Warbird Information Exchange

...and includes contributions from James, aka on WIX as jdk, regarding the preservation of the metals after recovery using methods used by archaelogical groups on ship wrecks. Metals recovered after a long dip in salt water experience accelerated rates of corrosion. It ends up turning to dust if left in the atmosphere untreated. Ferrous metals can be restored but, if I understand correctly, it remains to be seen if aluminum can be as well. So the Do 17 may have to stored in water under cover until they're ready to start treatment. The treatment is slow and requires total immersion, but the resulting preservation is incredible and permanent.
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showth ... p?t=103006

Pencil, great to see you here. Why not post a few Do 17 facts in a new thread to introduce yourself? (And I have your e-mail in the 'to reply & sort' pile!)

Cheers

I was so lucky to see the movie director in person, but was ashamed at how I turned into a driveling fan boy, D'OH!

Classic Wings reports on this item and says that the bodies of the two dead crew members were recovered and interred, one in the UK and one in the Netherlands.

At around 13.40 hours the aircraft force-landed on Goodwin Sands off the eastern Kentish coast at low tide. Of the four crew, two (Wounded Pilot Feldwebel Willi Effmert, and Bomb Aimer Uffz Hermann Ritzel) became Prisoners-of-War in Canada and two (27-year old Wireless Operator Unteroffizier Helmut Reinhardt and 21-year old Bomb aimer Gefreiter Heinz Huhn) were killed, their bodies being recovered later and buried in Holland and the UK (Cannock Chase German cemetery) respectively.

CREW DETAILS
The German crew details were as follows:
Pilot: Feldwebel (Flt Sgt) Willi Effmert, wounded (POW), age 24.
Observer: Unteroffizier (Sgt) Herman Ritzel (POW), age 21.
Wireless Operator: Unteroffizier (Sgt) Helmut Reinhardt, killed (buried Ysselsteyn, Holland - block BQ, row 6, plot 136), age 27.
Bombardier: Gefreiter (Cpl) Heinz Huhn, killed (buried Cannock Chase - block 1, row 1, plot 405), age 21.

RECOVERY
The safe recovery (with minimal damage) of an aircraft that has rested underwater for nearly 70 years presents substantial challenges – as does the subsequent conservation task. However, the RAF Museum has experience in stabilising and exhibiting aircraft immersed in water for an extended period (such as the Halifax Mk II recovered in 1973 from Lake Hoklingen in Norway and the Hurricane Mk I retrieved from the Thames Estuary in the same year). Conservation techniques have advanced greatly in the last 40 years. Similar restoration efforts undertaken in Norway and Australia in the past few years offer the prospect of less intrusive methods for stabilising and preserving aircraft structures immersed in salt or fresh water for extended periods. The conservation effort will be undertaken at the RAF Museum’s award-winning Michael Beetham Conservation Centre at Cosford where the Dornier will take its place alongside a RAF Vickers Wellington bomber currently undergoing an extensive restoration programme.