DONE: RNZAF F4U-1D P/O Brian Barstow of NZ5517-No.16 Sqdn Group Build (1 Viewer)

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109ROAMING

2nd Lieutenant
5,971
5
May 25, 2008
New Zealand
My small tribute to a man yet to be found (Hope to oneday change all that!)

A short history(yeah sorry)- NZ5517 piloted by Brian Barstow was lost on a flight over the southern alps heading from his home town of Westport to Harewood on 11/11/44.Flying with 3 other aircraft .Leading the flight was F/O Ernest Robert Reynolds in NZ5502 following were P/O Barstow in NZ5517 ,P/O Norman Reeve in NZ5521 and P/O Peter Sheppard in NZ5522 flying the No.4 position.At around 5000ft P/O Sheppard reported trouble with his engine and was given permission to return to Westport .Continuing up to 9000ft Flight leader Reynolds then decided it was best to keep the flight intact so decided to return to Westport-In the turn NZ5517 was to the right of Reynolds and held it for half the turn -slowly falling out of formation he was never seen again.....

Having lost sight of Barstow ,Reynolds radioed him with the correct bearing to return to Westport -he didn't reply although both Sheppard and Reeve could hear him.After scanning numerous VHF channels Barstow didn't respond and Reynolds assumed he'd continued on to harewood and contacted the CFCC (Central flying control centre)to try and find him. By 1.00pm no word had been received that P/O Barstow had turned up at Harewood.With visibilty dropping to under a mile all hopes of an aerial search that afternoon were dashed (West coast is well known for bad weather) A ground search was considered but being heavy bush country and not knowing more of its possible location nothing was attempted.Over the following days bad weather continued and some searches were made without success.Numerous searches and reported sightings over the years have occured but yeilded nothing.Some hunters have sworn they've seen it and one said he stood on the wing of it.Nothing to this day has been found or NZ5517 or Brian Barstow .No.16 squadron were about to go on a tour in the solomons hence some people thought there was a possibilty Barstow had faked his death -This is now highly unlikely as a 1947 aerial photo shows NZ5517 in the hills somewhere northwest of Refton .Although this isn't confirmed as the photo isn't too clear and a search was recently carried out on its apparent "Exact" spot but nothing was found-I'm hoping to go in after winter

I need HELP!! I got no idea on personal markings (No noseart) just the numbers on it -Help would be forever appreciated-Better yet a photo as so far I've been led to think one doesn't exist

Heres the build so far I've also included a map with a bulleyes on where it is-I know roughly its location
 

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Cheers Jan and Wayne!

Whats done so far: Detailed cockpit and painted -still abit to do.Joined fuselage and removed alierons for a more inflight look -complete mess (will be following Wojtek's advice and getting a razor blade in future) Also removed Elevators again for a more inflight look .Wings joined .Gear doors slammed shut (surprised with the fit) also carefully cut the 1 piece canopy so will be finished open -while trying to fit that I %%$% it up but Evan' offered me a replacement-Thanks mate!

also-its 1/72 and its the hasegawa kit- will be using Aeromaster decals -need to find out more though
 
Cheers Paul! :thumbleft: and Thanks for stickying the thread

It does indeed make ya think, this aint the only Corsair missing in New Zealand either! one somewhere up north -numerous birds around the country as well .What scares me is the what happened to the airmen ,espcially this one, with more than one hunter claiming to of scene this bird also the guy who said he "Stood on the wing" ...no mention of P/O Barstow anywhere....scary to think of where he could be right now
 
Nice work Daniel, and good background info. It would be great if you could find the wreckage. There are about 20 to 30 wrecks within a 10 mile radius of where I live, mostly from WW2, on the high ground of the Peak District, although most have either sunk into peat, or were burnt out when they crashed. There's still some 'big bits' left here and there, although it's years since I made the trek into the hills to look at them.
 
Cheers Corey and Terry!

Interesting Terry ,I've read of numerous planes simply buried both here and in England to get rid of them (Spose you've heard of "6 buried lancasters in a field" I find it hard to beleive but it maybe true .Over here there was a rumour there was a number of Rolls Royce Merlins boxed up and buried under my local international airports runway! (There must be millions of these rumours around)Also once got told that RNZAF airbase "Woodbourne" was named after the burning of all the Mosquito's that were simply burn't on river beds -Although I'm pretty sure this is incorrect-Evan can you confirm it? .This photo I've got shows it relatively intact but that was in 1947 only 3 years after it was lost .Apparently in 1969 there was a large earthquake in the area and its thought to of been buried -anyone got a metal detector they can let me borrow?

Also I agree Paul -There was a helicopter pilot said to have seen it and upon investigation by the RNZAF there was nobody with the name claiming to of seen it.....now I've been told that the RNZAF aren't too interested in finding it (bloody pathetic I know) so its up to private parties to raise the funds needed to search for it :( Sad
 
Good progress and yet a better story. Funds.......... Lets grab our metal detectors and adventurer hats and go find this pilot and his plane Daniel! If I lived in NZ and had time I would come dig, sad no one cares these days.
 
Cheers Andy and Corey!

Its a dam shame Corey ,not enough people even slightly care

And the "memememe" generation aren't much help- Doesn't look to good
 
It really is a shame, in fact a disgrace, that history which is so relatively recent is regarded as ancient by today's 'society'.
Organisations will spend huge amounts of time and effort researching and locating truly ancient historic sites/ artefacts etc., yet things like this, where the subject matter was something involved in possibly mankind's greatest struggle against its own evils, can be ignored, shrugged off, treated as 'oh, that was ages ago, it doesn't matter now'.
The people of my generation, who's father's, uncles, etc fought in World War Two, are, to an extent, fortunate to have learned some little private snippets about the war, but have left it too late to really gain information (in most cases), as the generation that fought the war sadly pass away. It's the younger generations, who really owe their existance to these fading heroes, who should be making the effort to chronicle and record as many accounts as possible, before it's too late, now, whilst the 'cast of history' are still alive. This includes the location and preservation of what, to them, are just bits of remote scrap metal.
Sorry to 'invade' your thread Daniel, but I really do hope you can locate this aircraft, and possibly the pilot's remains. I'm too far away to help physically, and too 'poor' these days to contribute financially, but if I can help in any other way, just yell mate!
 
Should you find it Daniel, look how many will turn up wanting get part in the glory, to bask in your sunlight....

Good luck mate, loking forward to your pics too!
 
Wholeheartily Agree Terry (feel free to invade,no worries )and to think its only money stopping history being preserved -Where the %$% is that on government agenda?

Worst yet to future generations WWII will be another 'forgotten' war -I'd be willing to bet money at least 90% of people under 20 don't know the years of WWII let alone WW1 (not to mention other conflicts which no doubt had an affect on their country) well at least in this country (hopefully in other countries its part of the education system)

Thanks too Jan! as you may know its winter over here now and its cold and dark most of the time! .Gonna be airbrushing this model (having successfully overcome my fears of stuffing the it) I'm really looking forward to go searching for it -no doubt will keep you all informed

My only worry is the markings -may have to try and contact the RNZAF again ,Lets hope they're not like the blasted politicians and actually reply :(
 

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