Warbird shore is a shock

A BEACHCOMBER used a 99p plastic spade to dig up the remains of an engine from a German bomber which crashed on a beach.

Chris Gleadell began investigating after coming across a cog and other parts sticking out of the sand.

He returned to the beach near his home in Sheringham, Norfolk, at low tide with a child’s spade bought from a toy shop. Chris then scooped around the engine so he could see more.

He said: “I dug out around it for an hour or so to expose one camshaft with a couple of con rods and five pistons. The cog is the main camshaft gear.”

The keen excavator found local history reports which revealed a Junkers Ju 88A-5 bomber had crash-landed at the spot after aborting a bombing raid on Liverpool on May 3, 1941.

The twin-engine bomber was hit over Skegness, Lincs, by an RAF Boulton Paul Defiant night fighter of 151 Squadron, flown by Guy A Edminson and Sgt A G Beale.

The plane’s four-man crew survived and were taken prisoner by the Royal Scots Fusiliers.