Found in Germany after 70 years: the lost Lancaster Bomber crew

[Bangyai]

The remains of five missing British airmen have been discovered inside the wreckage of their Lancaster bomber after 69 years with the help of an eye-witness who saw the aircraft crash on its return from a World War Two raid.


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The lost Lancaster Bomber crew members (L-R): Pilot FO Alex Bone, PO Bruce Watt, Sgt Cyril Yellandm, Sgt Norman Foster, Sgt Raymond White and Sgt Ronald Cope Photo: BNPS



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The site in Frankfurt where the remains of six missing British airmen were found inside the wreckage of their World War Two bomber Photo: BNPS

By Telegraph reporters

11:17AM BST 21 Sep 2012

The discovery was made following the work of a team of German historians. Volunteers spent hours digging a muddy field looking for the RAF crew after the witness guided them to the site near Frankfurt.

A Rolls Royce engine and landing gear of the Lancaster bomber was found followed by 'hundreds' of fragments of human bones in what would have been the cockpit.

The dig was questioned by some locals who could not understand why the team were searching for British airmen who bombed their cities.

Uwe Benkel, who led the search, said they felt obliged to find the missing men and bring comfort to their families who knew nothing of how or where they died.

Some of the relatives have now expressed their gratitude to the amateur historians and are hoping to finally bury their loved ones seven decades after their deaths.

Mr Benkel, 51, said: "A lot of people couldn't understand what we were doing and said things like why were we digging up British airmen who bombed our cities and killed our people?

"Our view is that this is past and history, it was 70 years ago. We are another generation. We do research on missing men who are still in the ground.
"It doesn't make a difference if they are German or British; they were young men who fought and died for their country for which they deserve a proper burial in a cemetery.
"We do it for the families. For them, it is a bit like reading a book with the last page missing. When we find the bodies, we are writing the final page for them."
The seven strong crew - pilot Alex Bone, flight engineer Norman Foster, navigator Cyril Yelland, wireless operator Raymond White, bomb aimer Raymond Rooney, air gunner Ronald Cope and air gunner Bruce Watt - died in April 1943.
Lancaster ED427 was one of 327 bombers that took part in a raid on the Skoda armaments works at Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. On their return to their base at RAF Fiskerton, Lincs, they came under fire from German anti-aircraft flak.
Eye-witness Peter Menges saw the plane on fire before it crashed into a field outside the village of Laumersheim, near Frankfurt, and exploded into a fireball. It was one of 36 bombers which failed to make it back to Britain that night.
The impact of the crash created a large crater in the ground. The German military recovered two of the bodies from the wreckage - thought to have been Sgt Cope and Canadian Pilot Officer Watt - and buried them.
After the war, the British Air Ministry tried to find the final resting place of the crew but with no success.
It was assumed their aircraft had crashed in the sea and their names were added to the Runnymede Memorial in Surrey dedicated to 20,000 servicemen with no known grave.
Mr Benkel, a health insurance clerk by day, began researching military plane crashes 25 years ago and now leads a voluntary recovery group that has examined 400 crashes and recovered the bodies of 38 airmen.
He recently began looking into ED427 and found Mr Menges, 83, culminating in the dig that took place last Saturday.
Mr Benkel said: "Peter lived in the next village. He saw the plane coming down on fire and saw the explosion. His parents didn't allow him to go and see the plane that night.
"He went the next morning and the German military were there. From what he saw the majority of the parts were on the surface and taken away.
"There was a big crater in the ground, within a couple of days it was filled in with rocks and dirt and was covered up for the next 69 years.
"Peter showed me the site and we used metal detectors and radar photos to examine it."
The team dug five metres deep in a 100 square metre area and found sections of the fuselage, cockpit, landing gear, a tyre, a burnt parachute, tools and ammunition.
Mr Benkel believes the remains they found are those of F/O Bone, Sgt Foster, Sgt Yelland, Sgt Rooney and Sgt White as these men would have been in the cockpit at the time.
Sgt Foster's daughter Hazel Snedker was three years old when her father was killed aged 22.
Mrs Snedker, now aged 72 and from Leamington Spa, Warks, said: "I have no memory of my father whatsoever.
"The only memory I have is of my mother fainting when she received the telegram saying he was missing.
"My mother died from tuberculosis when I was six years old and I was bought up by my paternal grandparents. I know that they quietly hoped that there would be some news of their son.
"But in those days very little was spoken about it and you just carried on. When something like that happens you either get bitter and twisted about it or you just get on with it. And now, after all these years, it has all come to light.
"It is a great relief to know what did happen to him and where he is. At least he will now have a grave with a headstone.
"My father had two sisters who are still alive. I know my auntie Joan is very pleased. She wanted to know what happened to her brother."
The British Embassy in Berlin has been made aware of the discovery. It is thought the remains of the men will be buried in the same coffin in a single grave at a Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery in Germany.
Mr Benkel said: "I think it is right they share the same grave. These men flew together and died together. They should now rest together."



Bodies of five British airmen from Second World War found - Telegraph

[Bangyai]

The dig was questioned by some locals who could not understand why the team were searching for British airmen who bombed their cities.

Aye...and why look for Roman ruins eh ! Those fookin Romans were up to no good as well !

Dummkopfs .

[Thetyim]

It is thought the remains of the men will be buried in the same coffin in a single grave

Cheapskates

[withnallstoke]

One day we will all celebrate the end of war.
Twice if we live long enough.

RIP people that got shot out of the sky trying to drop bombs on people trying to eat.

[Takeovers]

Mr Benkel, 51, said: "A lot of people couldn't understand what we were doing and said things like why were we digging up British airmen who bombed our cities and killed our people?

Hard for me to imagine anyone would say that, much less a lot of people.

[Lostandfound]

Mr Benkel, 51, said: "A lot of people couldn't understand what we were doing and said things like why were we digging up British airmen who bombed our cities and killed our people?

It's called "humanity". I don't know how well it translates into german.

[withnallstoke]

I don't know how well it translates into german.

Probably longer.

[Looper]

Beautiful thing. I made the 1/72nd airfix kit.



I had hours of fun flying it round the living room (by hand) while making realistic lancaster engine noises. To make it more realistic one day I set fire to one of the engines and had minutes of fun flying it round the garden until the wing melted and fell off and it had to be heroically crash landed in the flower bed where it probably still lies with little dead 1/72nd airmen inside.

[withnallstoke]

Why didn't Airfix ever make a decent glue together plastic kit of anti aircraft guns, or of small pie shops being blown up?

Some of the tank kits were good though.

and had minutes of fun flying it round the garden until the wing melted

And one of lifes great lessons is hammered home.


Don't set fire to stuff.




Unless it's bonfire night.

[alitongkat]

im also puzzled by this and i dont know anyone who would have ever said (thought) anything like this... when i read it, i thought the plane was found in eastern germany, but its found in western germany... strange...

either benkel is from eastern germany or the statement was made elsewhere or - its just not true...

i think, benkel should elaborate on this... its really something nobody would ever say... and im sure, that people in the area will get a nerves problem when they read this... but its - for my experience - a pretty normal view of eastern germans...

[Marmite the Dog]

Mr Benkel, 51, said: "A lot of people couldn't understand what we were doing and said things like why were we digging up British airmen who bombed our cities and killed our people?

A lot of people probably thought it was OK for their ancestors to have tried to destroy free civilisation.

Mr Benkel said: "I think it is right they share the same grave. These men flew together and died together. They should now rest together."

Not sure it makes much difference to a bunch of bones, but the sentiment is worthy.

[jizzybloke]

Beautiful thing. I made the 1/72nd airfix kit.

Pretty sure I made one of these too!

[withnallstoke]

How long before the Japs make a shit film of a bad copy that the Western Yanks avoid for a year or three?

[Takeovers]

I don't know how well it translates into german.

Probably longer.

Translates very well.

Humanity = Menschlichkeit

[Bangyai]

I had hours of fun flying it round the living room (by hand) while making realistic lancaster engine noises.

I would very much like to hear your Lancaster engine noise to see if it was anything like mine.

Bring a model on your next Thailand trip and we can do some formation flying up Sukhumvit road , straffe Thermaes a bit before crashing in Nana plaza with our undercarriage and cockpits on fire.

[Looper]

Sounds good Banyai. I will come during this years floods and do a dambusters number on the dam they use in Bangkok to keep the poor people wet and the hisos dry.

[Lostandfound]

I don't know how well it translates into german.

Probably longer.

Translates very well.

Humanity = Menschlichkeit

They also have a words for a cat food factory:

Katzenfutterfabrik

I learned it in school and very useful it has proven. Whenever I meet a German I can now say, with confidence:

Wolfgang arbeitet in einem Katzenfutterfabrik.

[Thetyim]

Found in Germany after 70 years: the lost Lancaster Bomber crew

Oh what a disappointment. I went all warm and fuzzy for a second then.
I read the title and for a brief moment I thought they had been found alive.
Staggering around the Reeperbahn in an alcoholic haze and enjoying themselves.
Would have made a much better story.
RIP.