Some users are currently celebrating the release of a new Avro Lancaster model.
I won't join in — not because the model isn't good, but because I’ve flown several versions of the Lancaster over the years in FSX and P3D for review purposes. My feelings about this aircraft are a little different now.
Further north in Brandenburg, near Rathenow, the wreck of an RAF bomber still lies hidden in a swamp. The remains of the crew were recovered long ago and returned to the UK. No one seems to know for sure whether it was an Avro Lancaster or a Handley Page Halifax.
The city doesn't have the money to raise the aircraft.
And it’s not the only one.
Brandenburg still holds several World War II wrecks — Allied and German — some known, many not. A recent discovery involves an American B-17:
https://www.rnd.de/panorama/usa-graben- ... KZD5Q.htmlIn East Germany, where I grew up, such topics were largely avoided.
Downed aircraft didn’t fit the official narrative.
It wasn’t politically wise to dig — literally or figuratively.
One phrase, though, stuck with me — a sentence we were required to learn, but which gained weight over time:
“A war is only over when the prisoners are home and the dead have all been found.” (Lenin)
And it isn’t over.
Thousands of airmen are still missing — especially from the German Luftwaffe, which defended the Reich in the final years of the war.
Many were buried hastily, or left where they fell.
And now we’re running out of time. The dog tags buried with the dead are corroding. In a few more decades, many will be unreadable.
The search is difficult.
And urgent.