Mystery of missing WW2 RAF bomber thought lost over North Sea ‘is solved’ as burnt maps ‘show plane MADE IT to Germany’

AN INVESTMENT It is said that a World War II bomber who was shot down over the North Sea is buried in a small German village.

After a burned map appears to indicate the plane reached its intended target country, the decades-long mystery may soon be resolved.

On March 12, 1945, more than 1,100 aircraft, including the Lancaster RA508 from RAF Metheringham near Lincoln, were sent to bomb Dortmundon.

For years, official records have claimed that this bomber was lost over the North Sea, one of two jets lost that day.

The final resting place of the combat airplane and the fate of its seven crew members have not been established, but a discovery may soon change that.

A crash site in the little town of Radevormwald, close to Dsseldorf, yielded partially burned RAF maps.

Manfred Weichert, a researcher from Cologne, stated that he was 99.9% certain that the Lancaster RA508 was responsible for this crash site.

He stated: The aircraft was probably struck by flak at the height of Cologne/Dsseldorf.

While on fire, it drove off the approach path on the right, collided with a meadow in the Radevormwald sector of lfe 2, and detonated.

This would be consistent with the testimony of witnesses who claimed that on that tragic day, a four-engine plane crashed in the town.

Friedhelm Brack, a local historian, disclosed that he had visited the location as a teenager and gathered maps from the wreckage.

A flight path from the UK to Dortmund was depicted on one of these maps, which was designated RAF.

Weichert later discovered the maps, which Brack had donated to the town archives of Radevormwald prior to his death in 2015.

At first, Brack thought that the PB187 crash—the only other plane to crash that day—had occurred here.

In fact, Weichert thought this might be the missing RA508 after the PB187 went down in Duisburg, 30 miles distant.

“There are no records of this,” he added, “but the wreckage of the plane that had exploded on the ground was probably scrapped after the war.”

After the bomb crater was filled in, the crew’s burned remains were interred inside a wooden box.

The mortal remnants remained there because Bomber Command never looked for the aircraft.

And they would still be there now if they hadn’t been inadvertently dug up throughout the years.

Today, the crash scene is an industrial estate.

One of the maps was hand-annotated, and Weichert has appealed to the relatives of the plane’s missing crew for assistance.

He said that by comparing the handwriting, he could establish the crash place with 100% certainty.

Flight Sergeant Kenneth Robert Haw’s nephew, Ken Haw, 74, told how his aunt, Queenie, attempted and failed to catch up with the young airman before he set out on his last mission.

That was the last time a family member saw him, he said.

At the end of the day, they were all heroes in their own right who went out to perform a task.

MYSTERY SOLVED

Recently, additional lost World War II equipment has been found.

According to a recent article in The Sun, the wreck of a British submarine that was lost more than 80 years ago was discovered in Greece.

In October 1943, the HMS Trooper disappeared while on a covert operation in the Aegean Sea.

Following word from British intelligence that the Germans would try a new landing, possibly in Leros, 64 crew men were on a patrol operation between Donoussa islet and Ikaria.

In the Icarian Sea, close to the two islands, the missing submarine was found 830 feet below the surface.

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