Bomber to rise from watery grave

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, the relic 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, 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 aircraft is a unique and unprecedented survivor from the Battle of Britain and the Blitz.

“It is a project that has reconciliation and remembrance at its heart.”

Once it has been lifted, work will start to conserve and prepare the Dornier for display at the museum’s London site within the context of the Battle of Britain story.