Overview

• Excavation teams finished digging at the Hambach lignite mine edge, re-leveling the pit after unearthing aircraft fragments and human remains from the 1943 crash.
• Artifacts recovered include a shoe sole, uniform remnants, a cigarette case and parachute gear, all secured in a Titz magazine pending DNA testing to identify four missing crew members.
• Dating confirmed the bones as WWII-era so local police closed the case without a criminal probe and British authorities have been notified.
• Many finds will undergo conservation at the LVR-Landesmuseum Bonn while selected items will be loaned long-term to the Arbeitsgemeinschaft Luftkriegsgeschichte Rhein/Mosel.
• Regional researchers and eyewitness accounts guided archaeologists to the crash site after decades of local memory and archival investigation.