WWII German Plane Found With Pilot Aboard in Demark

[scotrace]

Via CNN:

http://www.cnn.com/2017/03/08/europe/denmark-wwii-plane-trnd/index.html

Still had his wallet, papers, some coins and a few condoms.

 

[Tiki Tom]

Quite a story. The added details about what was in his pockets makes it so much easier to relate to the pilot as a real young man who lived and breathed. A good reminder that WWII was more than just some story that we read about in books. I hope they find his family in Germany and the circle is closed with a burial in his home town surrounded by grand nieces and nephews. Also: quite a find for the Danish Boy.

I once had the idea of poking around with a metal detector in the woods just beyond where I live. Just as a hobby. At the time I was thinking of Roman coins or Roman nails or something of that nature. Talking with a neighbor about it, he said "you are more likely to find unexploded WWII ordinance." That was the end of that idea.

 

[Otter]

Back in the '70s my parents neighbours had potatoes planted at the top of their garden. They lifted and washed their crop to find a live WWII era mills bomb. Cue many EOD types and flashing blue lights. We still get the occasional stray bit of ordnance washing up on the coast where we are, mines, flares, depth charges and the occasional torpedo.

 

[Edward]

Poor bugger. More than time he was properly laid to rest; largely irrelevant whom he fought for.

 

[Otter]

Indeed ! More than a quarter of a million on all sides fought and died in the skies in the second world war.

 

[MisterCairo]

Indeed ! More than a quarter of a million on all sides fought and died in the skies in the second world war.

The risks in the air can be put into perspective like this:

Canadian Second World War casualties - 44,090 lost their lives: 24,525 served in the Canadian Army, 17,397 in the Royal Canadian Air Force and 2,168 in the Royal Canadian Navy.

Of Canada's killed in action, over 39% were in the air.

 

[Otter]

I should clarify, that figure I quoted is only for Europe.
We all owe a great debt to all our Commonwealth allies who provided much needed aircrew.

 

[MisterCairo]

More than a quarter of a million on all sides fought and died in the skies in the second world war

Not sure what you're getting at with your reply. "All sides" means, um, all sides, so if you meant only UK and German forces in the European theatre, that's a strange way of putting it.

For the record, my point was to demonstrate how heavy air losses were relative to land losses.

And by the way, it's a wee bit condescending to look down on sovereign nations' declarations of war, and prosecution thereof, as "providing much needed aircrew".

The colonies fought a bloody war in the name of King George VI. We weren't a personnel supply depot.