Emily Chan
In August 1944, Lieutenant John Fisher Jr. was on a top-secret bombing mission during World War II when his plane crashed near Suffolk, England, taking the life of the 21-year-old. Now, the remains of his lost plane have been found.
About 80 years after Fisher’s crash, dozens of archaeologists, volunteers, veterans, and active-duty American and British service members swept a five-acre plot of field and forest on the eastern coast of Suffolk with metal detectors.
Although John Fisher Jr. was lost nearly a century ago, the search for him still persists, in following with the military philosophy of “no man left behind.”
Cotswold Archaeology, which will oversee the cleaning and cataloging of every remnant, and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency have partnered up to look for lost pilots like Fisher.
They discovered tiny fragments within a deep impact crater that turned out to be from Fisher’s B-17 bomber plane.
So far, the team has recovered 3,000 fragments, including shattered glass from an oxygen bottle, fabric from a parachute, part of a propeller, pieces of the fuselage and engine, a General Motors Corporation nameplate, and a rusted horseshoe that may have been on the plane for luck.
According to CBS News, any human remains that might be found will be flown to a Defense Department lab in Hawaii for testing. If a DNA match can be determined, a military funeral will be held for Fisher, providing closure to his living relatives since his body was never recovered after the plane crash in 1944.
John Fisher Jr. was an American B-17 bomber pilot from New York during World War II. Even at just 21 years old, he was already an experienced pilot. He was also part of Operation Aphrodite, a top-secret and dangerous mission that involved flying planes to bomb German rocket sites and submarine pens.
“These ‘Aphrodite babies’ were stripped back, filled with highly explosive Torpex, and flown toward their targets by just a pilot and co-pilot,” explained Cotswold Archaeology. “Once on course, the crew planned to bail out, leaving a ‘mother’ plane to remotely guide the drone to its target.”
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