Traces Of Bombers And Possible Remains Of Airmen Lost During World War II Found In Italy

Illustration of a B-25 Mitchell bomber. (Wikimedia Commons/USAF)

JAKARTA - Archaeological excavations in Sicily, Italy have uncovered traces of a United States (US) heavy bomber that went missing in World War II that was shot down in 1943, and possible human remains that could lead to the identification of five airmen whose bodies were never found.

The six-week excavation that ended last week was carried out by a team from the Pentagon's POW/MIA Defense Accounting Agency, which locates and identifies missing US military personnel around the world.

The site near Sciacca was identified in 2017 by investigators using historical records and metal detectors.

Excavations this year found debris "consistent with that of the B-25 Mitchell," said archaeologist Clive Vella, the expedition's scientific director, contributing to the hope that any confirmed remains would be linked to the missing crew.

"We owe an accurate answer to (their) families," Vella told the Associated Press, citing Euronews Dec. 24.

The American B-25 Mitchell heavy bomber with a crew of six was one of 52 airborne personnel lost in the area during World War II, mostly during 1943 when the Allies pushed into southeastern Sicily.

Illustration of a B-25 Mitchell bomber. (Wikimedia Commons/TMWolf)

The plane was shot down while targeting a camouflaged German airstrip amid olive groves and meadows on July 10, 1943. A German military report documented the crash of the US plane about two kilometers (more than a mile) from Sciacca airport, Vella explained.

A crew member was soon found and buried in the city cemetery. The body was claimed in 1944 by US military officials, but five other airmen are still missing.

In the decades that followed, the crash site "like most other places in the Mediterranean region, searching for metal, the soil was returned to its original use. The scars of the accident are largely gone," Vella said.

The evidence, which includes possible human bones as well as potential aircraft remains, has been brought to a laboratory in the US for examination.

To note, there are more than 81,600 US military personnel missing worldwide, including 72,350 from World War II, 7,550 from the Korean War and 1,584 from the Vietnam War. More than 41,000 of the total are estimated to be lost at sea.