Sarajevo An elderly Bosnian villager has claimed to have rediscovered a Second World War Spitfire that he saw shot down by pro-Nazi Croat forces 65 years ago.

“I knew it was there all these years because I saw when Ustashe soldiers shot it down in 1943,” Cazim Dautbegovic, a 74-year-old resident of Sarvani village in central Bosnia, said. “The pilot parachuted out of the plane and was rescued by partisans,” he added, referring to the communist-led Yugoslav forces who fought Germans and their local allies.

Mr Dautbegovic said that villagers went to the aircraft in 1943 to retrieve tyres, which they used to make shoes. The aircraft descended into a wetland area and had since been forgotten about as it sank below the surface. It is unclear what, if anything, remains to be found.

Mr Dautbegovic said that he recently told the story to a friend, who located it and proceeded to sell off parts of it as scrap metal.

Osman Mesan, a local journalist, said: “At the location, we found a part of the airplane radio, and in the scrap metal market, a piece of metal with some numbers and word “Spitfire” inscribed. I have issued a public call to protect the wreckage, because I am sure that it is of historic value,” he said. (AFP)

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