MISSING AIR FORCE CREWS

Dominion, Volume 39, Issue 28, 27 October 1945, Page 6

MISSING AIR FORCE CREWS

Disappearances Being Investigated

WORK OF SPECIAL ORGANIZATION

During the war thousands of airmen have been posted as missing and have never been reclassified as killed, or even presumed dead, so that their relatives and friends have no certainty whether they are dead or alive, much Jess where and how they lost their lives if they are dead. Recently it was announced by cable that a special organization had been established to search for traces of lost airmen. The number .of men from New Zealand who come within the scope of such a search is 2355. That figure is the total of missing, missing and believed killed, and presumed dead at September 30. Most of them must certainly have lost their lives, but 303 have been simply posted missing and never transferred .to the missing and believed killed or the presumed dead classes. They are the ones about whose fate least is known. A hundred of them were serving in the Pacific when they became casualties, 158 in the European theatre, 43 in the Far East and two in Canada. An endeavour is made to find out what has happened to each crew that has been reported missing, and areas where traces of missing men might be found are combed without particular casualties in mind to discover useful facts. The work of the investigator is something like that of crime detectives, information being obtained from a great variety of sources to complete the story of a plane’s disappearance. In addition to official records, facts come from captured enemy records, from the Red Cross and from civilian residents of war zones. Residents can tell of seeing a machine shot down, of the burial of bodies or of the finding of- articles which identify, the owners. Watches, finger rings, wallets, papers and photographs are among the personal articles which come into the possession of people living near the place an aeroplane was brought down and which identify the crew. . These articles are later sent to next-of-kin. Tailors names on uniforms and laundry marks on underclothing are other means of identification. Sometimes a combination of slight clues leads to certain identification. Often identification is not coincomplete till a “search officer” has visited a locality nnd Questioned neonle there.