'Our view is that this is past and history, it was 70 years ago. Mr Benkel, 51, said: 'A lot of people couldn't understand what we were doing and said things like why were we digging up British airmen who bombed our cities and killed our people? Some of the relatives have now expressed their gratitude to the amateur historians and are hoping to finally bury their loved ones seven decades after their deaths. Uwe Benkel, who led the search, said they felt obliged to find the missing men and bring comfort to their families who knew nothing of how or where they died. The archaeological dig in Germany was questioned by some locals who couldn't understand why the team were searching for British airmen who bombed their cities. 'The resulting fire and smoke may have also disabled crew members or, possibly, overwhelmed or suffocated them.'Ī Rolls-Royce engine and landing gear of the World War Two aircraft was found followed by 'hundreds' of fragments of human bones in what would have been the cockpit. 'The explosions from these hits, and resulting shrapnel, could well have killed or mortally wounded, or disabled crew members directly. 'With eyewitnesses reporting the aircraft to be on fire, it seems likely that one or more anti-aircraft shells would have hit the airframe. Peter Elliott from Royal Air Force Museum said it may have been a case of' too little time, or too much damage.' It is not unknown why the men did not manage to parachute from the plane. Would ejector seats have helped? Not necessarily – some of the crew had to move around the aircraft to do their work and so may not have been in their seats when it was hit some of them may have been killed when it was hit, and even modern ejector seats have their limits.Įyewitness Peter Menges saw the plane on fire before it crashed into a field outside the village of Laumersheim, near Frankfurt, and exploded into a fireball. Others might have tried to fly the aircraft, and thereby left it too late to bail out.Īlthough the crew wore their parachute harnesses all the time, they would have had to find their parachute packs and clip them on to the harness, and it would have been very difficult to get to an emergency exit in the dark while the aircraft was perhaps spinning out of control – they wouldn’t have much time before the aircraft crashed. If the aircraft was hit in or near the cockpit the pilot could have been killed or injured (as might other members of the crew) and he would have lost control.
The crew were not all in 'the cockpit' although five of the seven (pilot, flight engineer, navigator, wireless operator and bomb aimer) would have been in the front part of the aircraft – the two gunners were in their turrets further back and at the tail. It’s hard to imagine what it must have been like on board during the attack, though we can reasonably assume that the crew would have made every possible effort to save themselves – and so that the circumstances preventing them from doing so were insurmountable, however highly motivated they were. If the crew were indeed severely injured or unconscious, they would not have been able to operate the seat, even had they the facility available to them. In the dark, and with the aircraft damaged and on fire, it may also have been simply too difficult – too little time, or too much damage to hatches – to escape.Įjector seats require the occupant to be conscious and capable of pulling the handle (there are some exceptions, but this is the general principle). The resulting fire and smoke may have also disabled crew members or, possibly, overwhelmed or suffocated them.Įgress from the Lancaster was difficult at the best of times (there is a large, central wing spar to climb over, and it is generally cramped inside the aircraft despite its apparent size). The explosions from these hits, and resulting shrapnel, could well have killed or mortally wounded, or disabled crew members directly. With eyewitnesses reporting the aircraft to be on fire, it seems likely that one or more anti-aircraft shells would have hit the airframe. There are a number of possible reasons why none of the aircrew were able to save themselves by parachuting from the aircraft.
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