Supermarine Seafire III
RAF Serial: NN411
761 Squadron
Pilot: S/Lt. Gordon Edward McLeod (killed)
Date: 23rd June 1945
Place: Margaret Marsh, near Shaftesbury, Dorset

The Seafire, from No.761 Squadron based at H.M.S. Dipper, Henstridge, went into a spin during air combat practice on 23rd June 1945. The pilot, Sub-Lieutenant Gordon Edward McLeod (Royal New Zealand Navy), was killed. He was from Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand, and is buried in Sherborne Cemetery.

NN411 fell into Margaret Marsh (near Shaftesbury, Dorset) with a ‘dead’ engine and was not deeply buried, but conditions in 1945 meant that the Merlin was not recovered.

Exhaust stubs appear out from the mud.

The excavation revealed a remarkably preserved Rolls Royce Merlin 55 Serial/No M209055.

Even the rocker covers, usually smashed on impact, are intact

lead mass balance weights, attached to the forward engine bearer frames. Presumably to balance the weight of the steel tail hook.

The engine was put on display at the Rolls Museum in Monmouth, birthplace of Henry Rolls.