Alfred Fane

Albert Fane contested most of his car races on a BMW 328

The German battleship Tirpitz photographed by Alfred Fane in the Fættenfjord

Anthony Alfred Fane Peers Agabeg , also Alfred Fane Peers Fane or AFP Fane (born November 11, 1911 in Dhanbad , † July 18, 1942 in Duxford ) was a British racing car driver and aviator .

Origin and education

Alfred Fane was born in India in 1911 as Alfred Fane Peers Agabeg . He later changed his name to Alfred Fane. His father, Major AA Agabeg, worked as a mining engineer in India and moved the family back to Great Britain after the end of the First World War . Alfred Fane attended Harrow School and studied at the University of Cambridge . He did not achieve university degrees.

Racing career

Alfred Fane's racing career began in Brooklands in 1931 . His first racing car was a 1.1 liter Salmson with which he came second in the March Mountain Speed ​​Handicap . In 1932 he replaced the Salmson with a Frazer Nash . The two-seater had an Anzani engine and a Corsica body specially made for the car . He registered the car for the German Grand Prix for the Voiturette class. In the race he retired after engine problems on the tenth lap of the race. In the following years he was able to celebrate several class wins in hill climbs with the car .

The wealthy Fane acquired shares in Frazer Nash in 1934. The company was owned by his friend Harold John Aldington and in 1935 converted a TT into a Frazer Nash Shelsley, with which Fane competed in the 24 Hours of Le Mans . Due to a defective cooler, the operation had to be given up prematurely. In 1934 Frazer-Nash became the British general importer of BMW . From 1936 Fane started with BMW 328 racing car models. He won the sports car class at the Eifel race in 1937 and was eliminated from the Le Mans 24-hour race due to a defective constant velocity joint.

At the Mille Miglia 1938 he reached eighth place overall and won the racing class for sports cars up to 2 liters. His last racing appearance was in 1939 in a sports car race at the Crystal Palace Circuit , where he finished second behind Arthur Dobson (who drove a Riley Six) on a Frazer Nash.

Aviator in World War II

After the outbreak of the Second World War , Albert Fane volunteered for the war. He really wanted to become a pilot and trained as a fighter pilot with the Royal Air Force (RAF) . After the training period he was transferred to the reserve and in 1941 in the rank of flight lieutenant of No. Assigned to 1 RAF Photographic Reconnaissance Unit . He flew reconnaissance missions over the North Atlantic with a Supermarine Spitfire . His task consisted of photographically recording goals.

On January 23, 1942, he took off from Wick Air Force Base and flew first across the Atlantic and then along the Norwegian coast towards Trondheim . He discovered the German battleship Tirpitz anchored in the Fættenfjord (the eastern branch of the Trondheimfjord ) . During the overflight at a low altitude, he managed to take some pictures of the unmasked ship.

On July 18, 1942, Fane took off from the Benson base on a flight that took him to Flensburg . There he took pictures of submarines in the port of Flensburg . On the return flight, he missed the airport in bad weather and had to make an emergency landing in a field near Duxford . During the crash landing, he was thrown from the plane and died. Albert Fane had 25 reconnaissance missions and was in the air for 98 hours and 50 minutes.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1935	Dudley Folland	Frazer Nash Shelsley	Dudley Folland	failure	cooler
1937	Frazer Nash	BMW 328	Harold John Aldington	failure	Constant velocity joint

literature

• Christian Moity, Jean-Marc Teissèdre, Alain Bienvenu: 24 heures du Mans, 1923–1992. Éditions d'Art, Besançon 1992, ISBN 2-909-413-06-3 .

Web links

• Alfred Fane at Find a Grave
• Alfred Fane at Racing Sports Cars
• Alfred Fane at Historic Racing
• Alfred Fane at the Golden Era of GP Racing

Individual evidence

1. ^ Grand Prix of Germany 1932
2. ^ Frazer Nash Shelsley
3. ↑ Eifel race 1937
4. ↑ Mille Miglia 1938
5. ^ Sports car race Crystal Palace 1939
6. ↑ Albert Fane photographed the Tirpitz
7. ↑ The flight over the Tirpitz