It’s been announced that the wreck of a Baltimore attack bomber aircraft from World War II belonging to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) has been discovered off the coast of Potamos, in Antikythera, Greece.
The twin-engined light attack aircraft, with registration FW282, was operated by the RAAF’s No. 454 Squadron. Returning from a mission over the Aegean Sea on December 3, 1943, it was intercepted by German fighter aircraft and sustained heavy damage.
The plane was forced to ditch, and according to the RAAF, pilot Flight Lieutenant William Alroy Hugh Horsley was knocked unconscious, and woke when water filled the cockpit. Horsley managed to swim to the shore, where he was captured and became a prisoner of war of Germany.
Horsley became a POW for the remainder of WW2 and eventually came back to Australia, where he died in 1962.
The remaining crew, Flight Lieutenant (Navigator) Leslie Norman Row (from the Royal Air Force), Pilot Officer Colin William Walker (air gunner from the RAAF), and Warrant Officer John Gartside (air gunner from the Royal New Zealand Air Force), were declared missing.
In July of 2024, 81 years after the aircraft went down, Greek technical diving group AegeanTec, which specialises in exploring deep-water wrecks beyond the reach of recreational divers, located the attack bomber in 61 meters of water.
Believing it to be an RAAF aircraft, AegeanTec contacted the History and Heritage – Air Force (HUWC-AF), which assessed the discovery, and positively confirmed the wreck as RAAF Baltimore FW282.
RAAF’s Chief of Air Force, Air Marshal Stephen Chappell called the discovery “significant” and said it offered the chance to provide closure to family members.
“The efforts of groups such as AegeanTec are critical for us in accounting for those 3143 Australian aviators with no known grave from the Second World War and the Korean conflict,” Chappell said.
“I am pleased, alongside my colleagues from the RAF and RNZAF, to this week to be able to announce the find and for us to acknowledge, collectively, the bravery of this combined crew of aviators from our three nations,” Chappell added.
The RAAF has stated that it will coordinate a memorial service for the crew of FW282.