Hopeful Nephew Believes Uncle’s Remains will be Found, 70 years Later.

Nephew, Graham Hill (center) hopes the remains of his uncle, Roland Hill (left and right) will be found.

Graham Hill, the nephew of Sergeant Roland Hill, holds on to the hopes that the remains of his uncle will be found—70 years after death.

Sergeant Hill, from Leicester, died when a Halifax bomber he was flying in crashed somewhere near Berlin in 1943. His nephew, Graham Hill, from Saint Albans, hopes a project tasked with finding the wreck will be able to go forward and find his uncle’s remains. He went on to say that he would like for his uncle to be buried in a war cemetery in Berlin. Sergeant Hill was 32 years old when he died. At the time, he was the flight engineer and was one of a seven man crew who perished in the crash.

The nephew told BBC there was a plan to excavate the site ten years ago, but it never began. Now the plan has been mentioned again, he is hopeful that it will follow through. He also mentioned that a Canadian museum was overseeing the project—which will cost close to £50,000. David Keen, from the Royal Air Force Museum, stated the plane crashed in a heavily wooded area with a soft, marshy ground.

Keen speculates that the plane most likely would have been broken up when it hit, so the bodies either were sent from the plane or they are still trapped inside. Keen also added that only two of the deceased crewmen were recovered and identified. Keen isn’t very optimistic though because there were 30 Halifax bombers like the one Roland was in. In total, 63 aircraft either crashed or simply did not return home.