Earlier this year the Archives were contacted by Tony Hoskins of Kennet Aviation Ltd, enquiring about information on Fane.  Tony has acquired and brought back to the UK the remains of Spitfire AA810, which crashed in the hills near Trondheim in Norway on 5th March 1942.  The pilot, Alastair Gunn was able to use his parachute, but was captured and sent to Stalag Luft III.  Two years later he took part in the Great Escape, but was recaptured and sadly was one of the 50 prisoners shot by the Gestapo in March 1944.

The reason that AA810 is important to the Archives is that it was part of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) and this particular aircraft was flown by Fane on two occasions, one of them on the day before it crashed in Norway.

Further information on Tony’s project can be found on www.spitfireaa810.co.uk

An overview of the salvaging of AA810 was shown as part of the BBC4 programme, Digging for Britain, shown on 28th November 2018 at 9.00pm. This could be watched for a short period of time after that date via BBC iPlayer.

Just to fill in the details,  the Spitfire which Fane was flying on 25th January 1942, when he spotted and photographed the Tirpitz was R7035, and the aircraft in which he was killed on 18th July 1942 was BP921.