A schoolboy doing research for a history class have unearthed the wreckage of a German WWII fighter plane, with the remains of the pilot still inside.
Daniel Kristiansen, 14, and his father Klaus discovered what’s believed to be a Messerschmitt fighter plane buried in a field on their farm in northern Denmark, the BBC reports.
According to Klaus, his grandfather once told him that a plane has crashed there in November 1944, but it had been removed by German forces.
The pair began digging, expecting to find nothing more than a few ‘old plates’- but found a whole lot more than they bargained for.
After finding bits of plane debris, they borrowed an excavator from a neighbour and dug down seven or eight metres- where they found bones, clothing and the pilots possessions.
Speaking to the BBC, Klaus said:
In the first moment it was not a plane. It was maybe 2,000 – 5,000 pieces of a plane. And we found a motor… then suddenly we found parts of bones, and parts from [the pilot’s] clothes.
And then we found some personal things – books, a wallet with money… Either it was a little Bible or it was Mein Kampf – a book in his pocket. We didn’t touch it, we just put it in some bags. A museum is now taking care of it. I think there’s a lot of information in those papers.
Information that the curator of the Historical Museum of Northern Jutland says will help his team soon confirm the man’s identity.
Curator and head of archaeology at the museum, Torben Sarauw, claims that he thinks they have a name for the pilot- who they believe came from training base in nearby Aalborg.
Along with the pilot’s suit, hat and three unused condoms, they also have his wallet, which contained two Danish coins and some food stamps for the canteen at the Aalborg base.
Once identified, they hope that the pilot’s relatives can be found and they can finally have a funeral for him.
As for Daniel, he has got to get an A for this discovery, surely!?
