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Appendix C Extract from Forres Gazette 4th Oct 2000 concerning Battle aircraft of No 98 Squadron, RAF Kaldašarnes :- Glacier releases grip on air crash victims The recent recovery of the remains of four RAF
airmen from a remote mountain glacier in Iceland nearly 60 years after their
aircraft crashed is a tribute to the determination and skills of the RAF Kinloss
Mountain Rescue Team and colleagues from other air force units who took part in
this difficult and moving operation. DAVID MORGAN has looked into the
circumstances surrounding the loss of the aircraft and the part RAF Kinloss
played in the final chapter in retrieving the crew's remains for a proper
burial. It was a cumbersome machine notoriously
difficult to handle in extreme conditions - features which made the fate of 98
Squadron Battle P2330 easier to appreciate when a mountain rescue team led by
RAF Kinloss Squadron Leader Nick Barr recovered the remains of the crew this
summer from the desolate Icelandic glacier 59 years after they crashed on what
should have been a simple ferry flight. Hardly a beauty even by the standards of 1936
when it was hailed as a promising new monoplane light bomber for the then
expanding RAF, the Battle proved to be underpowered, slow and difficult to
defend. By the time World War n broke out in 1939 it was already deemed
"obsolete" but was pressed into service in France in the vanguard of
the Advanced Air Striking Force. RETIREMENT The RAF had 1000 of the type in 1939, and it was
an 88 Squadron Battle which shot down the first German aircraft in the air war
in the West. But that was the peak of the Battle's operational career. With the
end of the 'Phoney War' the Battle was on its way to retirement, and 739
survivors were eventually shipped to Canada, where they ended their days as
trainers in the Commonwealth Air Training Plan. But for 26-year-old 98 Squadron pilot Flying Officer Arthur Round from New Zealand and his radio operator Flight Sergeant Bert Hopkins (22) from Southampton the war ended tragically on May 26, 1941, when P2330 crashed in fog 3600 feet up on a glacier just minutes after taking off with two passengers from Mergeldi Field in Northern Iceland, near the town of Akureyri. Round and Hopkins died along with Pilot Officer Henry Talbot (24) from North Shields and Flight Sergeant Keith Garrett (22) from Worksop, who they had collected earlier that day from the hospital ship 'Leinster' docked in Akureyri.
No radio call was received and the cause of the
crash was a mystery. It was more by luck than planning that members
of 146 Infantry Regiment found the scattered wreckage of the Battle two days
later. The aircraft was badly broken up and lay on glacial ice just below the
summit of a 3600 foot mountain. There
was little anyone could do for the dead crew. Conditions were extreme and the
wreckage and its four airmen were left where the ferry flight had ended. Over the next decade or two the remains were
covered in snow and ice and became part of the glacier where they crashed. The
aircraft sank out of sight and from the memories of all but a few - another
group of victims in a war which claimed the lives of millions. REDISCOVERED But last year a group of Icelandic climbers, led
by the curator of the Akureyri Museum, Hordur Geirsson, rediscovered the wreck
site. An RAF uniform shirt with the name tag F. S. Hopkins
confirmed the wreck as that of the 98 Squadron aircraft. Successive thaws had
exposed the Battle and its crew and plans were started to recover the remains of
the RAF personnel. It was a grim and technically demanding task
which fell to the RAF Mountain Rescue organisation which was formed a year after
FO Round's Battle smashed into the icy peak of that remote mountain and was
fragmented. At RAF Kinloss Sqn Ldr Barr began to assemble a
team of RAF MRT experts. From RAF Leuchars came Flight Lieutenant Danny Daniel;
from RAF Leeming Sergeant Ian Ellis and Corporal Dave Hughes; from RAF Stafford
Sergeant Jason Taylor and from RAF Lossiemouth Corporal Lee Purvis. All six are
well-experienced in MRT skills, and it was fitting that a Nimrod from the
successor squadron to the Hudsons of 269 Squadron who took part in the first
search - RAF Kinloss-based 206 Squadron - flew the party to Keflavik to begin
the recovery operation in Aug.
The 200mph Battle's lumbering characteristics
and heavy controls, coupled with a long climb and the additional weight of
luggage and one more passenger than its originally designated three-crew
maximum, would not have helped the pilot even had he seen the ridge rush towards
him in the last few seconds of the flight. Sqn Ldr Barr and personnel from the Icelandic
Mountain Rescue Service found the shredded remains of the Battle lying on a 15
degree glacial slope. Conditions were poor but they spent three days under
canvas working to recover the crew. "I
was amazed by the amount of wreckage visible after 60 years," said the team
leader. "The aircraft was in thousands of pieces from 12 foot sections to
washers, and covered a 50 metre radius. The Battle was mangled beyond belief and
very little was identifiable." REMINDERS The team completed the grim task of recovering
the remains of the crew and found poignant reminders of the four men - most
moving was a watch belonging to the pilot and inscribed "To A. Round From
Dad - 14.2.34". Around the
crash site they also found well-preserved parts of uniforms and other clothing,
flying boots, toothbrushes, boot polish and tins of corned beef. The Battle's Browning MkII machine guns were also found,
complete with 200 rounds of ammunition. Today all four Battle casualties lie at peace in
Iceland, where their graves will be meticulously attended.
Their recovery and return to a proper burial was thanks to the
determination of Hordur Geirsson and the joint skills of the RAF and Icelandic
MRT units who took part in what was at best a difficult operation in hostile
conditions on a glacier cracking and groaning beneath their feet. A moving ceremony for the four-wartime
casualties took place on Aug 27 at the Commonwealth War Cemetery at Fossvogur.
In attendance, along with Squadron Leader Barr and his team plus the
commanding officer of RAF Kinloss, Nimrod pilot Group Captain Steve Skinner,
were eight relatives of the Fairey Battle's crew, including Pilot Officer
Talbot's brother, Mr John Talbot. The RAF flew two relatives of each airman to the
burial service, and wreaths were laid as RAF Kinloss piper Flight Lieutenant
Eric King played the moving "Flowers of the Forest" in tribute to the
crew who spent so many decades with the wreck of the aircraft on that lonely
Icelandic glacier. The final salute was paid by the successors to Flying
Officer Round and his colleagues when a 206 Squadron Nimrod from RAF Kinloss and
an Icelandic Coastguard Service helicopter overflew the cemetery |
