The joys of living in Australia

[Hanno Spoelstra]

Originally Posted by David Dunlop

Are they still draining polder in Holland, or has that project ended now? Seems for a while a few years back, the Dutch Military were constantly being called out to deal with uncovered aircraft and vehicles lost during the wartime floodings.

Seeing Tony's Threadjacker 2000 is up and running again these days , I migh as well take this off topic:

David, I assume you are referring to the Flevoploder which was made in the IJsselmeer (formerly Zuiderzee)? This project lasted from the 1950s through the 1960s, and when draining those polders many aircraft wrecks came to light. This was because during WW2 every day & night our skies were filled with bombers flying over to Germany on their bombing missions. Many were shot down over Dutch waters, only to be found when the Dutch started making polders after WW2 and water turned into land.

It has been decades since the bulk of these aircraft were recovered, often they had to wait until the former sea floor had dried up enough to trod on. The purpose of these recoveries have always been to recover the remains of the aircraft crews. The side catch of these recoveries was that parts of the aircraft were saved for mementoes in museums; but it must be said not everything could be saved from the scrapman.

In rivers, lakes and at sea off the coast, every now and then fishermen still drag something to the surface. I'm sure there are still many airmen waiting to be found in their watery graves....

Here are some useful links:
http://home.scarlet.be/ed.ragas/awsrecoveryhistory.html
http://www.arg1940-1945.nl/engels/indexgb.htm
http://forum.keypublishing.com/showt...682#post466682

HTH,
Hanno