The prop and gun were all recovered before the Military Remains Act came into use.
Also the aircraft had all 10 crew returned to duty.
For those with an interest:
20th March 1944, 337BS/96BG, B-17G-20-BO, #42-31559, Lt R J Denissen
Seaton, Cornwall.
About five in the afternoon of the 20th of March, 1944, the crew of a Fortress aeroplane baled out over the land and the pilot, an American officer, then took her over the sea and himself baled out and came down in the sea about a mile south of Seaton Beach. The aeroplane crashed in Looe Bay. The weather was fine and calm. Sergeant Love, of the RAF, a non-swimmer, and a civilian woman, Mrs Pearce, with the help of another woman, Mrs Durrant, launched a small rowing boat down a steep slope. Sergeant Love and Mrs Pearce then set out in the boat . It was leaking badly and Mrs Pearce had to bale. After twenty minutes they reached the airman. He was much distressed. They hauled him aboard and he lost conciousness. They brought him ashore and handed him over to the RAF. He recovered.
Rewards, letters of appreciation to Sergeant Love, Mrs Pearce and Mrs Durrant.”
(Source: Supplement to Annual Reports of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution 1939-46)
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