A Brighton pilot’s crashed Spitfire is being unearthed by archaeologists during a week-long excavation which started yesterday (Monday 5 October).
Harold Penketh died at the age of 20 when he crashed at Holme Lode in the Great Fen, in Cambridgeshire, during a training flight.
The young pilot officer was climbing alongside two other Spitfires from 266 Rhodesian Squadron Royal Air Force, based at RAF Wittering, when he broke formation and started to dive. He didn’t recover and he didn’t try to deploy his parachute.
Pilot Officer Penketh died in the crash. His body was recovered and returned to Brighton, his home town, where he used to work for the Ocean Accident and Guarantee Corporation.
His obituary in the staff magazine said: “He was of a charming disposition and his loss was keenly felt by those who knew him.”
His name is recorded on a memorial at Woodvale Crematorium and Cemetery, in Brighton, where he was buried.
An investigation concluded that there had been either a failure of the oxygen system or some other physical failure had occurred.
The site where he crashed was the subject of a geophysical survey in August and the remains of the Mark 1 Spitfire located.
After the excavation the land will be restored to a mix of fenland habitats. It will be managed as part of the Great Fen Nature Reserve by the Wildlife Trust for Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire and Northamptonshire.
The Heritage Lottery Fund is paying for the excavation as part of the Great Fen Education and Community Programme. The fund is also supporting the post-dig land restoration.
Kate Carver, form the Great Fen Project, said that the excavation would be a celebration of Pilot Officer Penketh’s life as well as a commemoration of his death.
A Battle of Britain memorial overflight has been scheduled for 3pm on Thursday (8 October).
• Last month the remains of a Hurricane were uncovered during a dig near Saddlescombe Farm, between the Devil’s Dyke and Newtimber Hill, just north of Brighton.
The dig took place 75 years after the aircraft crashed during the Battle of Britain in September 1940.
Sergeant Kazimierz Wünsche, from 303 Polish Fighter Squadron, based at RAF Northolt, was shot down during a dogfight with the German Luftwaffe over Beachy Head.
He bailed out of his burning aircraft and survived although he needed hospital treatment after suffering serious injuries.
