Date:	Friday 13 September 1940
Time:	day
Type:	Fairey Battle Mk I
Owner/operator:	98 Sqn RAF
Registration:	L5343
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 2
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	South of Hosjökull glacier -   Iceland
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Kaldadarnes, Iceland
Destination airport:	Akureyri, Iceland

Narrative:
Fairey Battle Mk.1 L5343: Delivered to the RAF at 24 MU Stoke Heath, near Droitwich, Worcestershire, on 13 September 1939. First issued for service to 266 Squadron at RAF Sutton Bridge on 9 December 1939. Withdrawn from service to 20 MU RAF Aston Down 24 February 1940. Then returned to service with 98 Squadron RAF Gatwick, Horley, Surrey on 13 July 1940.

Subsequent history (per the RAF Museum Records):
End of July 1940: Squadron transferred to Coastal Command No.15 Group.
26 July 1940: Squadron flew to RAF Newton, Nottinghamshire to be paraded before His Majesty King George VI and Lord Portal, Chief of the Air Staff.
27 August 1940: Left RAF Newton for RAF Wick, then flown direct from there to Kaldadarnes, Iceland as part of ‘Operation Frigidaire’. The unit commander, Wing Commander G R Ashton AFC led the squadron in L5343; his observer was Sergeant R G Walder, and the wireless operator/air gunner Sgt W A S Jessep. This 700- mile flight, of 5hrs 20mins duration, the first group flight of land-based aircraft to Iceland, was undertaken by A Flight's nine Fairey Battles, escorted by two Short Sunderland’s using the codename for the flight `Operation Frigidaire I'.

Kaldadarnes was a newly constructed airfield in southern Iceland; the Battles were intended for coastal patrol duties and for bombing any German invasion fleet should Iceland be attacked; the first operational patrols were flown on 28 August 1940
Friday 13 September 1940: A Canadian Flying Officer (later Squadron Leader), Clayton `Willy' Wilcox was detailed to fly Lieutenant Col H L Davies of the Royal Engineers, engaged in building military sites in Iceland, to inspect an army detachment based at the airstrip under construction at Melgerdismelar, near Akureyi, 70 minutes flying time inland from Kaldadarnes.

Weather conditions were unfavourable, but Wilcox agreed to attempt the flight and L5343 took off at 1800 hours. The aircraft entered cloud shortly after take off and had to climb to ten thousand feet to find clear sky. Lacking navigational aids, Wilcox had to rely on dead reckoning to reach his destination. The cloud cover persisted and it was decided to return to Kaldadarnes. The engine then failed in flight (an oil seal had broken causing the main bearing to seize) necessitating a forced landing on a site near a glacier adjacent to a small lake.

The aircraft was carrying a spare propeller blade for Akureyi airstrip, which was pointing straight at Lt Col Davies' stomach, so he moved to stand behind Wilcox, the pilot. The chosen landing place looked smooth from the air but was actually covered in boulders up to three feet high; the aircraft touched down at c.20:00 hours, bounced several times and swerved to the right as the undercarriage collapsed. Wilcox twisted his ankle, but there were no other injuries. This was the first RAF aircraft to crash in Iceland.

The aircraft suffered a crushed starboard wingtip and some crumpling of the forward fuselage lower surfaces. Sustained by some 30lb of food supplies including beer, condensed milk, chocolate and cigarettes, the 2 men then walked some 70km crossing 3 rivers, over two days before encountering local farmers, with Davies almost carrying Wilcox, who was suffering with his twisted ankle, towards the end.

After rescue he was hospitalised with pneumonia and his ankle injury. Before leaving the aircraft they had cut strips of cloth from a parachute and laid them out as a large arrow pointing in the direction they intended to hike.

14 September 1940: Crash site located by air, at noon.
16 September 1940: Crew located and returned to Kaldadarnes on an army truck.
17-18 September 1940: An RAF team including Wally Forney visited the crash site to remove useful equipment and destroy the remains of the aircraft, since it was impossible to salvage, due to the remoteness of the crash site. The guns, ammunition, radio and instruments were removed and fuel drained from the tanks was poured over the airframe and a very cartridge fired into the port fuel tank to complete the destruction. The fire destroyed the centre fuselage and wing root areas.
20 January 1941 Struck off charge.

1970: Engine and propeller removed for scrap. The engine survived, being purchased by local enthusiast Robin Boucher from a Reykjavik scrapyard, but the propeller was melted down.

1971: Wally Forney, a member of the original 98 Squadron recovery team in 1940, contacted the RAF Museum with details of the aircraft and its loss, and provided much additional information as the recovery progressed.

1972: Decision made to recover the remains of L5343 as the basis of a Battle restoration project. The expedition to recover the aircraft was mounted from RAF Leeming led by Flt Lt Erik Mannings, deputy leader Flt Lt Len Woodgate (later Keeper at the Aerospace Museum, Cosford) and 10 other team members as a training exercise. Two LWB Land Rovers were used towing two 15cwt trailers. With the expedition based at Keflavik, upon arrival, local enthusiasts assisted with the recovery of the pilot’s seat from a Garage owner who had removed it in 1956.It had been used as a child’s swing in a garden. Parts recovery commenced on 6 August 1972 with collection of the salvaged engine; the isolated cockpit section was recovered on 10 August 1972 and remains at the crash site from 11-18 August 1972, including a wing tip, panels and carburettor intake from the lake itself.

21 November 1972 Battle components collected from Keflavik by an RAF Belfast and taken to RAF Leeming, Yorkshire.

1973: Restoration work began at Leeming, initially concentrating on the Merlin engine and relatively intact port main plane, but restoration work slowed as key personnel were posted away. The starboard wing was very badly damaged and there was no wing centre section. Stripping the engine by Flt Lt Paul Brindley revealed two bent cam rods and pistons corroded into the steel cylinder liners. The engine was restored by April 1974.The spar had been cut to separate the wings in 1972, and the starboard wing was badly damaged inboard by fire.

1976 Remains moved to storage at Henlow. It had been intended to use parts of three Battles (including K7571 and R7361) - mainly wing sections and undercarriage parts - recovered by RAF Henlow OCTU cadets from the Larkhill ranges, Salisbury Plain, Wilts in 1970, also stored at Henlow until disposed of to a Baldock, Herts scrapyard in

1974: These remains did yield a few small parts for the project before disposal, however, including undercarriage
components and two flaps

1977: Spare centre/rear fuselage and wings acquired form Sir William Roberts' Strathallan Collection and delivered to Henlow. The fuselage was identified as L5340, built by Austin Motors, Longbridge in July 1939 from the same batch as L5343 - initially thought to be P2183 but later re-identified, since P2183 was shot down in France in May 1940.

1989: a replacement propeller was shipped to the UK from Iceland) following recovery from the crash site of fellow No.98 Squadron Battle P6570, which had force landed the day after L5343, just short of the runway at Kaldadarnes, burying the engine and propeller in the bog when it nosed over. This engine and propeller had been recovered in the Spring of 1979 by the Icelandic Aviation Historical Society. The surviving section of the forward cockpit was removed by an oil company who intended to use it as a route marker 6 miles away, ending up close to an old fuel cache by the Phorjsa river

March 1990: Restoration complete and placed on display at the RAF Museum Hendon, London. However L5343 is a complex composite of several Fairey Battle survivors - at least eleven aircraft, only five of which were substantial enough to be identifiable airframes. These included:

N2188 Recovered from swamp at Port Pirie, South Australia. (Ex-RAAF)
P2234 At one time with Tex La Vallee, Quebec (ex-RCAF 1317)
R3950 Musee Royal de l'Armee, Brussels (ex-RCAF 1899)
R7384 Canadian National Aviation Museum, Rockcliffe (ex-RCAF)
L5306 Canadian Museum of Flight & Transportation, Langley, BC (ex-RCAF 2139)
Composite - Western Canada Aviation Museum, Winnipeg (mostly ex-RCAF 3947)
Parts –Commonwealth Air Training Plan Museum, Brandon (ex-RCAF)
(Cockpit only) Daryl Hibbs, Wagga NSW (ex-RAAF)
(Cockpit Only) David Perrott, Australia (ex-RAAF)
(Cockpit Only) ex-Dairey Flat, New Zealand, 2005
Parts inc. cockpit and wings ex Canada to Bruntingthorpe 2006 (sourced ex-RCAF)

1. The Battle File (Sidney Shail, Air Britain, 1997 p.149)
2. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-L9999 (James J Halley, Air Britain, 1979 p.35)
3. National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR 81/3259: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C16472549
4. Official RAF Museum History of L5343: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/documents/collections/1990-0691-A-Fairey-Battle-L5343.pdf
5. https://www.mapsl.co.uk/fairey-battle-mk1
6. https://www.jetphotos.com/photo/8624992
7. http://www.warbirdregistry.org/battleregistry/battle-l5343.html
8. https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/86768-fairey-battle-l5343-progress

Royal Air Force Museum, Hendon, UK. - 18th September 2010

Fairey Battle L5343 restored and on display at the RAF Museum, Hendon, London 1 November 2018:

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
27-Mar-2008 10:00	JINX	Added
23-Jan-2012 04:47	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Source, Narrative]
01-Oct-2020 14:42	Peter Clarke	Updated [Narrative, Photo]
24-Oct-2020 00:43	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Time, Location, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative]
24-Oct-2020 00:45	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Embed code, Narrative]
24-Oct-2020 00:46	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
24-Oct-2020 19:06	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Embed code, Narrative]