Daniel Kristensen, 14, lives in Birkelse, in northern Denmark. He was recently given a homework assignment to research World War II.
His grandfather told him how a German Luftwaffe fighter plane had supposedly crashed in a field near their home during the war. His father, Klaus, joked that he should find the plane for his school assignment. So Daniel grabbed a metal detector and started looking.
Klaus went to the field with his son but had no expectations of finding anything, assuming that the wreckage had been cleared out long ago.
When the metal detector went off, they began digging. Soon they were pulling up ammunition and plane parts. Eventually, they uncovered the engine of an ME 109 Messerschmitt and the skeleton of the pilot.
“And then we found some personal things – books, a wallet with money… Either it was a little Bible or it was Mein Kampf – a book in his pocket. We didn’t touch it; we just put it in some bags,” Klaus said.
Klaus called the authorities to alert them to what they had found in the field he has farmed for thirty years.
The police, bomb disposal experts and representatives from the German Embassy all came to the site.
Daniel was given the day off of school in order to watch the police and bomb disposal unit work on the plane, The Sun reported.
Forensic scientists are working to determine the identity of the pilot found with the plane.
“Probably there is a pilot who will be buried now in Germany. I would hope so,” Klaus said.