On Remembrance Sunday team members once again attended the hillside service, held alongside the Wellington Bomber memorial in Lead mines Valley, on the lower slopes of Anglezarke Moor. The service, now in its 10th year, is organised annually by local man Eric Unsworth, and his colleagues in Chorley Rambling Group and the Long Distance Walkers Association, who also attended. The Memorial stands to remember the tragic deaths of six Royal Australian Air Force airmen, killed when their Wellington bomber crashed onto Anglezarke Moor in November 1943, during a night time training mission.
This year the very poor weather no doubt saw a fewer than normal attendance, with 49 present from the CRG., LDWA., the Bolton MRT., and other walkers.
The service at Lead Mines Valley, at the memorial to the Wellington Bomber crew.
Next year is the 60th Anniversary of the aircraft crash , and as on a previous occasion, Eric is hoping the RAAF will perhaps send representation to the service. We of course will be attending alongside CRG., and the LDWA., perhaps you may also wish to attend.
[As a footnote, a great many allied service personnel in peacetime and wartime aircraft crashes, have come to grief upon what is now the West Pennine Moors, some paying the ultimate price. Small pieces of wreakage still exist to remind all of their sacrifice.]
