On 9 November 2023, the RAF published details of the recovery of Lancaster ED603 from the IJsselmeer in the Netherlands. British aircraft recovery specialists had been working alongside Dutch military personnel at the submerged wreck, where human remains had been found. Identification work was continuing as the announcement brought renewed attention to three airmen recorded as missing since 1943.
The recovery connected a wartime aircraft loss with a modern Dutch programme to retrieve missing aircrew and arrange proper burials. For the personnel involved, the work combined demanding engineering tasks with the careful handling of material associated with the seven men aboard ED603 on its final flight.
Seven airmen lost over the IJsselmeer
Lancaster Mk III ED603 of No. 83 Squadron was returning from a bombing operation against Bochum on the night of 12–13 June 1943 when it was shot down over the IJsselmeer. Its wreck came to rest beneath the water, leaving a recovery problem that would endure for decades.
Four members of the crew were found on the lakeshore in the weeks after the crash. They were Flight Lieutenant Eric Tilbury, the pilot; Pilot Officer Harold E. Howsam, the navigator; Pilot Officer Gordon Fletcher, the bomb aimer; and Flying Officer Gordon R. Sugar, an air gunner.
Three colleagues remained registered as missing: Pilot Officer Arthur Smart, the flight engineer; Pilot Officer Charles Sprack, the mid-upper gunner; and Flight Sergeant Raymond Moore, the wireless operator. Recovering the wreck offered an opportunity to locate their remains and establish further evidence about their fate.
Recovery inside a cofferdam
The Dutch-led operation used a cofferdam built around the aircraft’s resting place. This exposed the wreck on the lake bed and created a working area in which recovery personnel could reach the surviving material. The structure made a submerged crash site accessible for close examination.
Personnel from the Joint Aircraft Recovery and Transport Squadron, known as JARTS, were invited to assist their Dutch Air Force counterparts. Part of the RAF’s Support Force, the squadron contributed practical recovery expertise to a complex joint undertaking.
Their tasks included delicately lifting, washing and inspecting aircraft components. Each stage required careful handling within a site where wreckage and human remains were being recovered. The RAF described the deployment as a valuable training opportunity for its personnel, alongside its central purpose of finding missing crew members.
Identification remained in progress
Human remains had been found and that painstaking work to establish their details and identities was ongoing. The news dated 9 November therefore recorded progress in an existing recovery operation. Confirmation of individual identities remained a subsequent responsibility.
ED603 formed part of a €15 million Dutch national aircraft recovery project. Its purpose included retrieving aircraft and crews lost across the Netherlands, with proper burial for airmen who had remained missing. The Lancaster recovery placed British specialists within that wider Dutch commitment to accounting for wartime losses.
For ED603’s crew, the distinction between the four men recovered in 1943 and the three still missing gave the operation its specific human purpose. At the time of the RAF’s announcement on 9 November 2023, identification work remained in progress. Later that month, Dutch authorities confirmed that the recovered remains belonged to Arthur Smart, Charles Sprack and Raymond Moore. On 9 October 2025, the three airmen were laid to rest with military honours at Workum in the Netherlands, bringing the recovery effort to its final commemorative stage.