The Old Plane and the Sea: Rescuing the Last Dornier 17

I will be back at the top of the hour but first, looked the

challenges faced in raising a German bomber from the sea bed. June 2013.

Over 70 years after it crashed in the sea off the Kent coast, a

remarkable survivor of the Second World War breaks the surface of the

English Channel. The world 's only version of this aeroplane. Known as

those who flew it as the flying pencil. Five years after this unique

wreck was discovered it has been raised by Britain's RAF Museum. We

were there to view it. Now we have returned to talk to those closely

involved in the recovery and discover more about this striking

relic of the Battle of written. `` Battle of Britain. The seas were

calm when the salvage vessel GPS Apollo dropped anchor over the sands

in early May. 15 metres below lay all that was left of a wartime plane

which nobody thought still existed anywhere in the world. Not only

that, it was a true veteran of the Battle of Britain. An aeroplane with

a single history. It was shot down on the 26th of August 1914. This is

the RAF Museum in north London and on the tarmac here in the car park

they have painted the outline. This is where the aircraft raised will

eventually end up. In this programme we will be looking back at a

successful salvage operation that at one point came perilously close to

failure. We will be learning more about the crew of the aircraft and

the company that made it. We will see how it has been conserved for

the future and we will ask what happens next. It was one of the

mainstays of the German bomber fleet at the start of World War II. Day

after day, night after night, it pummelled airfields and cities in

the run`up to what Hitler hoped would be an invasion. The aeroplane

was fast and manoeuvrable, easy to fly at very low altitude and it was

popular with its pilots. It was out run and outgunned by the RAF's

fighters. From 1941 it was phased out in favour of upgrades. Out here

in the salvage effort was justified by the unique status of the wreck

but almost immediately things began to go wrong to the frustration of

the men from the museum. We probably had the worst may in the UK for

about 200 years. We lost two weeks of work on the aircraft due to bad

weather. It was exceptionally frustrating. Very stressful, I had

to say. No fault of anyone, just mother nature, the wind and the sea,

three quarters of the time they sat in the porch just waiting on the

weather changing. The original plan had been to build a rigid frame

around the cradle of the aircraft to hold it safely while it was raised.

The cradle would take the stranger in the lift. The hazardous currents

meant that the divers could only go down to assemble it for 40 minutes

twice per day. The tides turned and the current season but it was soon

clear that that plan was not working. It had been devised by this

man, Martin Barker. The main problem was the weather. We were getting

limited time to work. We were running out of time, anyway. It was

complicated by the fact that we encountered hard talk under the

aircraft. It was very problematic to insert the frame partly because of

the sea bed. It did not help matters. Not only that but the RAF

Museum had a limited budget and it was fast running out. The team on

the barge were determined to make it happen but I could see the ? ringing

up. There had to be a balance. There had to be a point where we said

enough is enough. I think in retrospect we grasp that nettle soon

enough to be able to find an alternative. It was apparent that it

was going to take far too long. Something had to change. There were

a few meetings where we looked at the available options something we

considered was to cut it into sections. Nobody wanted to do that

and from an operational point of view it did not work for us because

one of the big problems we had was that we needed a lift to be flat. To

do for them we needed flat it very flat. We knew it had to be done in

one left. It became obvious we would not get it done in the time frame so

we an emergency meeting to alleviate this problem. We came up with an

idea of attaching in to the airframe itself. The idea of building a frame

around underwater was abandoned. The museum decided it had to do what all

parties had hoped to avoid all along. Attach cables and hope that

the airframe could take it. To help take the frame they inserted a beam

inside it. We have spent so much effort thinking through the recovery

and looking at the issues and the structure and getting the

appropriate drawings and engineering information available, that when it

came to change the recovery methodology we were in a very good

position. The revised plan was put into action on Sunday 2nd of June.

Through the day it looks promising and we got out to the site and we

have the sponsors and the media people waiting to see the boats

which was a big thing to organise. At about 8am the wind got up and it

was dangerous to proceed so we had to call things off. Just as the

current was low enough to put the diver in, the wind picked up and the

movement on the barge meant that it was beginning to get dangerous.

Ultimately safety is the most important factor. We had to stop the

operation on health and safety. Again, mother nature playing her

card. We will look at it at 1am I think. That was incredibly

frustrating. Next morning the weather was no better and it was a

low point for everyone. After last night had to be abandoned there were

hopes that they could try again today but the wind is still too

high. We had lost it and we did not know when we would get the next

opportunity. There is no doubt that we probably exhausted, by then, all

of the available resources. I think there was a realisation that we were

very close to having to give up. On the other hand, deep frustration, we

knew how close we had come. We knew how close we were to being

successful if the weather had obliged. Money was running out, yes.

Luckily we received Best adventure of the nation from the American

foundation `` a substantial animation. That gave us the

opportunity to go back. `` substantial donation. Then the

forecast looked good. The GPS Apollo set sail once more. As it arrived

over the site, the anchors were deployed to keep the vessel stable.

And then, fake intermediate again. This time it had nothing to do with

the weather. I nearly died. One of the anchor cables got caught in a

propeller and we just thought, what's next? Everything came to a

juddering halt. The diver went down to free the cable and he succeeded

far more quickly than anyone had expected. We were thinking about how

we were wrapping up the project. Then we heard an engine fire. They

said they have freed the cable and the anchor is set. It was nerve

wracking but we knew there was this big risk that we had to go through

with it. It was well worth going for. The dive master looked at his

watch and they went in. Suddenly from being down and thinking it was

ended we were on a high. I was fortunate enough to be watching it

from the cabin. The next thing you know, somebody said, lift, and here

comes the aeroplane. I had worked on it for two years without meeting it.

I had a visualisation about what it looked like. When it came to the

surface it was exactly what I had anticipated. That was quite a

relief. I was very concerned that it was not very strong when it was

being lifted. The skin was getting quite weak. Up and in one piece.

Just. Throughout the night they sprayed it with sea water to flush

out rubbish and to prevent corrosion setting in. The job was not yet

done. For one thing, they still had to get it ashore. The next day, news

of the successful lift went around the world and for this family in

Germany it have a special significance. This woman is the

daughter of one of the planes crew. The navigator. This is his grandson,

Kristian. On the 26th of August in 1940, Herman and his crew took off

from occupied Belgium. Soon they were joined by well over 100

fighters. They flew over the English Channel towards the Thames estuary.

Somewhere over the North Kent coast the formation turned south just

outside Ramsgate. RAF fighter command sent planes up to meet them.

The aeroplane was hit in with both aeroplanes engines crippled its of

no chance of getting back to base. The only option was a controlled

crash. The pilot survived. They were captured and sent to Canada as

prisoners of war. Herman sent his mother a postcard from the camp,

made from a photograph, it clearly shows an injury to his left hand. He

lost two fingers in the crash. He had joined because he had flown

gliders before the war. He would never fly again. He never told me

about the time when he was at war. I think because people wanted to

forget all of these terrible events. He always stressed that he was a

pacifist and against any kind of islands in war. `` any kind of

violence in war. All of the remaining photographs I have are

here. This is showing him with his uniform. With his parachute. Four

years before he died he talked to me and said he would like to show me

something. Then he showed me this picture frame. Then he said, I have

two show you something because I remember there is little secret in

it. He took this knife and worked a little bit with the night and

suddenly opened this one. What we can see is there is metal that he

got in the Second World War. G2 the fact that it was not allowed to keep

all of the metals with the prisoners of war, he was afraid that he would

never see this medal again. He sent it as a gift. This was what we were

covered 15 years ago. `` recovered. It was a very amazing and exciting

moment for me. Hundreds of these planes were built but even here in

southern Germany they do not have one. Only a few fragments. They do

have lots about the plane's talented designer. In 1910 he went to work

for the airship maker. He designed this rotating hanger which airships

could enter whatever the direction of the wind. Zeppelin was so

impressed to gave him his own division to run. In the 1920s the

name meant flying boats which sold around the world to postal services

and Arctic explorers. And then, he produced something truly

astonishing, I gigantic plain `` a gigantic aeroplane. So big and

powerful that it could cross the Atlantic. The interior of it was

luxuriously appointed and it could hold up to 169 people. It first flew

in July 1929, just about the time that Germany was finally permitted,

a decade after the end of the First World War, to start building

military again. Officially it was a civilian mail plane. Everyone knew

it was really a military design. When you see the prototypes it is

easy to see why it was nicknamed the flying pencil. It was his job to

write the aircraft instruction manuals. He vividly remembers the

first time he was introduced to the aeroplane. TRANSLATION: Yes, it was

in simple terms, a symbol of high`speed. Smooth surfaces

everywhere. You also had a modernised cockpit arrangement where

you said the crew must be able to work together. The pilot with the

navigator, the navigator with the mechanic. It was really a perfect

construction. A pinnacle of the time. A special aeroplane and a

technology marvel. But first, health and safety checks. A magazine from a

machine gun had been recovered. The army were called in and the men from

the museum retired to a safe distance while it was x`rayed. It

was completely empty. Evidence that cheering that fierce air battle the

German crew fought back. The plan was to take the aeroplane to the

RAF's musician in Shropshire but first the recovery team had to

even at that stage we have spent from the fuse

even at that stage we have spent quite a lot of money getting the

right equipment out there and buying all of the cutting gear. We thought

we would have to cut through the wing. We were fortunate enough to

fit through it. Next, they had to lift the aircraft onto flatbed

trucks. Here the team faced another unexpected problem. All of the

information we have beforehand that the aeroplane weighed five

tonnes. When we separated it, we expected the wings themselves to

weigh between one and two tonnes. They weighed nearly eight. It was

four times the weight we had allowed for in the wing section of the

plane. The frame now came into its own on dry land but would it be

strong enough? The way I designed that frame was for it to take one

time at the centre of each frame member. I do think it was ever going

to fail. From the outside I'm sure it looked

calm and professional but we were looking nervous.

To this day, everyone involved the project are astonished it weighed so

much. Apparently there was simply far more water, sand and sea life

still in the rectum anyone believed was possible.

Slowly the trucks set out on their journey from Ramsgate through Kent,

around the M25 and up towards the Midlands. Five days after coming up

from the sea bed, the aeroplane arrived. By now, it was starting to

dry out. The potentially disastrous trade of affairs. The team worked

fast to get it unloaded. It was so much heavier than expected, causing

last`minute changes. The museum had brought to poly tunnels, one to hold

the wing and want to hold the body. Inside they had installed a

hydration system with a mixture of water and citric acid. The idea was

that the acid would clean the aeroplane and stop corrosion setting

in. The training and development manager here remembers its arrival.

In fairness to everyone involved, no one had any idea what was going on.

Everyone knew the aircraft and we expected sand and silt is and

shellfish. The sheer volume and mass of sea life has been incredible. It

is that unexpected component that has caused the most headaches so

far. The sea life included algae which flourished in the heat and

blocked the pipes with a thick junk. Soon the sprays were running around

the clock so that junk did not have the chance to build up. Once these

things started to decay the smell was appalling. We went through about

three weeks of just pure decay. You could smell decay. It was not

pleasant. One of our apprentices, when she went home, her mother was

not letting her in the house, she had to be hosed down in the garden.

Since these pictures were filmed it has been split into two make it

easier to handle. Algae growth is still a problem in what is affect

the giant greenhouse. Meanwhile, in the dry of the conservation Centre,

volunteers and apprentices have been cleaning up some of the smaller

artefacts brought up with the aeroplane. In the long run, it will

go on display at the RAF Museum in North London. A poignant and

battered survivor of the Second World War. Instead of lying upside

down, it will be turned the right way up. To prevent further decay it

will have been conserved. It will not be restored to its original

condition. To do that then you could not call it that. It would not be

genuine. There would not be that iconic link to the past, that

crucial piece of British history. You would lose that completely. That

is why I am so keen that we should just preserve the original artefact.

A number of characteristics features are missing. We would like to

recreate these elements to help the visitor see the original site. You

can link that aircraft back to a particular day in 1940, most of the

artefacts in the collection here do not have that very firm anchor at a

particular time and place, because they have got a long history. To be

honest, capturing an object and its story in a moment in time, it is

rare. There were human beings involved. Much the same as the royal

air force, we want to get the same story brought across. From both

sides. How did they feel, much the same of their RAF compatriots, what

happened on that day. It is a powerful weapon of war but we want

to tell the story of the battle.