Supermarine Seafire III
RAF Serial: NN498
759 Squadron
Pilot: S/Lt. F. C. Eccles (killed)
Date: 30th January 1946
Place: near RNAS Henstridge, Yeovilton

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 losing a tractor in the same spot after the war.

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 Cemetery.

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, a 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 done 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 that 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.