Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is an unbelievable piece of Aviation history with the story of a lifetime behind it. This propeller section came off of a crashed British S.E.5a biplane which crashed near Hollebeke, Belgium on April 7th, 1918. The plane was shot down, and the German soldiers who came upon the wreckage paid tribute to their adversary by burying him. They used this large intact section of the pilot’s propeller as a grave marker, and inscribed it as follows:

Hier ruht
Ein
Unbekannter
Engl. Hauptm.
im Luftkampf
Gefallen
7.4.1918

An unknown
English captain
rests here,
killed in
air combat
on April 7, 1918

There is a very old tag pasted inside of the hub of the propeller, which has a type-written message in Flemish, reading:

Gevonden nabij begraafplaats
Hollebeke, Belgie. 11 Januri 1927

Found near Hollebeke cemetery,
Belgium. January 11th, 1927

From this information, the previous owner conducted heavy research and found a “match”, for Captain Guy Borthwick Moore MC, a Canadian pilot in the Royal Flying Corps with Squadron #1 who was killed on April 7th, 1918, when a German anti-aircraft shell blew up his airplane over Hollebeke, Belgium. Thanks to the provenance tag added in 1927, we are fairly confident in this identification. We have also found a newspaper article stating that Moore was buried near the spot where he fell at Hollebeke, Belgium.

The propeller section measures roughly 62½” long, with the break being very rough, evident of it having crashed. There are some areas of cracking especially near the edges, but there is no structural weakness in the piece. The side of the hub still retains much of the propeller’s manufacture information:

 PLANE SE5
STANDING RPM 1670
ENGINE 180HS
PART NO 36945
SC NO
PT 86662 P31504
7 11 X 3

Unfortunately there is no information that identifies the propeller to the exact SE5 piloted by Moore, but given the information gathered, we are fairly certain that the grave marker was placed on Moore’s grave near where he crashed in Hollebeke, Belgium.

Guy Borthwick Moore was born on May 28th, 1895 in Mattawa, Ontario, Canada. Moore lived in Vancouver and attended the University of British Columbia from 1913-1916, gaining a BA. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the Irish Fusiliers of Canada CEF in 1916, and a Cadet in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) in December 1916. He traveled to England the following month. He was commissioned a second lieutenant in the RFC on April 26th, 1917, and appointed a Flying Officer on June 8th, 1917. He finished his pilot's training in August 1917 and was posted to 1 Squadron RFC on August 16th, 1917 as a Nieuport fighter pilot.

He scored his first victory on 2 October, sharing it with fellow ace Herbert Hamilton. Moore would score twice more with a Nieuport, on 17 December 1917 and 4 January 1918; then he would upgrade to a Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5a. He was also promoted to flight commander. He would use his new mount to cooperate in the destruction of a German Pfalz D.III on 13 March, sharing the win with Hamilton, Harry Rigby, Percy Jack Clayson, and four other pilots. On 28 March, Moore notched a double victory, sharing one of the wins with Francis Magoun.

By April 1918 he had shot down 10 enemy aircraft, many being shared victories with other pilots. A summary of Moore's record shows six enemy airplanes destroyed (two of which were shared wins), and four driven down out of control (one of which was shared). Moore was killed on April 7th, 1918, when a German anti-aircraft shell blew up his airplane.

Moore was posthumously awarded the Military Cross on May 13th, 1918, the citation reading:

For conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty. He led a patrol to attack hostile balloons. The patrol drove down three balloons in a collapsed condition, one of which he accounted for himself. He has also destroyed three enemy aeroplanes and driven down three others out of control. He has always shown splendid courage and resource.

This is a truly somber reminder of the cost of war, and the unspoken brotherhood shared by men on different sides of the conflict. This would be a tremendous one-of-a-kind piece without an identification, but as mentioned, we are confident in the identification provided by the previous owner, and from what we can gather, there were no other pilots shot down over Hollebeke, Belgium on April 7th, 1918. The identification of Moore makes this one of the most phenomenal pieces of WWI Aviation history we have ever encountered. It will become the centerpiece of any WWI or Aviation collection, or of any militaria collection in general. Don’t miss out on this once-in-a-lifetime piece.