In recent months, the Pentagon has been searching for dozens of missing airmen killed in combat, each with a harrowing story to tell about their final moments.A Michigan soldier died in World War II. bombing mission when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire in Southeast Asia and its wing burst into flames.Another plane crash kills 21-year-old from Pittsburgh bombing mission During the war against the Romanian oil fields.Pilot from Florida goes missing while flying solo spy mission During the Vietnam War.
While most of the missing soldiers have been identified primarily using DNA and dental records, the US government has hired British archaeologists to search for a World War II pilot whose plane crashed in a British forest in 1944. The Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency said Cotswold Archaeology has been tasked with recovering the remains of an anonymous pilot who was listed as missing in action after his B-17 crashed, the company revealed this week.
Cotsworld Archeology told CBS News on Tuesday that the crash site was in East Anglia in eastern England. According to the National World War II Museum, this area of countryside and small villages was the home of the Allied Forces’ so-called “bomber war” in the 1940s.
cotswold archeology
The bomber was carrying 12,000 pounds of explosives when it went out of control and crashed, but now Cotswold Archeology will spend six weeks excavating the “exceptionally special site”.
“This excavation will not be easy. The crash crater is flooded and filled with 80 years’ worth of sediment, overgrown with trees and undergrowth, and we have recovered plane ID numbers, personal effects, and human remains. “All the soil must be carefully sifted to remove any remaining soil,” the company said in a social media post featuring images from the site.
According to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force, the B-17 Flying Fortress is an American bomber that was developed in 1935 and saw action in all combat zones. The bomber was used primarily in Europe during World War II and was best known for its strategic bombing of industrial targets in Germany, the Air Force said.
The remains of more than 1,500 Americans who died during World War II have been identified and returned to their families to be buried with full military honors, according to the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. More than 72,000 wartime soldiers are still missing.
While archaeologists are searching for the remains of a missing B-17 pilot in England, a team from the Department of Defense’s POW/MIA investigation team is in Normandy, France, on the day of the Normandy landings on June 6, 1944. A search is underway for the other three missing pilots who were shot down by German anti-aircraft fire in the United States. The team is combing through the soil for bone fragments as well as personal items such as a uniform, a nautical protractor, a watch and a ring.
“It was truly an honor to be part of this recovery mission. It was a humbling experience, but I’m glad we were able to help provide families with a complete description of the missing person,” said Airman Sgt. Raul Castillo, the team’s lead support investigator on the mission in France.