Excavations > 2007>

	Seafire, Somerset

The Marches Aviation Society is continuing to work its way through the Fleet Air Arm losses in the South West, whilst eyewitnesses can still be found. In April a Seafire III was excavated near RNAS Henstridge, a satellite of Yeovilton. The aircraft had stalled and dived into the boggy corner of a field. Interest was aroused when the farmer recalled loosing a tractor in the same spot after the war. promising ground for a dig.

The Seafire, NN498, belonged to 759 Squadron, Yeovilton and was lost with its pilot, Sub-Lieutenant F C Eccles on the 30th January 1946. He is buried in Ripon cemetary.

The dig was interesting more in the arrangement of the wreckage than the parts found. The main spar and prop boss were found nearly fifteen feet apart horizontally. The aircraft had hit the ground at a shallow angle and penetrated down approximately six feet to where the boggy clay gave way to a smooth layer of hard shale. It appeared to have bounced off this hard layer and started to come back out of the ground. the boss was found pointing back in the direction it had come from at depth of four feet. The spar had both the undercarriage rams lying with it and the boss had the crankshaft drive cog in position so it is unlikely these were simply thrown back by the recovery crew. The Navy had made a thorough job of recovering the cockpit. The only items found from this area were the windscreen de-icer pump and a fragment of a plastic label with instructions for folding the wings. The recovery crew had, however, thrown back a bent Hispano cannon. This was one of the first items to be found lying just under the turf above the center of the wreckage and still showed the Fleet Air Arm camouflage. Other items included the yellow painted tip of a wooden prop blade, the base of the radio aerial mast and some supercharger sections which had been spray painted yellow.
After the site had been reinstated a plaque with the details of the pilot and aircraft was left with the landowner. Thanks to Mike Ashford who helped us with the location.

	The excavation - not deep, but coving a wide area.
	The four-bladed propeller hub - found pointing the wrong way.