The Bomber Command Museum of Canada has begun the groundwork to recover a Second World War Halifax bomber from the seabed off the coast of Sweden as it works steadily toward its ambitious goal of rebuilding a Halifax. The Nanton, Alberta, museum has been gathering parts for decades and will use parts from the wreck for its project. “On our memorial wall outside our museum there are 10,000 names of Canadian lads killed in bombers and over 6,000 were killed in the Halifax. So if you had a Lancaster bomber in your collection — which we do — what do you need sitting beside it, if you’re a red-blooded Canadian?” museum director Karl Kjarsgaard told the CBC.
Recovering the wreck will cost $110,000 and will involve large underwater vacuum cleaners and fans to remove silt to expose the parts. The RCAF aircraft was heavily damaged in a raid on Frankfurt in 1943 and its crew of seven bailed out. Two Merlin engines have already been recovered and it’s hoped that most of the other pieces on the bottom of the Baltic will be raised this summer. When enough pieces have been recovered from wrecks and other sources, a team of volunteers will assemble a full aircraft.