25 September 2025
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A tall stone monolith with a brass memorial plaque stands as a reminder in mid-Wales to three WW2 naval aviators.
More than 81 years after they were killed, the crew of a Grumman Avenger torpedo bomber have been remembered close to where their plane came down.
A wet and windy day seemed fitting for the unveiling of the monument, which rises eight feet above a mound outside the village of Llangynog in Powys, for Avenger FN 821 of 848 Naval Air Squadron, which was lost in foul weather in February 1944.
The aircraft was making a lengthy transit flight from Gosport to Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands.
The crew – all sub lieutenants – died when the torpedo bomber crashed in Rhyd Y Felin woods on a hillside north of Lake Vyrnwy.
Pilots William Sneddon Appleby, aged 24, from New Zealand and Ernest Hartley Green, 22, from Norfolk, plus Joe Lupton, a 21-year-old observer from Morley, near Leeds, were killed instantly.
The cause of the crash has never been fully established – one wing was found torn off the aircraft, some distance from the rest of the wreckage.
Given the remoteness of the crash site, the remains of the Avenger were left for many years until finally cleared.
But forest manager Jay Williams, whose grandfather served as a navigator in World War 2, was determined the crew should be remembered.
“I felt that we should not forget this generation,” he said. “The whole project snowballed from a small memorial into a community event.”
Mr Williams worked tirelessly alongside former Fleet Air Arm pilot Tim Nicholas, now an instructor at No.1 Flying Training School, to ensure the vision was fulfilled with a permanent monument and plaque.
After a blessing from RAF Shawbury’s padre Squadron Leader Harrison, there was a minute’s silence, after which a modern-day Avenger – the Beechcraft King Air operated by 750 Naval Air Squadron used to train today’s Fleet Air Arm observers – flew over the site.
Taking the salute was Commander ‘AJ’ Thompson, Officer Commanding 2 Maritime Air Wing based at Shawbury.
“It has been an honour for me representing the Royal Navy to formally recognise the crash site for the first time in 81 years,” he said.
“The memorial will be a lasting legacy to the young Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy aircrew who tragically lost their lives here.”
It has been an honour for me representing the Royal Navy to formally recognise the crash site for the first time in 81 years.
Commander ‘AJ’ Thompson, Officer Commanding 2 Maritime Air Wing based at Shawbury
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