Salvage of Vickers Wellington Bomber HE 727

In 1995, a private foundation ‘Salvage Vickers Wellington 1943 Foundation', initiated the salvage of Vickers Wellington Bomber HE 727 which crashed in the early hours of May 5, 1943 near the village of Wilnis, The Netherlands. In cooperation with the Foundation, the salvage was carried out by the Royal Netherlands Air Force Salvage Team.

In part, the aircraft was salvaged to retrieve the bodies of Flight Sergeant Joseph White and Flight Sergeant Joseph Evariste Adrien Thibaudeau, who perished in the crash but whose bodies were not recovered. The plane's pilot, Warrant Officer R.B. Moulton was also killed during the crash and is buried in the Wilnis General Cemetery.

Both the wireless operator Sergeant Howard H. Hoddinott and the navigator, Sergeant Gordon C. Carter, parachuted out of the burning bomber and were taken prisoner by the Germans.

The salvage site is located in a low lying area, the surface of which lies some six metres below sea level. To keep the site dry, a special drainage system was installed, allowing the recovery team to drain off more than 300 cubic metres of water per hour. A special caterpillared machine scraped away the soil in layers of 5 centimetres at a time. Three members of the military salvage team would then go through the material manually to ensure that they retrieved even the smallest particles.

The salvage area and pace of digging activities were decreased to enable the team to carry out the process with the utmost precision, recovering human remains and unexploded ordnance. After being recovered, the human remains were transported respectfully to the Royal Netherlands Army Identification Unit.

The remains of the two missing men were identified following 10 days of dedicated and careful work by the Royal Netherlands Air Force Salvage team and the Royal Netherlands Army Identification Unit. Remains of WOI Moulton were also identified. They had been buried in the wreckage of the plane for more than 59 years. The well preserved state of the remains along with corroborating medical data of the crew members provided by Canadian authorities played a decisive and conclusive role in this process.

Officials with the Royal Netherlands Air Force have declared the crash site to be clean. It is estimated that close to 100% of the wreckage of the aircraft has been salvaged and secured, including over 5,000 rounds of .303 inch ammunition and several unexploded 12 kilogram incendiary bombs. No heavy explosives were found.

Each day after working hours the public was given the opportunity to visit the excavation site under the observation of the Royal Netherlands Salvage Team, the Royal Netherlands Air Force Press and Information Service, and officials of the municipality of De Ronde Venen. Specialized military personnel provided the public with expert accounts of activities that took place each day. Over the course of the salvage operation, more than 800 people of all ages visited to show their respect for the missing Canadian airmen.

Objects recovered

• a partly charged container of nitrogen - used to inflate rubber floatation bags mounted in bomb cells
• phosphor bombs - A Vickers Wellington at the time (1943) would usually carry a box of small bombs meant to ignite fires and dropped at the same time as the main bomb load.
• hundreds of rounds of ammunition to be used by the machineguns
• six Browning machine guns - These Brownings were belt-fed and could fire 1,000 rounds per gun for the front guns and 2,000 rounds per gun for the rear.
• a medical aid kit with one intact ampul of morphine
• a wooden propeller blade
• a large part of a rear turret plate - the armoured plating to protect the turret gunner from infiltrating fire or FLAK splinters from below or on the sides
• some engine cylinders
• a bomb rack - these racks were positioned in the ‘bomb bay'. The image of an arrow and the text ‘Bombs to lie in this direction' can be seen as if it is brand new.
• a large part of a wireless transmitter
• a main wheel
• one of the aircraft's two sleeve-valved engines
• two cockpit handles to be used to activate the aircraft's engines fire extinguishers
• part of a crewmember's flight cap with headset
• a fire extinguisher
• a dinghy
• two well preserved silk parachutes - The supporting ropes, parts of the canvas bags and the parachute ‘D'- shaped ring look as if they were manufactured recently.
• a brass parachute ‘quick release' buckle
• a so-called Azimuth book, full of tables or indexes showing declinations with respect to the magnetic north on the compass
• a roller map, several metres long and some fifteen centimetres wide, showing the route to be flown as well as the precise position of the target
• an electrical circuit
• part of a rubber oxygen mask
• an aerial or radio antenna with lead balls at the end - These balls prevented the slipstream and rush of air from whipping the aerial and causing it to resonate and whirl around.
• A partly recognizable linen-mounted flight map showing the area of S.W. England, with text reading: ‘Areas dangerous to flying are not indicated on this sheet'.
• a tube of toothpaste on which can be read ‘For teeth and gums'

http://www.derondevenen.nl/ (Vickers Wellington)