Last Wednesday , 25 September 2019, Minister of the Interior and Deputy Prime Minister K. Ollongren was present at our salvage site in Echt-Susteren. She was not alone, political representatives from the United Kingdom and Canada were also guests, as were relatives of one of the fallen crew members.

The Minister opened the exposition, which will also be open to the public this Saturday from 2.30 p.m. onwards. The Minister, the representatives from the United Kingdom and Canada, the initiators of the salvage, representatives of the municipality, family members and other guests were informed by salvage officer Major Bart Aalberts.

The following items have been recovered to date: four aircraft engines, four propeller hubs, three large landing legs to a depth of 4.5 metres, a piece of a wheel, oil pumps, dynamos and a large sea container full of aircraft parts, some of which have been twisted into minuscule pieces. The engines appeared to have been crushed by the enormous impact of the crash. With the help of RAF records, the engine numbers that were found made it possible to determine the starboard and port engines and the angle of impact of the bomber, which must have been about 80 degrees.

It also appears that a lot of material was already taken away by scrap dealers shortly after the war. Old iron was worth money, which led to a large-scale hunt for wartime aircraft wrecks. During the salvage work, hard evidence of this was also found, such as shovels and an old ship's hook used to lift the material.