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Cooley Hurd

(26,877 posts)
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 06:46 PM Mar 2017

Boy finds WWII plane with pilot's remains in cockpit

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/europe/denmark-wwii-plane-trnd/index.html

(CNN)A 14-year-old Danish boy doing research for a history class found the wreckage of a German World War II plane with the remains of the pilot in the cockpit.

Daniel Kristiansen and his father, Klaus, discovered what's believed to be a Messerschmitt fighter plane buried in a field on their farm near Birkelse in northern Denmark.

"We went out to the field with a metal detector," Klaus Kristiansen told CNN. "I hoped we might find some old plates or something for Daniel to show in school."

Instead, they found bits of plane debris. So they borrowed an excavator from a neighbor and dug down seven or eight meters.

"At first we were digging up a lot of dirt with metal fragments in it. Then we suddenly came across bones and pieces of clothes," Kristiansen said. "It was like opening a book from yesterday."

</snip>


Wow!
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yagotme

(2,848 posts)
3. Can't tell from photo at link,
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 06:56 PM
Mar 2017

but I'm thinking that the field must be pretty soft to allow a plane to bury itself that deep after impact. The engine would go down pretty far, but maybe the lighter pieces were "retrieved" by the Germans, and the front part of the fuselage, including the cockpit, were deep enough to not be messed with.

anneboleyn

(5,611 posts)
5. That is what I was wondering -- how it remained undisturbed for so long. It wasn't in a place
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 06:59 PM
Mar 2017

that would allow it to remain uncovered without being noticed.

yagotme

(2,848 posts)
7. A field that far north, in Nov/Dec time frame,
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 07:03 PM
Mar 2017

wouldn't see much use until mid spring, I would think. Perhaps the Germans cleared away the surface wreckage only, leaving the family to think that all the wreckage had been taken. I imagine that the locals would have been kept away from the site anyway, at least until the cleanup crew was done.

anneboleyn

(5,611 posts)
4. It is amazing to think it remained undisturbed on land for some time until the elements gradually
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 06:56 PM
Mar 2017

covered it (maybe it created a small crater when it crashed?) If the plane has any identifying marks left, such as serial numbers, I bet they will be able to research the identity of the pilot.

 

Fluke a Snooker

(404 posts)
6. Germans were more advanced than the US force in one major way
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 07:00 PM
Mar 2017
...(They found his) pilot's suit, hat and three unused condoms


At least the flyers weren't real Nazis like Hitler, the German High Command, and the current Republican Party members.

yagotme

(2,848 posts)
9. Why do you believe the flyers weren't real Nazi's?
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 07:06 PM
Mar 2017

Goehring was head of the Luftwaffe, and a WW1 pilot. Believe he qualified as a Nazi. Bet there were several more in the ranks below him, too.

Aristus

(66,096 posts)
10. Any chance that the condoms would have been used?
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 07:06 PM
Mar 2017

Hey, look at these! Souvenirs! Danke, Helga! Wiedersehen, schatz!

 

cwydro

(51,308 posts)
12. Many of those who served as fighting men in the German services
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 07:43 PM
Mar 2017

were not members of the Nazi party.

Brother Buzz

(36,217 posts)
15. Ah, of course!
Wed Mar 8, 2017, 08:05 PM
Mar 2017

I believe I would have figured it out eventually, maybe even in my sleep tonight. Thanks!

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