Recovery of downed RAF bomber with Czechoslovak crew underway in The Netherlands

Work has begun in the Dutch municipality of Nieuwe Niedorp on the recovery of a Vickers Wellington  IC T2990 bomber of the British Royal Air Force with a Czechoslovak crew shot down on June 23, 1941.

The crew members of the downed aircraft were Alois Rozum, Leonard Smrček, Vilém Konštatský, Jan Hejna, Karel Valach and Vilém Bufka, the sole survivor, who was captured and later died in captivity.

The Czech ambassador to The Neatherlands, Kateřina Sequensová, visited the site to speak to the mayor and the recovery team.

More than 5,500 airplanes were lost in the Netherlands during the Second World War. Thirty to fifty of these airplane wrecks are likely to contain remains in the ground. The National Airplane Recovery Program was launched in 2019.