The U.S. Department of Defense has found hundreds of missing airmen killed in battle in recent months, each with a wrenching tale of their dying moments. On a World War II bombing mission in Southeast Asia, a Michigan serviceman perished when his aircraft came under attack from anti-aircraft fire, which caused its wing to catch fire. A 21-year-old from Pittsburgh was killed when his plane crashed during another bombing mission during that war against oil fields in Romania. A pilot from Florida disappeared during a solo spy mission during the Vietnam War.
Most missing personnel were identified using DNA and dental records, but the U.S. is now engaging British archaeologists to discover a 1944 World War II pilot whose plane crashed in deep English woodland. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has tasked Cotswold Archaeology with locating the remains of the unknown pilot, who went missing when his B-17 crashed, the business announced this week.
The crash site is in East Anglia, England, Cotsworld Archaeology told CBS News Tuesday. That region, with its rural farmland and tiny villages, became the headquarters of the Allies’ so-called “Bomber War” during the 1940s, according to the National WWII Museum.
A bomber with 12,000 pounds of explosives fell after its controls failed, and Cotswold Archaeology will spend six weeks digging the “exceptionally rare site.”
“This excavation will not be easy — the crash crater is waterlogged and filled with 80 years’ worth of sediment, the trees and undergrowth are thick, and all soil must be meticulously sieved to hopefully recover plane ID numbers, personal effects, and any human remains,” the company said in a social media post showing images of the site.
Developed in 1935, the B-17 Flying Fortress is an American bomber that served in every combat zone, according to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force. The Air Force stated the bomber was best renowned for strategic bombardment of German industrial targets in Europe during World War II.
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has identified and returned more than 1,500 World War II American remains to their families for full military honors. Over 72,000 wartime servicemembers are missing.
While archaeologists will try to locate the remains of the missing B-17 pilot in England, a team from the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency is in Normandy, France, searching for three other missing airmen whose aircraft was shot down by German anti-aircraft fire on D-Day, June 6, 1944. The team is searching the earth for bone fragments, uniforms, navigation protractors, watches, and jewelry.
I am honored to be on this rehabilitation expedition. I am humbled to help families get the complete story of the lost “Air Force Master Sgt. Raul Castillo, the mission’s senior support investigator in France, stated.
