An RAF crew whose remains were discovered more than 65 years after their bomber was shot down over Italy are to be given a funeral with full military honours.
The Douglas A-20 Boston, which crashed into a field and burst into a huge fireball two weeks before World War Two ended, was found by amateur historians.
Pilot David Raikes, 20, radio operator Alexander Bostock, 20, and navigator David Perkins, 20 — all members of the RAF Volunteers and attached to 18 Squadron — died along with Australian John Hunt, 21, the gunner. The wreckage was found in a field at Copparo near Ferrara two years ago. Simone Guidorzi, who led the hunt, said: “A watch belonging to Hunt was found and a ring with Perkins’s initials was also recovered using metal detectors.”
Relatives of all four men will be at the funeral at a Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Padova on July 18. It is being organised by the RAF, the Royal Australian Air Force and the British Embassy in Rome. Flt Sgt Raikes was a former pupil of Radley College. A book of his poetry was published in 1954. Flt Sgt Bostock was from Kimberley, Notts, and Flt Sgt Perkins was from Sydenham. WO Hunt was from Sydney.
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