WW2 bomber crew’s remains identified 80 years after plane shot down over Netherlands

Burials can go ahead of men who never returned from bombing mission over Germany in 1943

Eighty years after they were shot down by the Germans over Dutch waters, British airmen Arthur Smart, Raymond Moore and Charles Sprack can be laid to rest after the Dutch defence ministry confirmed that their remains had been identified.

Two silver-plated cigarette cases were found with the initials of 27-year-old flight engineer Smart and 21-year-old wireless operator Moore. Their Lancaster bomber never returned from a mission targeting Bochum in Germany on 13 June 1943. Instead the Pathfinder" was tracked on its way home and shot down into the Dutch waters of the IJsselmeer with seven men onboard.