A MISSING World War II bomber believed to have been shot down over the North Sea could have been found buried in a small German town.
The decades-long mystery could soon be solved after a burnt map seems to show the plane made it to its intended target country.
Credit: Manfred Weichert/Pen NewsA set of partially burnt maps could reveal the location of a missing RAF WW2 jet[/caption]
Credit: Manfred Weichert/Pen NewsThe bomber could have crashed in the tiny German town Radevormwald, near Düsseldorf[/caption]
Credit: Pen NewsThe Lancaster RA508 went missing during a 12 March, 1945, mission to Dortmund[/caption]
The Lancaster RA508, dispatched from RAF Metheringham near Lincoln, was one of more than 1,100 planes sent to bomb Dortmund on 12 March, 1945.
This bomber was one of two jets lost on the day and official records have stated for years that it was lost over the North Sea.
The fate of the war jet’s seven crew members and the plane’s final resting spot have been unconfirmed but a discovery could soon change things.
Partially-burnt RAF maps were recovered from a crash site in the small town of Radevormwald, near Düsseldorf.
Cologne-based researcher Manfred Weichert said he was “99.9% sure” this crash site belonged to the Lancaster RA508.
He said: “At the height of Cologne/Düsseldorf, the aircraft was most likely hit by flak.
“It veered off the approach route on the right while on fire, and crashed into a meadow in Ülfe 2, a district of Radevormwald, and exploded.”
This would match eyewitness testimonies that alleged a four-engine plane came down in the town that fateful day.
Local historian Friedhelm Brack revealed he had inspected the site as a teenager, collecting maps from the wreckage.
One of these maps, marked RAF, showed a flight path from the UK to Dortmund.
Before his death in 2015, Brack submitted the maps to the Radevormwald town archives, where Weichert later found them.
Brack initially assumed this site was the location of the PB187 crash, the only other plane to go down that day.
The PB187 actually went down 30 miles away in Duisburg, leading Weichert to believe this could be the missing RA508.
He said: “The wreckage of the plane, which had exploded on the ground, was probably scrapped after the war, but there are no records of this.
“The burnt remains of the crew were buried in a wooden box in a bomb crater and then the crater was filled in.
“Since Bomber Command never searched for the aircraft, the mortal remains stayed there.
“And if they were not accidentally excavated over the decades, they are still there today.”
The crash site today is now an industrial estate.
Credit: Manfred Weichert/Pen NewsResearchers believed the plane could have crashed in Radevormwald[/caption]
Credit: Manfred Weichert/Pen NewsThe recovered maps could help solve the decades-old mystery[/caption]
Weichert has called on the family members of the plane’s lost crew for help as one of the maps was annotated by hand.
He said: “I could compare the handwriting and thus prove the crash site 100%.”
Ken Haw, 74, the nephew of flight sergeant Kenneth Robert Haw described how his aunt, Queenie, tried and failed to catch up with the young airman as he left for his final mission.
He said: “That was the last a family member saw of him.”
“They were all heroes in their own way, at the end of the day, who went out to do a job.”
Credit: Manfred Weichert/Pen NewsA map seems to show the intended target of the RAF plane was Dortmund[/caption]