Lancaster Bomber remains found 68 years after D-Day crash

Their courageous wartime mission saw them shot down by the Luftwaffe, their remains never to be found.

And as the years passed, the families of Harry Jeffery and Albert Chambers thought they'd never know the location where their beloved RAF heroes met their end in June 1944.

But 68 years after the pair's Lancaster Bomber was shot down on D-Day, experts have finally found the plane's wreckage in Normandy.

The tangled remains of the Bomber were identified after aviation archaeologists found a gold ring with a poignant inscription from the woman Flt Lieut Chambers married just eight months earlier.

British expert Tony Graves found the ring bearing the initials 'AC' and inscribed 'Love Vera' - a touching tribute from the 21-year-old bride he had married less than a year before his death.

The families of Flying Officer Harry Jeffery and Flt Lieut Albert Chambers never knew where the Bomber Command heroes crashed until the stricken Lancaster was found in France last week.

World War Two hero Harry Jeffery, 22, flew nearly 40 missions bombing a string of Germany's most dangerous targets before his ill-fated mission on June 6, 1944.

His colleague Albert Chambers, 23, flew nearly 60 missions, including one death-defying flight where his Stirling was riddled with 300 bullets from ten German Messerschmidts.

The two men were among seven on board the Lancaster, which carried out a bombing mission at Pointe du Hoc on the coast of Normandy on D-Day.

After turning round and heading for home at the end of the mission, they came under fire from Luftwaffe pilot Oberleutnant Helmut Eberspacher, who went on to shoot down three Lancasters in five minutes.

The pair's families have now told of their relief at how the location of their crashed Lancaster Bomber has now been revealed.

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Harry's sister Doris Gridley, now 83, said: "I was only 15 when Harry was killed. But I have always been so proud of him.

"My family and I have never forgotten Harry. We always remember him on D-Day and Remembrance Day.

"We visit the Runnymede Memorial for airmen with no known graves every year. It is a great relief."

Delighted John Chambers, 76, like Doris, had no idea where his brothers' Lancaster crashed until British aviation archaeologist Tony Graves revealed its location last week.

The ring found by Tony Graves belonged to his brother Flt Lieut Chambers, who married his 21-year-old bride Vera Grubb just eight months before he died.

Flt Lieut Chambers also won the Distinguished Flying Cross, and was wireless operator and air gunner on the doomed flight.

John said: "It's a huge relief Albie's Lancaster has been found after all these years, even though we haven't found his remains. I never stopped trying to find his aircraft, but now I can finally relax."

Doris told how she has proudly kept more than 20 photos of Harry with his Bomber Command comrades, all his medals, his coveted logbook and even his neatly-pressed RAF uniform and forage cap.

Clutching his prized DFM, she said: "I was only 13 when Harry started flying operations on Lancasters. I was only a young girl and I never realised how dangerous it was. I always thought Harry would come home.

"Every raid must have been terrifying carrying those high-explosive bombs and facing the German fighters and all that flak and shelling."