Posted on 12/01/2006 1:34:36 PM PST by lizol
Polish historians find WWII bomber with remains of Canadian, British crew
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA
WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish historians have recovered a Royal Air Force Halifax bomber from the Second World War and the remains of its Canadian and British crew, a find yielding treasures for a Warsaw museum that could also provide closure for the families of the doomed airmen.
The badly-damaged hull of the bomber from the 148 Squadron RAF, with remains of its crew, documents and personal belongings, was recently found buried under a field near the southern town of Dabrowa Tarnowska, project manager Piotr Sliwowski told The Associated Press.
According to records, the Halifax JP-276A took off on its final flight with a crew of five Canadians and two Britons from the Italian city of Brindisi around 8 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1944. Canadian pilot Capt. A.R. Blynn was leading the mission to drop supplies of weapons and ammunition to the Polish underground as the Warsaw ghetto uprising raged.
But it was shot down by Poland's Nazi occupiers and remained buried for more than six decades until local residents revealed its location earlier this year. They alerted Warsaw's Museum of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, which started recovery work about two months ago, Sliwowski said.
All elements are now in the museum in the capital undergoing conservation and restoration, said Sliwowski, who heads the museum's history department.
"This is an extraordinary, rare find," Sliwowski said. "There are only three Halifaxes in museums around the world."
The discovery took on a human dimension with the find of the remains of the airmen.
"These were boys aged 28 or 30. Their remains were for decades in the ground; now they will be able to return to their homelands," Sliwowski said.
The historians also found documents, notes and maps and personal items like a folding knife and an well-preserved aviator's badge, "looking like new," Sliwowski said.
"It takes you back 62 years and you start thinking, what were they like, what did they look like, did they have girl friends."
The historians have contacted the British and Canadian embassies in Warsaw.
The plane was part of the Allied effort to supply Poland's resistance near the end of the Second World War. Although its mission came early on in the Warsaw uprising, the planes were banned by British Air Marshal John Slessor from flying over the capital because of the danger and ordered to drop their supplies elsewhere, Sliwowski said.
Containers of weapons and ammunition were found aboard the crashed Halifax.
There are only two restored Halifax bombers in the world, one on display on Britain's Yorkshire Air Museum and the other at the Royal Canadian Air Force Museum in Trenton, Ont. A third Halifax is on display in its "as-recovered" condition at the Royal Air Force Bomber Command Museum in London.
Here's one for your ping list!
"These were boys aged 28 or 30.
I would think the ages would be younger than that......
Welcome home Men!!!!! Rest in peace.
How did the plane come to be buried? Where the wings still attached? Did it crash in a bog? Local folks seemed to know about the location but only recently revealed it?
Any pictures?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Here's a story I thought you'd all enjoy reading.
"Local folks seemed to know about the location but only recently revealed it? '
That's the way it sounded to me too.
WTF?
I noticed that too. I can understand Americans getting the two confused, but a native Pole?
Yeah, that's the point.
Neat!
I had the honour of going inside the Halifax in Trenton last summer, accompanying my Dad (who flew them).
A wonderful plane and a great bit of history - a plane nearly forgotten while everyone remembers the Lancaster.
Thank you. I hope you do a follow up on how she went in and stayed hidden from view - - if they find out.
Salute!
I'm sure the British government will not allow those handguns to be brought back into the country.
/sarcasm
My dad flew tailgunner in B24s, didn't realize the resemblance.
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