Spitfire Excavation (and Pilot Recovered) Italy

Thanks for posting this.

Thank you for your sacrifice and rest in peace John Coates.
May this bring peace and closure to your family.

Andy

I also linked this to the Pprune forum and you will be pleasantly pleased by some of the responses / results, one brings a tear to ones eyes and shows the web for the good it can do.

https://www.pprune.org/military-aviation/602507-warrant-officer-john-henry-coates-ex-treble-one-recovered.html

Along with the six grandchildren located it doesn’t get any better than this… And I quote

John Henry Harry Coates , Spitfire RAF , Cavazere ,Venezia , Italy
good morning
I am a partner and responsible for research of the Romagna air finders
if you want to follow our work
for the research of Jhon Henry Coates and other research you can do it at these links
thank you so much

FACEBOOK SITE : Romagna Air Finders

ALBUM PHOTO FB SITE : in Romagna Air Finders – Spitfire MK IX , Cavarzere , marzo 1945 , ottobre 2017 .

YOUTUBE CHANNEL (subscribe) : Romagna Air Finders

I can confirm that at least 6 grandchildren have already been found
and surely there will be many others as the pilot had 6 people between brothers and sisters

By , Venturi Pierpaolo ( in FB)
pincopallo68 is offline Report Post

Harry was my great uncle. Given that we have only one photo of him, very little about him is known and I grew up being told he was shot down over Lake Como, it is guys like the Romagna Air Finders group who do much more than find old aeroplanes in the dirt. I did 17 years in the RAF so Harry was always at the back of my mind and I’ve found out more about him in the last 2 months than I ever knew. We’re all eternally grateful to the group for their commitment.

I thoroughly recommend looking through their pictures of the excavation. The conditions they were working in look pretty dreadful – wet, boggy clay. But it look like that clay has had an amazing, preservative effect on the aircraft. The airframe is not recognisable – it’s just bits, but some of the items they pulled out are in superb condition. I reckon BBMF could re-use the tyre on the tailwheel!

Anyway, thanks again to these guys for their dedication and work. Especially for the respect they paid, and the ceremony they gave Harry, when his remains were discovered. There’s another thread going on about war graves. Harry’s funeral will not be until 2019 apparently, and he will be buried in Italy. I’ll try and keep this thread updated if anyone’s interested.

Thank you ‘Nutloose’ for creating this thread and all for your kind comments in particular Andy Watts who has expressed my feelings far better than I could.
W O John Henry Coates (Harry) was my uncle and as Andy has said for 72 years we all thought he had perished at Lake Como and would never be found.
Only through the dedication and massive efforts of these wonderful Italian guys of Romagna Air Finders and AirCrash PO Airfinders have we found Harry and his Spitfire and he will now have the funeral he deserves. They searched for some 2 years evidently after receiving reports from locals and finding a Luftwaffe aircraft in the area earlier.
I first found out when my sister rang me on 22nd Dec 2017 my 75th birthday…you can imagine the surprise.
A number of nephews and nieces are now aware of the news.
Through these Italian guys we have found out so much..even his Spitfire IXC serial PT410 and 111 Squadron code JU-R.
I never did Facebook but now several of these chaps are my facebook friends and we cannot thank them enough. John Coates

So well done everyone involved and too Paul for originally posting the thread…. Result! 🙂

Re: Great news, people still care

I think it is impossible not to care once you’ve experienced a case like this up close, and have met family members, and seen how a crew member’s death affected generations of family members.

Great news, people still care 🙂

Another news report ID’s aircraft as Spitfire PT410 which if you google looks like it is the one

Well done!
Cheers
Cees

Great news another one who gave the ultimate sacrifice found. RIP Sir