Supermarine Spitfire MkIX
RAF Serial: PT766
595 Squadron
Crew: F/O. James Stuart Abbott (killed)
Date: 21st September 1945
Place: Bishopston, Gower Peninsula, Swansea

Spitfire PT766 was excavated in 1975 by the now-disbanded South Wales Historic Aircraft Preservation Society, during which the Merlin engine was recovered. A chance conversation with one of the original diggers later suggested that most of the aircraft’s structure had simply been thrown back into the excavation hole. Interest was particularly sparked by his description of a large section of yellow-painted wing leading edge which “kept popping up” and had to be pushed back down with a JCB bucket during backfilling.

With interest aroused, a visit was made to Bishopston. The landowner proved very interested, his father having witnessed the crash from the adjacent field. He also possessed a recovered fragment which he had ploughed up: a two-foot-long section of lower rear fuselage complete with mass-balance weights and datum plate. A Fischer survey suggested that a significant amount of Spitfire wreckage remained buried. With permission granted, a trial hand-dig recovered a number of promising, if jumbled, items, including parts of the instrument panel, rudder, wing, rear fuselage skinning, and the front frame of the canopy with its release-catch “ears” and yellow-painted plastic release cable. All of this material came from a small hole, further digging being prevented by solid wreckage beneath.

Welsh holiday weather delayed mechanical excavation until October 2009, when the field had been harvested and the ground had dried sufficiently. The landowner, who also operated a plant contracting business, arrived on site with a mini-digger to begin work, but it soon became clear that a larger machine was required. Early finds included the remains of a caravan, followed by the obligatory broken garden fork. The first identifiable Spitfire components were in very poor condition, with corrosion having reduced some items to dust. There was no obvious order to the wreckage, nor the characteristic smell of fuel, but there was an exceptional quantity of aircraft material present.

Among the first recognisable components were a section of windscreen frame with its catch-release button and a heavily flattened compass. Sections of the main spar and trailing edge were removed, and at a depth of approximately five feet the JCB bucket struck more substantial structure. Careful scraping revealed a large section of wing spar, complete with cannon mounts protruding from the silver-painted spar. Considerable effort was required to free it fully, revealing around eight feet of wing leading edge ballooned around the spar as a result of the impact. A panel of experienced Spitfire specialists attended the dig, and very little remained unidentified. The quantity of wing remains was unusual, wings rarely being buried even in high-speed crashes, reinforcing the suggestion that the 1946 recovery crew had simply cleared visible wreckage back into the crater. It was clear, however, that the 1975 excavation had involved more than the removal of the engine, with material having been carefully sifted before reburial.

It later emerged that the throttle box had been sent to a restoration project in Australia, while a gentleman present at the dig possessed parts of it for use in a Seafire restoration. The engine had been displayed at Rhoose Airport, where SWHAPS maintained a museum, though its current whereabouts are unknown following the museum’s closure. In total, five builder’s sand sacks were filled with recovered wreckage, containing sufficient structural components to allow a very approximate outline of the aircraft to be laid out. It is hoped that some of the larger items may be displayed locally as a memorial to the pilot, F/O. Abbott, and to other airmen lost over the Gower.

The aircraft was one of a batch of 690 Spitfire Mk IXs delivered by Vickers-Armstrongs at Castle Bromwich between June and October 1944. Delivered to 33 Maintenance Unit on 8th August, it was prepared for operational service and joined 345 Squadron on 1st September 1944. 345 was a Free French squadron composed largely of former Vichy French Air Force pilots who had chosen to side with the Allies following the capitulation of French forces in North Africa. PT766 was used as the personal aircraft of the squadron commander, Jean-Marie Accart, a leading French pilot of the Battle of France who claimed twelve shared victories over the Luftwaffe and flew under the pseudonym “Bernard”.

Operational and test flying records show regular use throughout September 1944, including operational sorties, escort missions, and cross-Channel flights. The aircraft was damaged in a landing collision on 30th September 1944 and repaired on site, after which its subsequent operational history remains unclear. On 24th January 1945 it was transferred to Air Services Training at Exeter, and on 15th July it joined 595 Squadron at RAF Fairwood Common for army co-operation duties.

On 21st March 1946, Spitfire PT766 was being flown by F/O. James Stuart Abbott when it dived into the ground out of cloud at Bishopston, Gower. Abbott is buried at Killay (St Hilary of Poitiers) Churchyard. He had previously survived a forced landing in a Miles Martinet only months earlier. At the conclusion of the excavation, commemorative plaques were presented to the landowner, the eyewitness, and the tenant in remembrance of this post-war tragedy.