The only surviving German Second World War Dornier Do 17 bomber is to be raised from its watery grave in the English Channel, it has been announced. Its retrieval from the Goodwin Sands off the Kent coast more than 70 years after it was shot down during the Battle of Britain will mark the biggest recovery of its kind in British waters, the RAF Museum said.
The existence of the aircraft became known when it was spotted by divers in 2008 at a depth of some 50ft lying on a chalk bed with a small debris field around it.
Sonar scans by the RAF Museum, Wessex Archaeology and the Port of London Authority then confirmed the identity of the aircraft as the Dornier Do 17Z Werke number 1160.
Nicknamed the Luftwaffe’s “flying pencil” bombers because of their narrow fuselage, this aircraft is said to be in “remarkable condition”.
Other than the effects of sea life, such as barnacles, coral and marine life, it is largely intact.
The main undercarriage tyres remain inflated and the propellers clearly show the damage inflicted during the bomber’s fateful final landing, experts have said.
Lifting it from the sea will take around three weeks using pioneering technology and will have to take place within a given timeframe due to tide and weather conditions.
Retrieving it will be made possible due to a grant of more than £345,000 from the National Heritage Memorial Fund (NHMF), which was set up to save the country’s most precious heritage.
Air Vice-Marshal Peter Dye, director general of the RAF Museum, said: “The discovery and recovery of the Dornier is of national and international importance.
“The aircraft is a unique and unprecedented survivor from the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.
World War II bomber to rise from watery grave