Thousands of wreckage from crashed Lancaster put together | Inland

“What people see is an airplane puzzle. Unique in the world, nowhere else is an aircraft exhibited like this,” said a spokeswoman for the museum on Sunday. The aircraft wreckage is exhibited on a sloping roof, nose down. In this way, the silhouette is easy to recognize.

The Lancaster was hit by German anti-aircraft fire on 5 March 1945 on its way back from a bombing raid over Gelsenkirchen. The aircraft crashed near Glabbeek in Belgium, with the nose straight down, and then drilled meters deep into the swampy ground. The seven crew members were killed.

In 2016, the aircraft was excavated and three remains were recovered. After a long search, the municipality of Glabbeek decided to give the device to the War Museum on permanent loan. Given the size of the colossus, there are few museums where there is enough space to exhibit the Lancaster, according to the spokeswoman.

This weekend the wreckage was neatly arranged on anti-slip mats. “It happened very quickly,” the spokeswoman said. “The eight Belgian volunteers of the Plane Hunters Recovery Team were also involved in the excavation of the Lancaster. They knew exactly which pieces had to be in which places.”

“We are missing a few pieces here and there. After all, it has been in the ground for years. In addition, one propeller of the aircraft has been placed on a memorial monument in Glabbeek. But everything else is now in place. We started Saturday at 10am, and Sunday at 2pm it was done! We are now going to work it out even further and give it context. Visitors who walked by were already asking questions about what it is they saw.”

From 10 July there will be an exhibition about the air war under the sloping ramp on which the aircraft is located and a film about freedom will be shown.

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