New Zealand Airmen’s Remains Identified in Germany

HAMBURG, GERMANY—Stuff.co.nz reports that the remains of Sergeant Henry Pullar of the Royal New Zealand Airforce have been unearthed and identified in Germany. Pullar was rear gunner on a British Short Stirling heavy bomber that was shot down in northwestern Germany in 1942. All six on board were lost when the plane crashed into the ground, tail first. The human remains, along with the tail section of the plane, were found under more than 16 feet of earth during construction work by archaeologists from the Lower Saxony State Office for Cultural Heritage and researchers from Hamburg-Eppendorf University Hospital, where the identification was confirmed with DNA testing conducted by biologist Oliver Krebs. Pullar’s remains and the recovered remains of four other crew members were buried at Rheinberg War Cemetery, where the pilot was buried. His body had been thrown from the plane just before the crash. “It’s a privilege to have found him [Pullar] after all this time, and to have closure when so many didn’t,” said Pullar’s niece, Pam Compton. To read about the search for remains of an American pilot whose plane was shot down on D-Day, go to "Letter from Normandy: The Legacy of the Longest Day."