I was cycling around the Caernafon area recently with my dad who spent the war years as an evacuee in Caer Menai on Church street. He has a vague recollection of a fighter plane landing on the beach and being guarded by a soldier with a rifle who chased him away when he got too close. Can any readers with long memories shed any light on this incident?

thank you,

Mike Naylor

In reply to your question regarding the fighter plane being guarded by a soldier on a beach in the Caernarfon area during WWII, I would point out that I lived less than 50 yards away from Caer Menai, in High Street, but have no recollection of the incident although I was in my 12th year when war broke out and had just started in the Caernarfon Grammar School.

Furthermore, an hour or so ago I spoke on the phone to a school friend and contemporary, Mr. Mervyn Hugheston Roberts who lived in Mur Menai, which is next door to Caer Menai and this was the first time that he had heard of this fighter plane.

That does not mean, of course, that such an incident didn't happen and we would both be obliged if your father could supply us with more information about where on the "beach" he came across this plane.

One should remember that there was an RAF Station at Llandwrog about 4 miles from Caernarfon and the fighter could have been forced to land on a beach somewhere near to the airodrome.

Regards,

T. Meirion Hughes

Hi

I was home in caernarfon at the weekend and was, coincidently, talking to my dad about this. He had asked me to write to T . Meirion Hughes regarding this and whether he knew of the incident.

My Dad told me that there was a picture of his mother and her friend taken near a plane which had landed very close to the caernarfon golf club on the aber foreshore. My dad's uncle remebers seeing this photo, but we can't find it anywhere.

Arwyn

Many thanks for the information regarding the plane which came down near the Caernarfon Golf Club. Armed with this new clue I contacted Mr. William Brown, a Military Historian who has researched newspaper reports for the whole of the 20th century at Caernarfon Archives and he was able to confirm that the plane was a Blackburn Botha Torpedo Bomber and estimated the date as being 1942/43.

Mr. Brown has not been well of late and I am sure that I speak for fellow researchers and all who know him that we all wish him the very best and thank him most sincerely for the information.

T. Meirion Hughes

I have just spoken to my dad again, he said the plane was a spitfire or a hurricane and was near the swimming baths with its nose pointing toward the castle. It didn't look too damaged. Two uniformed RAF men told him and his chums to clear off and waved their rifles at them. He said it would have been covered by the tide if it wasn't shifted in time. He was living in Caer Menai with a load of other evacuees from 1940. Does anybody remember them? He has been back to Caernarfon often since then and two weeks ago we took our bikes and rode from Y Felinheli to Dinas Dinlle and back on the Lon Eifion path. A perfect day out.

Many thanks for your replies, please keep them coming.

mike

There appears to be a difference of opinion here between what your father states about the plane being either a Spitfire or a Hurricane and that which Mr. Brown, the Military Historian says that it was a Blackburn Botha twin engine Torpedo Bomber.

At the same time both of them seem to agree on the location of the plane, the old Baths and the Golf Course not being far distant. Your father relies on his memory and Mr. Brown has read of the incident in the local paper. Mr. Arwyn Fretwel on the other hand tells us that his paternal grandmother and a friend had their photos taken near the wreckage of a plane, but unfortunately that photo can not be found.

As I said before both Mr. Hugheston Roberts and myself have no recollection of the incident and if there were more than one wrecked plane in question
it is likely that we would have heard of at least one of them.

In view of the above and without concrete evidence all I can suggest is that you spend some time at the Artchives in Caernarfon looking through local newspapers from the war years to see which of the two versions is correct or whether there were in fact two wrecked planes.

Regards,

T. Meirion Hughes