US teams to search 3 spots for WWII ruins
Staff Correspondent, Khulna
Two US organisations named US Pacific Command and World War Two Families for the Return of the Missing (WWRM) are reported to have identified three spots in the southwestern region of the country to carry out search for ruins of C-47 fighter planes that crashed during the Second World War.
Of the identified spots, two are at Tala upazila of Satkhira district and the other at Pakigacha upazila of Khulna district. The search operation will begin soon.
Lisa Phillip, chief of WWRM, will lead the search operation. His uncle was among the victims of a C-47 plane that crashed on way to Kolkata from Burma (now Myanmar) during the war.
Information collected from different reliable sources confirmed that the fighter chased by two others crashed at Deluti village under Paikgacha upazila.
Abdul Wazed Hazra, 92, and Anil Krishna Sarker, 85, of Deluti village were among many other witnesses to the incident that occurred at about 9:00pm in 1942. "I can still remember that the plane crash killed two or three pilots," Anil said.
Haran Dutt, 80, of Jalalpur Union under Tala upazila said a C-47 fighter plane crashed into the pond of late Indra Bhusan Banerjee on the same night in 1942. Another witness, Ranu Bala, 85, said she had seen two bodies inside the crashed plane.
Another fighter plane crashed into a paddy field also at Jalalpur Union the same night, said Ashalata Das, 88, wife of late Kalipada Das. She had seen charred bodies of a man and a woman in the ruins of the plane.
Burma