Work starts to bring WW II Halifax bomber from Swedish seabed to Alberta town

Work to bring what's leftof a Second World WarHalifax bomber back to Canada from the bottom of the Baltic Sea is due to startoff the coast of Sweden in the coming weeks.

It's part of the Bomber Command Museum of Canada's plan to rebuildthe iconic aircraft in Nanton, Alta., as it continues tocollectkey pieces of different Halifax wrecks from around the world as part of its Halifax Recovery Project.

"On our memorial wall outside our museum there are 10,000 names of Canadian lads killed in bombers and over 6,000 were killed in the Halifax. So if you had a Lancaster bomber in your collection which we dowhat do you need sitting beside it, if you're a red-blooded Canadian?" said Karl Kjarsgaard, museum director and co-founder of the Halifax 57 Rescue, a group set up to bring bombers home to Canadafrom around their world.

Lost WW II bomber emerges from bottom of Baltic Sea to be rebuilt in southern Alberta

7 years ago

Duration 0:37

Work to bring what's left of a Second World War Halifax bomber back to Canada from the bottom of the Baltic Sea is due to start off the coast of Sweden in the coming weeks.

"It's kind of like Johnny Cash, we're doing it one piece at a time. It's a big airplane with 103-foot wingspan and 75 feet long and I would say you're looking at six to seven years to build itonce you get all the pieces together," said Kjarsgaard.

The Royal Canadian Air Force bomberlost two engines and suffered extensive damage to its flight controls during a raid on Hamburg, Germany on Aug. 3, 1943.

Itscrew of seven were forcedto bail out, leaving the plane to plunge into the Baltic Sea.

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Kjarsgaard says they had to convince the Swedish government to give them the salvage rights to the airplane and organize a dive and recovery crew,as well as a sonar vessel to make detailedmaps of the seabed and the wreck site. He's been working with the Swedish Coast and Sea Centre on the project along with a local university.

Three thousandphotos were taken of the seabed to piece together the site ahead of the recovery, which will cost around $110,000. Work first started in 2015 and has been slow to proceed butKjarsgaardsaysthe salvage team is now finally ready to bring the Halifax to the surface.

"Last summer was not good for recovery because of bad weather but I've just come back from Sweden a few weeks agowhere we met with our divers and they're ready to go as soon as we can now," said Kjarsgaard, who added some parts,including two Merlinengines, have already been raised.

Giant underwater vacuum cleaners and fanswill remove the sand around the wreck and divers will then dig the remains of the aircraft out, which will be brought back to shore and eventually flown back to Nanton to the Bomber Command Museum.

"They're all set to go, we've got all the tools anda brand new salvage boat with hydraulic cranes," said Kjarsgaard.

Kjarsgaardformedthe rescue group back in 1994 as a charitable organization focusedon the Halifax project, putting feelers out around the world searching for Halifax wrecks and parts. So far they have about 30 per cent of the parts they need for a rebuild,with the Swedish bomber being the group's third big find.

The Halifax is the rarest of the RoyalCanadian AirForce bombers with 1,230 planes scrapped in England after the Second World War ended. This makes the task of locating the parts Kjarsgaardneeds to rebuild a complete plane a hugechallenge.

Kjarsgaardsays he remains hopeful his group will complete the rebuild. He's moving forward with an international fundraising push to make sure they can continue their work locating and transporting the many pieces of the Halifax puzzle.

"We have a crowdfund, we have a fundraiser site and it's been able to raise somemoney, as well as donations from families of veterans who flew in the Halifax and people from around the world," said Kjarsgaard.

Hesays he has several volunteer mechanics and aircraft engineers ready to help with the rebuild when that day comes.

Kjarsgaard says the fundraising drive has been successful over the yearswith donations and funding for the projectcoming from Britain, the United States, Europe, Australia,and Canada, as well as support from the Bomber Command Museum itself. Butthe money needs to keep flowingto make the Halifax dream a reality.

Kjarsgaard says he already has a lead on a new Halifax bomber wreck that's been discovered not far away from the current recovery site off the coast of Denmark.

He says that one could be next.