13. Avenger Down

	BIPOLAR Today I'll fly I'll swoop and soar I'll sweep the cobwebs From the sky Today I'll dance I'll spin and slide I'll sing to the sun Today I crashed I fell to earth Frost on my wings Ice in my mouth Today the chains Hold me down On the cold ground I cannot fly.
Sub Lieutenant William Seddon Appleby	© Cheryl Lloyd - from the book 'The Resurrected Spirit'

6 May 1943 - Avenger FN 821 was issued to the Fleet Air Arm (FAA) coded "4-K" It was involved in two accidents before its fatal crash. The first was a ground loop at Brunswick on 18 August 1943 during a night landing by Sub Lieutenant (S/L) S.C. Palmer. Later it was in a ground collision, with it's prop striking another Avenger JZ 129 on 8 December 1943. the third incident was as follows.

3 February 1944 FN 821 took off from Gosport on the south coast of England for a transfer of unit flight to Machrihanish, then on to the new station of HMS Robin in the Orkneys, north Scotland. A flight of about 1000 miles in total. On board were 1st Pilot S/L William Seddon Appleby aged 24 from Gisbourne New Zealand. 2nd Pilot S/L Ernest Hartley Green aged 22 from Sheringham Norfolk. Observer S/L Joe Lupton aged 21 from Morley [there is more than one Morley in the UK, we would be grateful if anyone can clarify this for us] and a rating listed only as 'a passenger' - was this rating male, female, the station mascot or even a serviceman's pet? the fact is not known.

A stop off & refuel point may have been RAF Valley in Anglesy, North Wales, it was on a bearing for this airfield that FN 821 ran into a heavy snowstorm near Llangynog, North Wales. Control of the aircraft was lost and FN 821 plunged into the boggy hillside of Trum-Y-Fawnog, loosing part of a wing on the way down. Eye witnesses report the wing as being away from the crash site, all four members of the crew being killed. The only piece left that resembled an aircraft was the tail unit. A recovery unit sent to salvage the aircraft pushed & pulled most of the large pieces of FN 821 down Nant Trefechan to a waiting 'Queen MAry' low loader. This in turn got stuck on one of the small hump back bridges in the valley and had to be pulled clear. The lanes are very narrow with no chance of turning around and going back. So they just had to keep going forward, hoping to not get stuck again.

In August 2006, some thirty years after forestry plantation, the crash site was found by a friend of mine who stumbled across it. The crash site has, basically, been left untouched all this time, being protected by the heavy vegetation. Wreckage is still embedded in the crater that used to be water filled but now mostly drained by the surrounding trees. Showing all the signs of a vertical high speed descent, the wreckage lies crumpled around. The crater clearly shows the outline of the frontal aspect of the Avenger being lopsided as if missing a wing. The remaining wing area still contained remains of undercarriage, tyre and fuel tank structures. Cockpit framing lay embedded into one side of the crater only.