Texas A&M research team begins search for missing crew of WWII bomber

A MISSION UNFINISHED: Uncovering a Lost WW2 B-17

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7XzUUcdxLu8

For some families, the end of World War II brought long-awaited reunions with returning soldiers. For others, it marked the traumatic realization that their loved ones were among the many still lost or missing.  

Among those unaccounted are the crew of a four-engined heavy bomber aircraft B-17 Flying Fortress that crashed into the depths of the Baltic Sea in 1943 sometime during the height of battle against the Nazis. Eight decades later, that same bomber was recently discovered by researchers from Texas A&M University in an investigative project to help identify the aircraft and its occupants, in hopes of bringing closure to the descendants of the missing soldiers.  

Led by Texas A&M nautical archaeologist Dr. Piotr Bojakowski, in collaboration with the U.S. Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA), the team traveled to Denmark in July for a mission launched from Kiel Bay, Germany, to identify and document the remains of the combat aircraft.  

The effort is part of the DPAA’s global effort to locate and identify the remains of approximately 81,000 American service members still unaccounted for from past wars and marks yet another milestone in Texas A&M’s longstanding reputation as a leader in underwater archaeology.

“I’ve worked on many archaeological sites and underwater sites, but I always have a special preference for World War II and military sites,” Bojakowski said. “We want to investigate the case not just as an archaeological site; we want to understand what happened and bring closure to the families. It is a unique experience that requires a lot of archaeological work and careful investigation of all individual pieces to provide the best answers.” 

Divers and Remote Sensing Confirm the Wreckage

Using advanced underwater exploration technologies, including side-scan sonar imaging and magnetometry metal detection, the researchers conducted a remote sensing survey of a one-square-kilometer area of the Baltic Sea to pinpoint the exact location of the B-17 wreckage, originally discovered by a local diver and reported to the DPAA in 2001. Anomalies detected on the seafloor were marked as potential targets of interest, and a remotely operated vehicle was deployed to determine whether they represented unusual geological formations or aircraft debris. 

An image resembling part of an airfoil prompted Bojakowski, members of his team and volunteers from the Nordic Maritime Group to dive to the site to confirm the findings. There, buried under years of sediment and marine growth, lay the remains of the downed bomber.  

“It’s an exciting process to see a crash site underwater,” Bojakowski said. “Even though it’s in ruins, you begin to visualize the entire aircraft with the engine and wings and fuel tanks. You slowly start piecing everything together in a way that makes sense and understand what happened.” 

To their astonishment, two of the aircraft’s .50-caliber machine guns had been knocked loose on impact, and the team was able to recover them to the surface. After cleaning sea concretion, the serial numbers of each machine gun became clearly visible.

Uncovering the Past to Heal the Present

Katie Custer Bojakowski, an instructional assistant professor of anthropology and member of the research team, said obtaining the machine gun’s serial numbers is a significant step toward conclusively identifying the B-17 crew. 

“On the aircraft wreckage, it's really important to find the machine guns,” she said. “They are a controlled item in the military and so are not only stamped with a serial number, but their location on any given aircraft was also tightly controlled throughout the war. 

“As more archival research is done on the serial numbers, we'll have a positive identification of the aircraft, and then a positive identification of the people who were known to be lost on the aircraft.”

Bojakowski emphasized the power of partnership in research operations, noting that their success depends on collaboration and the combined expertise of many partners.  

“There's not one single individual or agency that can start and finish this entire investigative process and research,” Bojakowski said. “It takes a lot of individuals, a lot of science, a lot of experiences and a lot of people. As an R1 institution, we have the best facilities and students to continue investigating underwater sites and be part of a bigger scientific process.” 

View more photos here!