W1048 “S for Sugar”

English Electric built W1048 at Samlesbury, near Preston. No. 102 Squadron took it on charge on 27 March 1942 as DY-S. On 9 April it was swapped to No. 35 Squadron at Linton-on-Ouse and coded TL-S, 'S-Sugar'.

It flew from Kinloss on its first operation on the evening of 27 April 1942, a raid on the battleship Tirpitz near Trondheim. It carried four spherical naval mines meant to roll down the fjord side under the ship. Pilot Officer Don MacIntyre dived to 200 feet to drop them, and flak set the starboard wing on fire.

MacIntyre belly-landed on frozen Lake Hoklingen, about 25 miles east of Trondheim. The airframe had only 13 hours in its logbook. The flight engineer broke an ankle and was captured; the other five reached Sweden with help from the Norwegian resistance. About twelve hours later the bomber sank through the ice into 27 metres of water.

Local divers found it in 1971. In June 1973 RAF and Norwegian divers raised it with air-filled oil drums. It surfaced on 30 June at the third attempt. The 8,000 rounds of ammunition were still aboard, and the instrument lights worked on a battery. It came to Henlow by sea and road, and in 1982 went into the new Bomber Command hall at Hendon, deliberately left unrestored.

Lies in Hangar 5, the bomber hall, in its recovered state with red anti-corrosion coating. A restored Merlin from its port outer position is shown beside it.