12 December 1940

Fairey Swordfish Mk I (L2748 - code ?)
Plouzané, 
(contributors : Claude Archambault, Frédéric Hénoff, Daniel Dahiot)

Fairey Swordfish Mk I of the Fleet Air Arm on a training flight from Crail in Scotland, 1940.
Photo : Imperial War Museum © IWM A 3532 - Photographer : S.J. Beadell (Lt) - Royal Navy official photographer

Crew (No. 812 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm)

- Midshipman (A). Peter Newton LOFTS, 19 years old. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Son of Renaud J. and Florence A.M. Lofts, Letchworth, Hertfordshire. 
Kerfautras cemetery (Brest), lot 40, row 3, grave 15

- Sub-Lieutenant (A). Edward Marlow HAMILTON, 21 years old. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve.
Son of Edward and Margaret Hamilton, North Shields, Northumberland.
Kerfautras cemetery (Brest), lot 40, row 3, grave 14

THE STORY

The aircraft took off from the aircraft carrier HMS Deaddalus II, based in England, on a mine-laying mission to Brest. He was shot down by flak near the target and crashed in Plouzané at an unknown time. The two crew members were killed and buried in the Kerfautras cemetery in Brest, on December 16.  

The remains of the Fairey Swordfish L2748 bear witness to the violence of the shock.
Photos collection Benoit Paquet - ABSA 39-45