Revealed: Skeleton of German WWII pilot dug up by Danish schoolboy is identified as 19-year-old soldier by his initials etched onto a watch found in the wreckage
- Daniel Rom Kristiansen, 14, found the German Messerschmitt plane, and its pilot
- Pilot Hans Wunderlich crashed over the Danish village of Birkelse in 1944
- Daniel was studying WW2 and his father Klaus suggested he search the field
- Klaus remembered a comment his grandfather had made about a plane crashing
The skeleton of a German WWII pilot dug up by a Danish schoolboy has been identified as a 19-year-old soldier by a soldier's log book and the initials etched onto a watch found in the wreckage.
Pilot Hans Wunderlich, whose remains were found by 14-year-old Daniel Rom Kristiansen earlier this month, crashed over the Danish village of Birkelse in 1944.
Daniel found the German Messerschmitt plane, and its pilot, after he searched the field of his family farm as part of a homework project.
Danish teenager, Daniel Rom Kristiansen, holds up a piece of the wreckage from a World War II airplane that likely crashed in a northern Denmark 72 years ago
German information office Deutsche Dienststelle was able to identify the remains using a soldier's log book and a hand-written name on the cover of a food coupon booklet
The pilot's initials were also etched on the back of a watch found at the crash site
His father Klaus Kristiansen jokingly suggested that Daniel search the field after he remembered a comment his grandfather had made about a plane crashing there in November 1944.
German information office Deutsche Dienststelle was able to identify the remains using a soldier's log book and a hand-written name on the cover of a food coupon booklet, according to The Local.
A watch etched with the soldier's initials was also found at the scene.
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Hans Wunderlich was born in Neusorg, a small town in the state of Bavaria, around 200km north of Munich, in 1925.
The crash happened on October 10 1944, according to German archives, which record a 'deadly crash in marshy terrain. Excavation work was postponed, since this was in vain.'
Daniel found the German Messerschmitt plane (stock image), and its pilot, after he searched the field of his family farm
Members of the Danish military check for wreckage from a World War II airplane which was found by the schoolboy
The pilot’s death was officially recorded on March 5, 1945, at Holenbrunn City Hall.
Daniel and his father decided to take a metal detector out and see what they could discover on their farm in Birkelse - but never really expected to find anything.
He told Danish news station DR P4 Nordjylland: 'When my son Daniel was recently given homework about World War Two, I jokingly told him to go out and find the plane that is supposed to have crashed out in the field.'
When the machine started beeping over a patch of boggy ground the pair started digging - but realised they would need to go deeper.
They borrowed an excavator from a neighbour, and around four to six metres down, they discovered the remains of the plane.
Debris from the wreck of a World War II era fighter plane included the aircraft's engine
Daniel Rom Kristiansen, 14, found the German Messerschmitt plane, and its pilot, after he searched a field as part of a homework project
The father and son found an engine from the ME 109 Messerschmitt plane, Luftwaffe munitions, and the remains of the aircraft's pilot.
'In the first moment it was not a plane,' Mr Kristiansen told the BBC. 'It was maybe 2,000 - 5,000 pieces of a plane. And we found a motor... then suddenly we found parts of bones, and parts from [the pilot's] clothes.
'And then we found some personal things - books, a wallet with money... Either it was a little Bible or it was Mein Kampf - a book in his pocket. We didn't touch it, we just put it in some bags. A museum is now taking care of it. I think there's a lot of information in those papers.'
The farmer said he contacted World War Two historians and the Danish authorities after making the discovery, North Jutland Police have now closed the site for investigation.
The plane will have to be removed by bomb disposal experts, as it crashed with ammunition on board.
Members of the Danish military check for wreckage from a World War II airplane
The wreckage of the plane was discovered on the family's farm in Birkelse, Denmark
Forensic police are working to recover the dead pilot's remains, and he will likely be buried in Germany afterwards.
The field is currently used to graze cattle, and Mr Kristiansen said that his family has worked on the land where the plane was buried for decades.
He added that he has lived there for 40 years, oblivious as to what was hidden just beneath the surface.
'We had never seen anything on the surface,' he said.
'Not a single bit of metal. He was telling a lot of stories, my grandfather. Some of them were not true, and some of them were true - but this one was true. Maybe I should have listened to him a bit more when he was alive!'
The father and son found Luftwaffe munitions among the debris from the ME 109 Messerschmitt plane
TV crews, forensic police and explosives experts have now descended on the farm to examine the wreckage
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