# Polish Historians Find WWII Bomber With Remains of Canadian, British Crew



## Colin Parkinson (1 Dec 2006)

Homewardbound at last  

Polish historians find WWII bomber with remains of Canadian, British crew
December 1, 2006 - 0:12 pm 

By: MONIKA SCISLOWSKA 

WARSAW, Poland (AP) - Polish historians have recovered a Royal Air Force Halifax bomber from the Second World War and the remains of its Canadian and British crew, a find yielding treasures for a Warsaw museum that could also provide closure for the families of the doomed airmen.

The badly-damaged hull of the bomber from the 148 Squadron RAF, with remains of its crew, documents and personal belongings, was recently found buried under a field near the southern town of Dabrowa Tarnowska, project manager Piotr Sliwowski told The Associated Press.

According to records, the Halifax JP-276A took off on its final flight with a crew of five Canadians and two Britons from the Italian city of Brindisi around 8 p.m. on Aug. 4, 1944. Canadian pilot Capt. A.R. Blynn was leading the mission to drop supplies of weapons and ammunition to the Polish underground as the Warsaw ghetto uprising raged.

But it was shot down by Poland's Nazi occupiers and remained buried for more than six decades until local residents revealed its location earlier this year. They alerted Warsaw's Museum of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, which started recovery work about two months ago, Sliwowski said.

All elements are now in the museum in the capital undergoing conservation and restoration, said Sliwowski, who heads the museum's history department.

"This is an extraordinary, rare find," Sliwowski said. "There are only three Halifaxes in museums around the world."

The discovery took on a human dimension with the find of the remains of the airmen.

"These were boys aged 28 or 30. Their remains were for decades in the ground; now they will be able to return to their homelands," Sliwowski said.

The historians also found documents, notes and maps and personal items like a folding knife and an well-preserved aviator's badge, "looking like new," Sliwowski said.

"It takes you back 62 years and you start thinking, what were they like, what did they look like, did they have girl friends."

The historians have contacted the British and Canadian embassies in Warsaw.

The plane was part of the Allied effort to supply Poland's resistance near the end of the Second World War. Although its mission came early on in the Warsaw uprising, the planes were banned by British Air Marshal John Slessor from flying over the capital because of the danger and ordered to drop their supplies elsewhere, Sliwowski said.

Containers of weapons and ammunition were found aboard the crashed Halifax.

There are only two restored Halifax bombers in the world, one on display on Britain's Yorkshire Air Museum and the other at the Royal Canadian Air Force Museum in Trenton, Ont. A third Halifax is on display in its "as-recovered" condition at the Royal Air Force Bomber Command Museum in London.

http://www.news1130.com/news/national/article.jsp?content=n120135A


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## niner domestic (1 Dec 2006)

This is fabulous news.  Having family members whose bodies were never recovered from a ship going down and an aircraft downing this story has particularly touched me. And the added bonus of finding a Halifax, amazing.


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## poopkorn (1 Dec 2006)

The question is: why the hell was it buried?  I highly doubt in 60 years enough sediment could cover a plane in Poland...

Maybe in the desert with blowing drifts


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## niner domestic (1 Dec 2006)

Colin P said:
			
		

> Homewardbound at last
> 
> 
> But it was shot down by Poland's Nazi occupiers and remained buried for more than six decades until local residents revealed its location earlier this year. They alerted Warsaw's Museum of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, which started recovery work about two months ago, Sliwowski said.



I believe this may answer your question Poopkorn.  It was more than likely buried by the Resistance/locals to keep the Nazis from finding it.


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## George Wallace (1 Dec 2006)

niner domestic said:
			
		

> I believe this may answer you question Poopkorn.  It was more than likely buried by the Resistance/locals to keep the Nazis from finding it.



Then again, the question would be why would they leave the ammo and weapons on board, instead of taken the cargo and using it in their fight?



> Containers of weapons and ammunition were found aboard the crashed Halifax.


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## niner domestic (1 Dec 2006)

Who knows George.  Maybe the locals will divulge their story as to the whys and why nots.  They obviously remembered it was there. I can speculate that there might not have been enough time to empty and camouflage the aircraft, and maybe it was too dangerous to risk having Allied equipment in their possession so they left it, hoping to go back for it later - except the war ended. Will be interesting to find out.  I'd be interested to follow the repatriation ceremonies of the crews as well.  


ETA: My speculation comes from listening to my grandfather war stories and reading my grandfather's journals of his time working with the SOE, Resistance and 30th AU.


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## geo (1 Dec 2006)

7 airmen, their mission completed at long last

At the going down of the sun
and in the morn
we will remember them!

CHIMO!


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## geo (2 Dec 2006)

another article in the papers today,
it would appear that remains belonging to the crew were buried in a c0mmonwealth grame commission graveyard outside Crakow (sp?) back in 4


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## JackD (3 Dec 2006)

Just a minor quibble with that article, it mentions the Warszawa Ghetto Uprising before returning to the more proper Warszawa Uprising. They are actually two separate battles. it is pedantic to quibble so but unfortunately Poland does get a bad rep when it comes to Jewish relations - hence the term "Nazi Concentration Camps in Poland" as opposed to Polish Concentration Camps. I live here, my second country and I deal with translations - such as with Sobidor - the death camp. i do suggest by the way, that all leaders of countries visit places like Majdanek, Sobidor and such. Maybe if they did, the world would be a better place


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## schart28 (7 Dec 2006)

Now that the wreckage of a long-lost Halifax bomber has been found, a Nova Scotia man is waiting for answers to questions dating back 60 years about his uncle.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/nova-scotia/story/2006/12/07/blynn-bomber.html?ref=rss


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## probum non poenitet (7 Dec 2006)

Perhaps it crashed in a bog?

They find planes pretty well preserved from time to time if they fall into a marsh. 

Just speculating.


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## George Wallace (7 Dec 2006)

That seems to be exactly what the CBC article points out.


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## geo (7 Dec 2006)

If you follow the link you will see a picture of....... lots of bent and twisted metal from the bomber plowing into the field - like a beer can being crushed.  Apparently, the only containers found were of ammunition and sweaters....

They've found some bones BUT, their bodies were recevered in 1945-1946 and buried in a commonwealth war cemetary in Poland.  The closure for family members should have happened some 60 yrs ago.  Guess the Halifax man wasn't told...


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