A team of marine archaeologists is one step closer to identifying an Air Force crew who lost their lives aboard a B-17 bomber amid the height of World War II. For 82 years, their unidentified remains and aircraft have rested at the bottom of the icy Baltic Sea. While more work is needed to match the downed plane to its unknown pilots, a key clue may reside on a pair of surprisingly well preserved .50-caliber machine guns.
What was the B-17 bomber?
Eight decades after its debut, the Boeing B-17 bomber remains one of military history’s most recognizable aircraft. Commonly known as the Flying Fortress, the B-17 is famous for its role in multiple campaigns across Germany, including the tragic Dresden bombing in February 1945. The US military specifically commissioned the four-engined plane to avoid radar detection, by flying long-range at altitudes as high as 35,600 feet. Since the B-17’s cabin remained unpressurized throughout a flight, the aircraft’s 10-member crew were required to wear specialized suits to withstand the thin air and freezing temperatures.
The Flying Fortress cumulatively dropped more bombs than any other plane during World War II, but those numbers came at a steep cost to its crews. Over Germany, B-17’s only had a 25 to 33 percent chance of surviving the 25 flights required to complete a single tour.
A mystery crash
An estimated 81,000 United States service members remain missing in action from past wars, including the crew of a B-17 bomber that went down while flying above the Baltic Sea near Germany in 1943. This particular plane was lost to history until 2001, when a local diver reported their discovery of the wreckage to the US Defence POW/MIA Accounting Agency (DPAA). In July, marine archaeologists from Texas A&M University began collaborating with the DPAA to pinpoint the bomber’s underwater location, with a goal to finally identify the plane and its crew. The team surveyed a 0.38-square-mile section of sea using techniques such as side-scan sonar imaging and magnetometry metal detection to locate the B-17’s exact position. Next, they guided a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) to any anomalies flagged during the scans to separate geological formations from actual wreckage.
ROV footage revealing a half-buried section of airfoil ultimately convinced Texas A&M marine archaeologist Piotr Bojakowski and volunteers from the Nordic Maritime Group to dive down and investigate themselves. However, Bojakowski and his team had to swim extremely close to the plane to obtain visual confirmation as the Baltic Sea’s murky, blue-green waters only allowed for less than 10 feet of visibility.
“It’s an exciting process to see a crash site underwater,” Bojakowski said in a recent university profile. “Even though it’s in ruins, you begin to visualize the entire aircraft with the engine and wings and fuel tanks. You slowly start piecing everything together in a way that makes sense and understand what happened.”
Serial numbers and salvage efforts
During their dives, Bojakowski’s team made a particularly remarkable find amid the B-17 wreckage–one that could finally identify its MIA crew. It appears that the Flying Fortress’ twin .50-caliber machine guns were ripped from the plane during the crash. Despite the damage, the guns have remained in decent condition even after more than 80 years underwater. They were subsequently raised to the surface for closer inspections, and careful cleaning eventually allowed Bojakowski and colleagues to clearly read the machine guns’ serial numbers.
“On the aircraft wreckage, it’s really important to find the machine guns,” explained anthropologist Katie Custer Bojakowski. “They are a controlled item in the military and so are not only stamped with a serial number, but their location on any given aircraft was also tightly controlled throughout the war.”
With more archival research, both Bojakowskis are confident that they’ll be able to ID the specific B-17 bomber, as well as its crew. From there, they can contact any of their surviving descendants and complete a long incomplete chapter of history.
“We want to investigate the case not just as an archaeological site; we want to understand what happened and bring closure to the families,” said Piotr Bojakowski. “It is a unique experience that requires a lot of archaeological work and careful investigation of all individual pieces to provide the best answers.”
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