More than 70 years after the end of World War II in Europe there are still millions of families all over the world looking for answers what happened to their loved ones who never made it back home to the family. Lots of them were killed when their aircraft were hit and crashed on enemy territory. Thousands of aircraft including their crews were never found.
Uwe Benkel and his german "Team Vermisstenforschung" - "Searching Group for the Missing" started research 30 years ago and so far they were able to recover the remains of more than 140 aircraftwrecks including the remains of 50 missing crewmembers.
Over the years Uwe Benkels Crash Database reached information for more than 44.000 crashes and he got access to information of almost 50.000 more crashes.
Included are information of all known british crashsites, P-47 and B-17 Crashsites in Europe. Thousands of german crashsites and information is also included in the Database.
Uwe Benkel and his team do not only search for missing crewmembers, to recover thèm and bring closure to the families. He and his team are also doing research for crashsites to inform families and give them the chance to visit those sites. Sometimes relatives from all over the world bring plaques to place at the sites.
They also have the once in a lifetime chance to visit the crashsites, find fragments of the aircraft, visit cemeteries where they were buried first and to get in touch with still living eyewitnesses.
One of those visits happened not to long ago, when Iain Walker and his wife visited the crashsite of Grandpa. He survived the war and Iain took the chance to cross the ocean to visit.
Uwe Benkel and members of his team showed him around and a memorial plaque was placed at the site of the crash.
Shortly another american family will visit Germany and meet Benkel and his Team.
If there are interested familymembers wanting to know more about crashsites and get information they have the chance to contact Uwe Benkel (mu.benkel@t-online.de)
Benkel and his team are spending a lot of time and money to help families. When you think, this is a great job the team is doing you are welcome to help and contribute so the group is able to continue their great work.
There is no support by any government.
You also can contact Uwe Benkel on facebook
