Isle of Wight ceremony honours D-Day Hawker Typhoon pilots

Wreaths were laid at Parkhurst Military Cemetery last week to remember the pilots who lost their lives attacking targets in Normandy.

Two of the pilots, who supported the most important military operation of the Second World War, are buried at the Newport cemetery.

They were George Rendle of the Royal Canadian Air Force and Cecil Leitch of the Royal Australian Air Force.

The grave of pilot, George Rendle. (Image: HTPG-Coap Media) George Rendle was only 24 when he died on June 7, 1944, after attacking 11 armoured vehicles in Caen.

Read more: Pilots who died off Isle of Wight coast during D-Day to be remembered

His aircraft was hit by ground fire and he was forced to bail out over the English Channel, only to drown.

Cecil Leitch, who had already conducted 17 combat missions, was 22 when he developed engine problems on June 15, 1944, and suffered the same fate as Rendle.

Read more: Isle of Wight D Day 80 service with wreath laid at sea

Research suggests at least six Typhoon pilots were lost in the English Channel while supporting Operation Overlord.

A roll call of the lost also included Sqn Ldr David George Ross, Flt Sgt Arthur Ernest Holland, Sgt Peter Sayer Barton, and Sgt Kenneth George Hodnett, whose bodies were never recovered.

Afterwards, to mark the completion of the first section of the rebuild of Hawker Typhoon RB396, a ceremony was held at Airframe Assemblies in Sandown.

The event marked almost 80 years to the day the aircraft first rolled off the production line.

The final rivets were placed in the rear fuselage on Wednesday last week, marking the end of nearly a decade-long effort by volunteers of The Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group, a charity that aims to restore the aircraft as a flying memorial to the 666 pilots killed during the Second World War.

Volunteers of Airframe Assemblies in Sandown celebrate the next stage of their Hawker Typhoon project at a completion ceremony. (Image: HTPG-Coap Media) Project director Sam Worthington-Leese said: "This has been a long journey, beset with engineering, financial and even wider socio-economic challenges.

"However, our small, all-volunteer team, has not given up, with the result of almost a decade of work now here to see."

The rear fuselage was rebuilt with 80 per cent of the original frame structure reused.

The project, with a total budget of £6-7 million, hopes to have the aircraft airworthy by the 85th D-Day anniversary in 2029.