Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Harold John Appel - Course 30

(Photo: Harold John Appel) (March 27, 2008 News & Star 'The Last Flight of Spitfire P8563' by Rebecca Dixon) The operational patrol over the coast around Seaham Harbour should have presented few difficulties to a pilot officer with over 140 hours solo flying under his belt. But on March 26, 1942, there was low visibility and the weather was poor. Pilot Officer Appel also had little experience flying using only the aircraft’s instruments – he’d come to England just months before in September 1941 for further training before transferring to his squadron. So when he lost his section leader, out of contact with his base, he dropped below the cloud to find his bearings and flew his Spitfire into the hills south of Blanchland. Sixty six years on, air crash investigation archaeologists have been excavating the wreckage of Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IIa in a bid to shed more light on the events of that day. According to his service records PO Appel was considered a very able pilot, finishing fifth in his class. At the time of his death he had accumulated 141 hours solo flying on all types of aircraft, including 37 hours on Hurricanes and 31 hours on Spitfires. During his last patrol the court of inquiry found that he had “neither been in transmission nor reception with the ground.” And no evidence was found to suggest that PO Appel had attempted to deploy his parachute to bale out of the Spitfire – leading to the assumption that the aircraft hadn’t suffered any structural failure. Even more information was discovered about the Spitfire itself. A Mk. II, this type of aircraft first entered service in July 1940, later flying the first daylight fighter sweeps over France. Like other Mk. IIs before it, this Spitfire was converted into a Mk. V and fitted with a more powerful engine, which also meant that it could carry any combination of the ammunition packages available to Spitfires. PO Appel’s plane also bore the serial number P8563, identifying it as a presentation Spitfire, which meant that the craft had been paid for through fund-raising by an individual, organisation, town or city. In the case of P8563 it was paid for by the Lord Mayor of Leicester’s Spitfire Fund.
(Photo: Ammunition box recovered from crash site)(J/6957) Pilot Officer Harold John Appel. Son of Andrew and Alma Appel; husband of Joan K. Appel, of Terrington St. Clement, Norfolk.

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