lol.
Weird thing about that Hampden pic as Dave my m8 pointed out today is where was it actually coming from? Supposedly it was returning from Europe which puts it completely on the wrong side of the hill. Returning from the position in Europe it was coming from would mean it would be coming in from the N/E and that would put it on the top as the hill rolls down from the Cathedral to the S/W so logically it should have either (if it was low on fuel) have tried to land at one of numerous base's along that route, Hemswell, Scampton, being the closest on that side, also it was said that all the ammo was still on board as it all went off in the fire, some guy was reported to have picked up some ammo on Monks Rd about 600m down the hill.
So you would presume if going down hill it would be the other way around and would have gone further (especially since its called steep hill for good reason), the pic looks like it's flown into the hill and the tail has twisted or was going across the hill? but why? if going down the hill towards Waddington which was a Hampden base there were and still are 2 massive commons it could have used and various other big open areas, so its a bit of a weird one.
I'll have to take a walk and take some proper photos of that area for you guys to see what i mean to get anything to be left after hitting that part of the hill is amazing in itself its so tight you'd be lucky to squeeze a remote control plane down there lol

@ Wolf people go up in the Lanc sometimes at Conningsby