One of the First Spitfires Lost in France
Wierre-Effroy
16 January 2000

It was on 23 May 1940 that a young English pilot climbed into the cockpit of his Spitfire to join a formation of aircraft flying across the Channel to help defend troops retreating in the face of the Nazi advance. Paul Klipsch, aged 24, had never flown in a combat mission before; he was never to do so again. The young pilot was shot down over northern France. He had become one of the first of the 1,500 Royal Air Force pilots who were to give their lives during the early period of the Second World War. The RAF's combat report recorded simply that he had been 'Killed in Action'.

The place where his plane came down, in a farmer's field outside the small French village of Wierre-Effroy, near Boulogne, has always been known. Two brothers, Auguste and René Mierlot, had seen it shot down by a Messerschmitt 110, at about 6pm that May evening. They remembered it well because half an hour later German troops entered their village.

Despite the Nazi presence, local people retrieved Paul Klipsch's body from the remains of his aircraft and buried him in the village cemetery. His grave, now marked with an RAF headstone, remains there to this day. But while the time and place of this young pilot's death had long been known, we still knew little about how and why his Spitfire crashed. Time Team decided to see what could be revealed.

A spitfire

Why did the team decide on the excavation?

Time Team series producer Tim Taylor explains:

When I jumped at the chance to excavate a Spitfire, everyone wanted to know why. The answer was complicated. The fact that the programme would be part of a series broadcast in the millennium year was one reason. I imagined two ends of a historic continuum that expressed our past in terms of weapons; at one end a palaeolithic hand-axe, which I was hoping to find at Elveden, and at the other a Spitfire – an icon of a lost age. To me, the pilot and the plane are the modern equivalent of a knight on his charger, standing against the forces of darkness.

I also felt that we should continue to excavate sites people don't normally associate with archaeology. Watching archaeologists at work on the unexpected provides new insights into what they do. I also knew that I wanted to see a Spitfire fly and listen to the people who had flown the plane. These airmen are the last remnants of a group of fighters who enabled Britain to win the war against fascism and they represent a kind of warfare that could be regarded as lost forever. My father was an RAF engineer during the Second World War and both Mick and I had memories of attempting to build Airfix models of planes as children, so on one level the Spitfire aspect of the site could be viewed through somewhat rose-tinted spectacles. Other realities were harsher, including the fact that someone had died in the crash.

Both Mick and I had found excavating the B-17 in Reedham Marshes, in Norfolk, [screened during the 1999 series – see the Reedham Marshes page] a bit depressing. We had not found much evidence of the plane and Mick kept muttering that it was like digging a car crash. It had also taken us some time to adjust to what might be called the cultural differences between archaeologists and aviation enthusiasts. It had felt like a difficult dig and after it was broadcast we received quite a bit of e-mail along the lines of 'It's the wrong subject for Time Team'. Set against this was the excellence of the programme and the enthusiastic response from the majority of viewers.

To return to the Wierre-Effroy shoot, members of the pilot's family were willing to give their permission for the excavation to go ahead and also to join us at the site. This and the prospect of including a Spitfire that was still in flying condition in the programme made me certain we should go ahead.

(Extracted from The Ultimate Time Team Companion – see the Time Team publications page for details.)

Nearly the whole spitfire was crushed into a lump of metal

Carenza, the experts and the lump of metal

The Excavation

The excavation commenced with both fieldwalking and a geophysical survey. Guy de la Bédoyère, who had come in his role as an aeroplane archaeologist but is also used by the Team on Roman sites, became very excited about the quantity of Roman pottery discovered, but that was left for future archaeologists to investigate. The Team concentrated their attention on what both methods of survey clearly demonstrated to be the main locations of wreckage from the Spitfire.

As the excavation proceeded, it became clear that while the plane itself had suffered immense damage on impact, there were still large parts of it that remained intact. Gradually the ground yielded up sections of the fuselage, a wheel, a foot pedal, bullets, an ammunition box, a machine gun and much more. Identification numbers on many items told the Team precisely where on the plane they came from; manufacturers' markings – Rolls Royce on the engine, Dunlop on a still partially inflated tyre – emerged from the ground unscathed.

So too, most poignantly, did a number of personal items. A glove, a piece of uniform, a pen and what might have been a wallet were all retrieved from the cockpit. Later, when the filming had finished, the pilot's map box was also found. It contained a number of papers, including one signed by Squadron Leader Roger Bushell, the flight officer in command of Paul Klipsch's squadron, who was also shot down that day. He was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in Stalag Luft IV, where he led the break-out featured in the film, The Great Escape. Squadron Leader Bushell ('Roger Bartlett' in the film) was ultimately shot by the Gestapo.

Although not conclusive, the excavation also revealed evidence to suggest that Paul Klipsch had been shot from above by a small-calibre bullet fired from a German machine gun of the sort used by Messerschmitt fighters. Having thus been killed or incapacitated, he lost control of the plane, which crashed into the field in which it had lain for almost 60 years. Taking members of his family, including his surviving half-brother, back to that field at the turn of the millennium, has to be one of the most moving programmes in which Time Team has ever been involved.

One of the rudder pedals

Part of the Rolls Royce engine

Part of the manufacturer's plate

View an animation showing what parts of the plane were found (468k)

High Flight

Oh, I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds–and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of–wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. hov'ring there,
I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long, delirious, burning blue
I've topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew.
And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod
The high untrespassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

John Gillespie Magee, Jr.

This is the poem that closed the Time Team programme on the Wierre-Effroy Spitfire. It was written by Pilot Officer Magee Junior of No 422 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Airforce, who was killed on 11 December 1941. An illustrated biography and anthology of his poems, John Magee: The Pilot Poet, is available, price £7.50 post free, from This England Publishers (tel orders: 01242 515156).

Quiz

Resources

This website contains links to other websites which are not under the control of and are not maintained by Channel 4 Television. Channel 4 Television is not responsible for the content of these sites and does not necessarily endorse the material on them.

Purfleet Heritage and Military Centre (incorporating the Hornchurch Wing collection)
Centurion Way
Purfleet
Essex
Tel: 01708 523409/866764
Hornchurch was the airfield from which pilot Paul Klipsch took off on his flight to northern France on 23 May 1940. The Hornchurch Wing collection brings together a large collection of RAF memorabilia and artefacts, and from April 2000 organised a special display of artefacts from the excavated Spitfire. The centre is housed in the last remaining Royal Gunpowder Magazine of its kind, built in 1759.

The Aviation Bookshop
656 Holloway Road
London N19 3PD
Tel: 020 7272 3630
A specialist bookshop with a large new and secondhand stock of books, magazines, posters, videos and other material relating to all aspects of aviation.

Thameside Aviation Museum
Coalhouse Fort
East Tilbury
Essex
The Thameside Aviation Museum has been based at Coalhouse Fort since 1984 but started life many years earlier in 1974 under the name of The Essex Historical Aircraft Society. Since then it has carried out more than 30 excavations of aircraft, details of which, including photos, are available on the museum's website at
http://homepages.tesco.net/~colin.wingrave/

Further reading

The Ultimate Time Team Companion: An Alternative History of Britain by Tim Taylor (Channel 4 Books, 1999) £20
The excavation of the Wierre-Effroy Spitfire is covered at length in a special photo story in this Time Team book. Series producer Tim Taylor constructs a personal 'time line' – or mental map of the past – guiding readers through the history of Britain by way of more than 50 Time Team investigations. Details...

The Spitfire Story by Alfred Price (Cassell Military, 1999) £20 hardback
The complete story of the Spitfire, from its initial design and production through its role in the Battle of Britain and the Second World War.

The Fighter Command War Diaries by John Foreman (Air Research Publications, Vol 1, to September 1940, £19.95; Vol 2, September 1940-December 1941, £24.95; Vols 3 and 4 forthcoming)
A unique, illustrated account of RAF Fighter Command's role in the Second World War. Every operation, every loss and every claim for enemy aircraft destroyed is recorded in these remarkable volumes. An analysis of each day's fighting is included with details of Luftwaffe activity to set events in the overall context of the war. Significant combats are given additional in-depth coverage, and biographies of leading pilots and orders of battle are also provided.

The Battle of Britain: Then and Now edited by Winston G Ramsey (After the Battle Publications, 1987) £59.95

This 848-page text illustrates and details the graves, memorials, crash sites and pilots of both the RAF and Luftwaffe during the Battle of Britain. Twenty famous fighter aerodromes have been explored and there is a complete listing of 'the Few'.

The Blitz: Then and Now by Winston G Ramsey (After the Battle Publications, Vol 1, September 1939-September 1940, £23.50; Vol 2, September 1940-May 1941, £37.50; Vol 3, May 1941-May 1945, currently out of print. Boxed set £98.50)
A similarly exhaustive account of the Blitz by the same author as The Battle of Britain.

High Ground Wrecks And Relics by David J Smith (Midland Counties Publications)
Sometimes known as the 'bible' of aircraft crash sites, this guide contains information, including map references, gathered from many of the UK's leading aviation archaeologists.

Hell On High Ground Vol 1 and Vol 2 by David W Earl (Airlife Publishing)
A guide to high-ground aircraft crash sites throughout the UK and Ireland, with photos and map references.

Other websites

Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of third-party sites.

The Aviation Archaeology Web Page
www.btinternet.com/~air_research/aahome.htm contains a number of photos from the Time Team excavations at Wierre-Effroy, as well as details of other recent aircraft excavations in Europe and information on how the bodies of some Second World War aircrew, lost for more than 50 years, have been found. It also links to a number of other aviation archaeology websites.

For those with an interest in aircraft used by the Axis powers (primarily Germany, Japan and Italy but some smaller nations too) the site at www.algonet.se/~molrog/ attempts to keep track of preserved Axis aircraft and projects aiming at preserving and restoring Axis aircraft. The site currently contains over 1,000 entries and more than 400 pictures as well as a discussion forum, news pages and further links.

The Second World War airfields of the RAF and the US 8th and 9th Army Airforce feature at http://freespace.virgin.net/anne.welch. At the end of the war, most of these airfields were closed and returned to their former owners. Now crumbling and only just recognisable as airfields, the old bases are a fascinating and sad reminder of the sacrifice made by so many. These pages offer an introduction into the different conditions that exist today – from the restored control tower at Thorpe Abbots to the barely recognisable ruined tower at Metheringham and the 'Control Tower Cafe' at Westhampnett; from the now deserted hanger at West Malling (once used for the closing sequence of The Beatles' Magical Mystery Tour) to the wall paintings in the barrack blocks at Seething. The pictures are part of a much larger collection. The site also includes a 'true stories' section.

Guy de la Bédoyère, who sometimes helps Time Team on Roman sites but is also an aviation archaeology expert and assisted at Wierre-Effroy, wrote an article on pilot Paul Klipsch and the Spitfire excavation for the February 2000 issue of Flypast magazine. His website at www.bedoyere.freeserve.co.uk contains a few pictures and further details of his aviation archaeology interests.

Two good amateur aviation archaeology websites with copious links (including internationally) and much other material are Jim Corbett's North East England Aircraft Crash Research site [www.neeacr.fsnet.co.uk] specialising in north-east England and the Scottish borders; and Nick Wotherspoon's Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team homepage [web.ukonline.co.uk/lait/site/index.htm].

The information on the following link is taken from the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team homepage:

Aviation archaeology and the law

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