Volunteers complete restoration of D-Day aircraft

Three members of a Herefordshire aviation group have spent five years painstakingly restoring a military aircraft they believe flew over Gold Beach during the D-Day landings.

The Auster aircraft, which was used as an artillery spotter during World War Two, had fallen into disrepair before it was brought to Shobdon in 2021.

Volunteers from the Shobdon Historical Aircraft Group have now completed the restoration and hope to see the plane return to the skies in spring 2027.

One of the volunteers, Jonathan Roberts, 65, said the project had helped him "incredibly" after he suffered a stroke 10 years ago.

"Being here, it's allowed me to be hands-on again and feel information coming back," he said.

"Working on the preservation of war birds, as they're called, is very satisfactory."

Roberts, who worked on Spitfires in his 20s, said preserving historic aircraft helped show younger generations how engineering had developed over time.

"With the changes of using fabrics and fibreglass, these sort of aircraft are becoming a thing of the past," he said.

"Therefore, it puts forward how engineering can be done and how it was done to the younger generation."

Peter Poole, 86, said the aircraft was in a "pretty sorry state" when it arrived in Shobdon.

"From there on, it's well known that we imported the aircraft into Shobdon, to the Gliding Club, Hereford Gliding Club's hangar. We set about a restoration that we didn't think would take five years," he said.

Poole said a friend had owned the aircraft for a decade before health issues prevented him from flying and the plane fell into disrepair.

"It was completely stripped down, de-rigged in a load of different pieces and we've set about cleaning, painting and reassembling these pieces to end up with the aircraft we've now got," he said.

The group believes the aircraft operated over Gold Beach during the D-Day landings, based on research published in Air Pictorial magazine.

"It was a piece of history that needed to be looked after and brought back to life," Poole said.

"It would be a great shame if this particular aircraft, if we hadn't taken it on, the chances are it would have ended up in a scrap heap, and that's a piece of history lost."

Alec Elliot, 70, a former chief engineer on a Polaris submarine during the Cold War, said the aircraft had been used to observe the battlefield and direct artillery fire.

"It's a shame to see something like that in pieces when it could be doing some useful work," he said.

"They're going to use it as a tug to tug gliders up into the sky once it's finished. So it's nice to think that it's got a new life but you've got the historical aspect of it and it's just keeping the thing alive."

Roberts said he hoped to be on board when the aircraft returns to flight.

"I used to skydive, so I could jump out of it as well," he joked.

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