This has to be the ultimate homework project. Certainly more impressive than the school work that I turned in. 
Information on Germany’s ME 109. It’s real name is the Messerschmitt Bf 109.
I wonder if the boy’s grandfather buried this plane after the war? The article indicates it’s been used as pasture land for decades.
Seems unlikely erosion or silt could do the job in only 70 or so years.
Cool story, Brah!
My favorite part: " Either it was a little Bible or it was Mein Kampf "
Mein Bible?
I imagine that flying an ME-109 into the ground shredded the pilot’s body and his book.
I’d imagine that 80 years of being buried had more to do with it. We can take away that it was a small, well-bound “memento” type of book and thus could have been either of the options mentioned, or something similar like a book of poems or scripture.
Fascinating find, though. I imagine the central plains of Europe still hold many. As for not being found, I’d guess that he went down hard in slushy winter or spring terrain and just… disappeared.
They found the aircraft remains eighteen feet underground.
Probably both. Poor fellow, even if he was a bad guy.
The families will be relieved to learn what happened and give the remains a burial.
Even after all this time. The older relatives will remember childhood stories of an Uncle or Dad that served in the Luftwaffe and went missing during the war.
I’d hope we’re passed the notion that every German was a ‘bad guy’. This isn’t a boys comic book story.
Yes indeed. Many (in non-urban areas at any rate) simply lying on the surface, the wreckage usually treated with a good deal of respect as a memorial.
Here’s one from near my new home:
The site details lots more in just one small area of England.
Why can the book found only be the Bible or Mein Kaumpf? What if it turns out to be How to Win Friends and Influence People? What if it’s Hot Naked Frauleins?
How to Fly an Airplane in Ten Easy Lessons.
I’m going to hell
Wow, very cool.
Emphasis mine. Crew member? The 109 had only the pilot, right? The 110 had a crew of 2, IIRC.
With Chapters 4-10 in mint condition, never read!
The famous 1940 edition, with the chapter “Landing Gear” omitted by the printer.
German a/c based at Aalborg, near the boy’s home, at the time included Bf 109G-12 two seat trainer versions of which some crashed in the area, but this was apparently not one of them. News stories say the boy’s great grandfather recalled a crash in November or December 1944 where he assumed the Germans recovered the plane/pilot but maybe they had not. This led to speculation it was the Bf 109G-6 of Student Pilot Obergefreiter Bruno Krüger who crashed on a flight from Aalborg November 27, 1944, but whose plane and body were never found. However I’ve read that authorities have denied this and are not ready to disclose the pilot’s identity. Krüger seems to have been the only one to have disappeared in that two month period flying from that base, according to the site ‘Air War over Denmark’.
http://www.flensted.eu.com/
Hey, I’ll have you know that if it wasn’t for that book, that Danish field would have gone right through his heart!
His heart and the rest of him went right through the Danish field.
Interesting. Thank you.
They identified the pilot. His last surviving family member, a sister died in 2006. She had no children.
That’s a unfortunate consequence of war. Sometimes there’s no one left to continue the family name.