'The final page in their story': World War Two Lancaster bomber and its crewmen's remains discovered in German field 69 years after it crashed

A RollsRoyce engine and landing gear was found followed by 'hundreds' of fragments of human bones in what would have been the cockpit



The seven strong crew died in April 1943 after coming under fire from German anti-aircraft flak



British Air Ministry tried to find the final resting place of the crew but with no success so assumed aircraft had crashed in the sea



Sixty-nine years after their burning plane plunged to the ground after being shot down by the Germans, the remains of seven Lancaster Bomber crewmen have been recovered.

They were discovered by a tea m of German historians who spent hours digging a muddy field near Frankfurt looking for the RAF crew after an eyewitness who saw the plane crash guided them to the site.

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.

Pieces of history: Sixty-nine years after their burning plane plunged to the ground after being shot by German anti-aircraft fire the remains of most of the Lancaster bomber crewmen have been recovered.The team sorted the fragments they found into boxes at the site

Burnt out: The remains of a scorched parachute. The site was discovered by a British military historian and a team of German archaeologists who spent hours digging a muddy field looking for the RAF crew after an eye-witness who saw the plane crash guided them to the precise spot. Damage: The crater made by the impact of the engine. A Rolls Royce engine and landing gear of the World War Two aircraft was found followed by 'hundreds' of fragments of human bones in what would have been the cockpit

'TOO LITTLE TIME, TOO MUCH DAMAGE:' WHY DID THE CREW NOT MAKE IT OUT ALIVE?

Christian Pratt, IWM Duxford: There are a number of possible reasons why none of the aircrew were able to save themselves by parachuting from the aircraft.

With eyewitnesses reporting the aircraft to be on fire, it seems likely that one or more anti-aircraft shells would have hit the airframe.

The explosions from these hits, and resulting shrapnel, could well have killed or mortally wounded, or disabled crew members directly.

The resulting fire and smoke may have also disabled crew members or, possibly, overwhelmed or suffocated them.

Egress from the Lancaster was difficult at the best of times (there is a large, central wing spar to climb over, and it is generally cramped inside the aircraft despite its apparent size).

In the dark, and with the aircraft damaged and on fire, it may also have been simply too difficult – too little time, or too much damage to hatches – to escape.

Ejector seats require the occupant to be conscious and capable of pulling the handle (there are some exceptions, but this is the general principle).

If the crew were indeed severely injured or unconscious, they would not have been able to operate the seat, even had they the facility available to them.

It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like on board during the attack, though we can reasonably assume that the crew would have made every possible effort to save themselves – and so that the circumstances preventing them from doing so were insurmountable, however highly motivated they were. Peter Elliott, Royal Air Force Museum: The crew were not all in 'the cockpit' although five of the seven (pilot, flight engineer, navigator, wireless operator and bomb aimer) would have been in the front part of the aircraft – the two gunners were in their turrets further back and at the tail. If the aircraft was hit in or near the cockpit the pilot could have been killed or injured (as might other members of the crew) and he would have lost control. Others might have tried to fly the aircraft, and thereby left it too late to bail out.

Although the crew wore their parachute harnesses all the time, they would have had to find their parachute packs and clip them on to the harness, and it would have been very difficult to get to an emergency exit in the dark while the aircraft was perhaps spinning out of control – they wouldn’t have much time before the aircraft crashed.

Would ejector seats have helped? Not necessarily – some of the crew had to move around the aircraft to do their work and so may not have been in their seats when it was hit; some of them may have been killed when it was hit, and even modern ejector seats have their limits.



Eyewitness 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 is not unknown why the men did not manage to parachute from the plane. Reasons could include



Peter Elliott from Royal Air Force Museum said it may have been a case of' too little time, or too much damage.'



'With eyewitnesses reporting the aircraft to be on fire, it seems likely that one or more anti-aircraft shells would have hit the airframe.



'The explosions from these hits, and resulting shrapnel, could well have killed or mortally wounded, or disabled crew members directly.



'The resulting fire and smoke may have also disabled crew members or, possibly, overwhelmed or suffocated them.'



A Rolls-Royce engine and landing gear of the World War Two aircraft was found followed by 'hundreds' of fragments of human bones in what would have been the cockpit.

The archaeological dig in Germany was questioned by some locals who couldn't 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 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.





Perished: Flight engineer Sgt Norman Foster, left, crew member of the doomed Lancaster and wireless operator Sgt Raymond White, right. 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



Found: Sgt Ronald Cope, left, an air gunner and pilot FO Alex Bone, right. The seven strong crew died in April 1943



Air gunner Bruce Watt, left, and Sgt Cyril Yelland, a navigator, right. On their return to their base at RAF Fiskerton, Lincs, they came under fire from German anti-aircraft flak



'THE BOMBERS ALONE PROVIDE THE MEANS OF VICTORY'

RAF Bomber Command's role during World War Two was to bomb the enemy's airbases, shipping, troops, communications and other industries connected to the German war effort.

Britain had to use long-range bombing after Dunkirk in 1940 until D-day in 1944 as it had no other way of attacking the Germans. The job fell to RAF air crews - some of who were just 18 - who flew increasingly heavier types of long-range bombers.

It was so successful that Hitler was forced to divert nearly a million men, 55,000 artillery guns and a large part of the German air force on to defending the nation instead of fighting offensively.

Bomber Command flew almost every day and mostly at night during the war to avoid being shot down - but this meant it was difficult to locate small targets.

In 1941 it was decided whole industrial cities should be priority targets. Larger four-engine bombers and improved navigation equipment then followed to create a formidable fighting force.

The repeated and persistent attacks on German cities which followed became a critical factor in the liberation of Europe and the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.



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.

Excavation: Volunteers dig within the crater, exhuming the fateful planes remains. 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

Discovery: The remains of a Merlin engine were also unearthed by the team

Storage: Ammunition collected from the crash site. It was assumed the 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 Fatal flight: A graphic of the site in Laumersheim, Germany, where the Lancaster crashed 69 years ago LANCASTER BOMBERS BY NUMBERS

19 Victoria Crosses won by men of Bomber Command, including Guy Gibson, who led the Dam Busters raid

125,000 Bomber Command air crew serving during WWII

55,573 died in action, a death rate of 44 per cent

4% average chance of being shot down per mission – but crews had to complete at least 30. Chances of surviving war lower than infantry officer in First World War trenches

9,838 bomber crew became prisoners of war

1.3m tons of bombs dropped by the Allies on Germany

635,000 is the estimate of German civilians killed

72% of Bomber Command dead were British. The rest were from Canada, Australia and New Zealand 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.

'Iknow 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.' Labour: Volunteers dig within the crater to exhume any remains. After the war, the British Air Ministry tried to find the final resting place of the crew but with no success



Tireless: Uwe Benkel, the volunteers' team leader and Volunteer Christian Schwein with fragments of tyre found at the crash site. 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



Birds eye view: An aerial Luftwaffe picture showing the crash site at Laumersheim, Germany



Commemoration: A minutes silence was held in respect by the volunteers. Members of the Bundeswehr reserve, part of the German army, are in uniform Respect: A poppy memorial was erected as a mark of remembrance. 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 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.'



