The Dutch drained a section of the North Sea to retrieve the remains of Polish airmen! - video

Dutch researchers found the wreckage of a Vickers Wellington aircraft in 2016, along with the remains of Polish airmen serving in 305 Squadron. During a complex excavation operation, they managed to find and retrieve the remains of the Polish pilots and their personal belongings, as well as some of the aircraft’s equipment. A memorial to the crew of Wellington IC No. R1322 SM-F was now unveiled in a nearby village with the participation of Polish officials.

On 2 May, a ceremony was held in Oudemirdum to unveil a monument to the Polish crew of the Vickers Wellington aircraft from the 305th Bomb Squadron of Wielkopolska Region named after Marshal Józef Piłsudski. The whole event was made possible thanks to the joint initiative and action of the municipality of De Friese Meren and the head of the search project, Evander Broekman.

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[blockquote style=”2″]”They did an amazing thing. They separated a section of the sea with steel dams, drained it and carried out archaeological work. It was an incredible amount of work, thanks to which they brought back to us our common Polish-Dutch heroes,” said Jacek Zagożdżon of the Air Force Museum in Dęblin[/blockquote].

The monument was unveiled from beneath a 400m² white and red chequered flag, the symbol of Polish airmen since 1918. This was possible thanks to the help and support of the Hurricane of Hearts Foundation. The ceremony was attended by, among others, representatives of the Air Force Museum in Dęblin and the Polish Embassy in the Netherlands.

The unveiled monument has already been adopted by the local Sea Scouts group, who will look after it from now on.

In early May 1941, the Polish crew of the Vickers Wellington bomber was ordered to bomb the inner city of Bremen. Unfortunately they did not reach their destination. On 8 May it was shot down over the waters of the North Sea by a German Bf-110 fighter. Today, the area where the wreckage of the bomber was located is part of the Ijsselmeer artificial reservoir.

[blockquote style=”2″]”The action was very difficult, everything happened at sea in unfavourable conditions. Until the end we did not know what we would find, but the most important thing is that we managed to recover the remains of the two pilots,” Broekman admitted[/blockquote].

In 2016, the Dutch aircraft wreck search group Leemans Speciaalwerken came across the trail of the wreck. Once the craft was found, a specific area was marked out, which was then separated by a steel dam and later drained. This made it possible to access the wreckage and retrieve the remains of the pilots and Wellington components, including propeller fragments, an engine, three bombs, .303 Vickers rifles and personal effects of the pilots.

Some of the elements of the wreck will be transferred to the Air Force Museum in Dęblin, where they will be presented as a permanent exhibition after being processed.

The mortal remains of our airmen were subjected to DNA testing. The results of the tests, together with the ashes, will be passed on to the families of the crew.

Source: museumsp.pl, niezlomni.com