WWII planes' coordinates worked out
Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, October 06 2014:
The Second World War Imphal Campaign Foundation has identified the site where British forces shot down and sunk two Japanese fighter aircrafts (Oscar) in Loktak lake during the Battle of Imphal.
Two fighter aircrafts of the Japanese army were shot down by British forces on June 17, 1944 and they fell into Loktak Lake.
On the same day, British bomber Wellington crashed and the site it crash-landed has also been identified, said Second World War Imphal Campaign Foundation founder Yumnam Rajeshwar.
The sites where the war planes crash-landed were identified after talking with elders who saw the war and some other people who were found selling parts or wreckages of Second World War aircrafts.
The two Oscar fighter aircrafts plummeted into Loktak Lake after they were shot down.
Their tails and posterior sections have been dismantled and sold as scrap metals.
The remaining parts of the aircrafts are still under water, Rajeshwar said.
British bomber aircraft Wellington too crashed the same day.
Six crew members of the bomber aircraft were found dead and floating on Loktak Lake by some local people.
All the six British soldiers were buried at the Imphal War Cemetery.
Engines, cockpits and other parts of the crashed planes are still under water and the foundation has started due process to retrieve all these wreckages of the Second World War era, Rajeshwar said.
Notably, an exclusive museum where World War II artefacts discovered by the Second World War Imphal Campaign Foundation from different areas of Manipur are displayed has already been opened.