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2LT Lester Lowry was a fresh pilot on January 26, 1944 when he took off in his P-47 in Essex. He never returned.<\/p>\n
Not an unusual story leader – we lost lots of pilots in WWII, especially over Europe, and between horrendous crashes and\u00a0 losses over water many have never been recovered. DPAA says 71,000 are still missing from WWII alone, and it’s safe to say that no matter how much hard work is put into the task, that number will never reduce to zero. But, it may be one less now, as Lt. Lowry’s plane has been located after almost 82 years.<\/p>\n
\nAt the time of the crash, Second Lt. Lester L. Lowry was flying a P-47 Thunderbolt aircraft, named \u201cLucky Boy,\u201d during a training exercise near Essex, England, on Jan. 26, 1944, according to The Guardian<\/em>. Then the 23-year-old’s plane suddenly dove straight into the ground and caught on fire.<\/p>\n
Lowry has been listed as a soldier missing in action (MIA) ever since.<\/p>\n
In 1949, investigations began searching for signs of Lowry and the tragic accident, but nothing was found, the BBC reported in September. In 1979, amateur archaeologists in Essex recovered multiple aircraft components, some of which were connected to Lowry\u2019s plane and its crash site.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
You would think something like a crash site would be identified just a few years later.<\/p>\n
\nThen in 2023, 78 years after the war ended, the DPAA, the U.K.\u2019s Ministry of Defense and Cotswold Archaeology began working on \u201cOperation Nightingale\u201d to help find, account and honor the soldiers who died in combat. There are still around 72,000 WWII service members unaccounted for, according to The Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n
Since Operation Nightingale began, the three agencies have worked on 24,757 square feet of the site and recovered nearly 5,000 of the plane\u2019s artifacts. This includes the engine\u2019s cylinder heads, valves, pistons, fuel system pipes, machine gun components, fuselage, the wings and the cockpit panel pieces, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
It sounds like a fairly horrific rash, as most of the parts they describe are usually parts of larger assemblies, andf what is pictured above are very small parts.<\/p>\n
\nLowry was born in Grove City, Penn., in 1920, according to the BBC. He was orphaned at 9 and raised by his aunt, per The Guardian<\/em>.\u00a0He later joined the Pennsylvania National Guard and was mobilized in 1941. He then transferred to the U.S. Air Forces and by November 1943, he was stationed in England, according to the BBC.<\/p>\n
It was suspected that Lowry\u2019s crash occurred because he had only had 47 hours of training, and new pilots were typically taken quickly into combat.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
But there’s that Paul Harvey possibility…<\/p>\n
\nBut a nearby witness at the time of the crash, Peter Morris, now 90, shared his account of the accident, saying that Lowry landed near a schoolyard where 150 kids were, Toksvig explained to The Guardian<\/em>.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeter thinks that Lowry missed the school on purpose,” Toksvig told The Guardian<\/em>. “Suddenly, the whole story flipped on [its] head. Maybe Lowry wasn\u2019t inexperienced. What he actually was was a hero.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
\nWilson added that although Lowry lost his life during training, his \u201csacrifice is no less than someone who\u2019s killed in the first wave on Omaha Beach,” adding, \u201cEveryone\u2019s doing their duty.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Sandi Toksvig is co-hosting an episode of\u00a0 Hidden Wonders<\/em> featuring the excavation, and Sam Wilson is the lead Cotswold’s archeologist.<\/p>\n
Hopefully they will find Lowry’s remains soon and bring him home. He’s still one of ours.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"