Rare WWII bomber found in sea off Ikaria

According to ERT Aegio broadcaster, the plane is in very good condition and has caused especially great interest, since around onlyt 1,500 such aircraft were built and so far this is the only one that has survived.

The plane was mapped and photographed, while the initiative, and the whole effort, belongs to diver Samos Alexander Malagaris in cooperation with Stelios Demertzis, who a few days ago found the plane off Ikaria, made the necessary diving and collected the necessary data.

The Baltimore was not used in combat by the United States forces, but eventually served with the British, Canadian, Australian, South African, Hellenic and the Italian air forces.

After the fall off Greece, part of the Greek air force personnel managed to escape to Egypt together with five Avro Anson aircraft. These aircraft formed the 13th Light Bomber Squadron during the summer of 1941, which was thus the first Greek military unit formed in the Middle East.

From early 1943 the Squadron operated with Martin Baltimores. Apart from anti-submarine patrols and convoy escorts, the Squadron also executed reconnaissance and bombing missions in the occupied Greek islands. On November 12, the fortified German positions at the port of Souda, in Crete, were bombed. In general, the 13th Sqr based in the Middle East counted a total of 1,600 missions with over 4,550 flying hours