‘A GRAVE WITH A NAME’

Remains Found in Search for British Airmen Shot Down by Nazis in WWII

Three men remained officially missing for decades after their bomber was shot down over Dutch waters in June 1943.

Skeletal remains presumed to be those of British airmen missing since the Second World War have been recovered in a salvage operation in the Netherlands, according to The Guardian. In an undertaking that is expected to last at least five weeks, Dutch authorities are currently sifting through the wreckage of a bomber plane that was shot down by Nazi forces on June 13 1943. All seven men aboard the “Pathfinder” plane were killed in the crash, but while four bodies were recovered and buried in the Netherlands, three men—Arthur Smart, 23, Charles Sprack, 23, and Raymond Moore, 21—have officially remained missing for decades. The crash site in the shallow freshwater lake of Ijsselmeer was first discovered in 1996. The goal of the government’s recovery effort, which began this month, is “to find missing airmen, to give them a grave with a name, and to give their relatives closure,” Capt. Geert Jonker of the Royal Netherlands Army told The Guardian. He said that the investigation was in its “early days,” and that the remains would be taken to Dutch military laboratories for further analysis.