I found a crashed Spitfire

Detectorist's woodland discovery

- BY JAMES GAMBLE

A METAL detectorist who found 1,500 pieces of a downed Spitfire is trying to track down the family of its Second World War pilot.

Danny Jones discovered the crash site five years ago and has since found reports that it was flown by Polish airman Sylwester Jerzy Godlewski, who was buried in North-wood Cemetery in Middlesex alongside 53 other Polish airmen.

The pilot from Warsaw fled to Britain aged 25 after the Nazis invaded his country, and here he joined the fight against the regime.

But he tragically died in 1942, aged 27, during a training exercise after losing control of his plane and crashing in woodland near Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. Mr Jones, 57, stumbled upon the site while out detecting in woodland. His first find was a small bracket bearing an inspector's stamp.