Date:	Tuesday 2 January 1940
Time:	night
Type:	Gloster Gladiator II
Owner/operator:	263 Sqn RAF
Registration:	N5637
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 1
Aircraft damage:	Substantial
Location:	Pen Pound Farm, outskirts of Rhos, between Neath and Pontardawe -   United Kingdom
Phase:	Take off
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	Pen Pound Farm, on the outskirts of Rhos
Destination airport:	RAF Stormy Down, Glamorgan

Narrative:
Gloster Gladiator N5637 of 263 Squadron, RAF. Substantially damaged 2/1/40 when crashed: During a night patrol on 2nd January 1940, three Gloster Gladiators set out from RAF Filton, near Bristol. As the formation flew further north up the Severn Estuary a thick fog descended and radio contact deteriorated and the formation became lost. When daylight broke the formation picked out a suitable field and all three aircraft made a good landing at Pen Pound Farm, on the outskirts of Rhos, between Neath and Pontardawe.

When the aircraft took off for Stormy Down to refuel, as Gladiator N5637 lifted off, the tail wheel clipped a barb-wire fence. The aircraft crossed the main road, lost height and crashed into a disused tip. N5637 was to remain embedded in the colliery tip until it was removed three weeks later

Flight Crew: Pilot Officer Peter Wyatt-Smith (Pilot) Safe/uninjured

1. Royal Air Force Aircraft L1000-N9999 (James J. Halley, Air Britain)
2. Fallen Flyers: Tragedy in the Skies Over Wartime Gower (Wartime Record) Bryngold Books Ltd; First edition (1 May 2005) by Steven H. Jones
3. http://www.ggat.org.uk/timeline/pdf/Military%20Aircraft%20Crash%20Sites%20in%20Southeast%20Wales.pdf
4. http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/gladiator_raf_263.htm

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
28-Apr-2019 00:15	Dr. John Smith	Added
28-Apr-2019 00:15	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
28-Apr-2019 00:19	Dr. John Smith	Updated [Narrative]
28-Apr-2019 09:30	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]