Royal Australian Air Force Spitfire recovered in Wales

PublishedFebruary 19, 2026

Supermarine Spitfire MkI
RAF Serial: N3221
53 Operational Training Unit
Pilot: F/O. Neville Alexander Thomas Fleming (killed)
Date: 6th February 1943
Place: Near Pendoylan, Vale of Glamorgan

Remembering Flying Officer Neville Alexander Thomas Fleming, aged 19, of Red Hill, Queensland, lost 83 years ago this month, on 6th February 1943.

**A 53 Operational Training Unit Spitfire undergoing work at Llandow**

Neville was flying Spitfire N3221 with 53 Operational Training Unit from Llandow in South Wales when his aircraft crashed near Pendoylan in the Vale of Glamorgan. Servicing accidents were uncommon, most of the 50 accidents being attributable to pilot error or weather. There were no dual control Spitfires, 19 year olds had to learn the vices themselves.

Flying Officer Neville Alexander Thomas Fleming, 19. Lost on a training flight, 6th February, 1942. Australian War Memorial photo

Excavated under a Ministry of Defence licence in 1987, some of the parts recovered may suggest a reason for the loss, which had not been identified during the wartime accident investigation. A brass label on the instrument panel had been melted through, suggesting there had been an oxygen fire in the cockpit.

**N3221’s crash site, marked by a shallow crater. High vis and hard hats were not a feature of 80s recoveries!**

Close inspection showed the label had melted through. Brass melts at around 1000 degrees celsius, a temperature not reached in even a fierce post crash fire. This must have been caused by a leaking or broken oxygen line

Revisiting the site in the early 2000s, a memorial plaque was left with the landowner. This was later given to the local church and led to a parishioner making contact with Neville’s family in Australia. His family not only sent touching photographs of Neville, but even a ticket for a dance he attended in Cowbridge a few days before his loss, along with his uniform insignia. These now form part of a memorial display in Pendoylan Parish Church.

**Pendoylan Church, pictured on the 5th February 2023. 80 years before, the sky was regularly crossed by Spitfires from nearby Llandow airfield**

A fitting tribute, from Australia to Wales

**The brief official report into Neville’s loss**

Flying Officer Fleming, Royal Australian Air Force, is buried in the Commonwealth War Graves plot in nearby Llantwit Major Cemetery, alongside some of the other fifty 53 O.T.U. casualties.

Spitfire N3221 had earlier been flown during the Battle of Britain by Sgt. Gilders, who badly damaged it in a forced landing on 22nd August 1940 at Acklington. Gilders was posted missing in 1941, although the location of his crash site in Kent was known. His remains were recovered, at the request of his family, in 1994.