In June 2016, between Sicily and Tunisia, a wreck was found on the Mediterranean seabed at a depth of 85 meters. At first, experts believed it was an RAF Bristol Beaufort, but photographs soon made it clear the aircraft was not British-built. Six years of research followed, relying on eyewitness accounts from the region and German and British military records. Eventually, the mystery was solved: the downed aircraft was an American-built four-man light bomber whose crew included a Canadian and an Australian.

It had gone missing on June 15, 1942. Yet a glance at the map raised an obvious question. No British territory of the time was within range of that location, and no American units were operating in the region for at least five months. How did the aircraft end up on the Mediterranean seabed, at that time, in that place?

The wreck turned out to be what the Americans called the Model 187 Maryland. The prototype, designed by the Glenn L. Martin Aircraft Company of Maryland, made its first flight in 1938. The U.

S. Army Air Corps did not place an order, but the French were impressed and ordered more than 200 aircraft. Seventy-five had still not been delivered to the French Air Force when France surrendered to Germany in the summer of 1940. The aircraft were instead taken up by Britain, which placed several direct orders for the Royal Air Force.

Over a thousand Model 187s, fitted with more powerful engines, were delivered to the RAF during the war. In RAF service, the bombers were called Baltimore. That explained how they entered British service, but not how one came to rest where it was found. Benito Mussolini’s declaration of war on June 10, 1940, and the Italian offensive from their colony in Libya toward Egypt, aimed at taking control of the Suez Canal, opened a new front in North Africa.

Libya, one of the hottest countries in the world, is ninety percent desert. The barren land meant that food and military stores for the 150,000-strong Italian Army had to be transported from Italy across the Mediterranean. Astride the shipping route between Italy and Libya lay a small speck of land: the island of Malta. When Mussolini declared war, the British base on Malta had eight biplanes, one gunboat, and a few submarines.

Both sides recognized Malta’s importance, not only for controlling the central Mediterranean but for the outcome of the entire North African campaign. General Erwin Rommel, who would command Axis forces in North Africa, stated that without neutralizing Malta, the Axis could not keep control of North Africa. The Regia Aeronautica resolved to bomb and starve Malta into submission by attacking its ports, airfields, military installations, and the Allied shipping supplying the island. Malta became one of the most intensively bombed areas of the war.

Six months after the bombing campaign began, Italian aircraft were reinforced by Luftwaffe units in January 1941, when Fliegerkorps X was transferred to Sicily in support of Axis operations in North Africa. Despite the bombardment, Allied convoys managed to supply and reinforce Malta, while the RAF defended its airspace. British air and sea forces based on the island were inflicting increasing losses on Axis ships carrying vital supplies and reinforcements from Italy to North Africa. By the beginning of 1942, however, the overwhelming Axis bombardments had substantially eroded Malta’s offensive naval and air capabilities.

The Luftwaffe and Regia Aeronautica flew a total of 3,000 bombing raids over two years. By March 1942, it was clear the Luftwaffe had achieved a measure of air superiority. The battle for Malta ebbed and flowed over the next few months. On June 15, 1942, a reconnaissance mission took off at 12:45 from the airstrip at Luqa in Malta, headed for the Pantelleria area.

The Baltimore belonged to the 69th Reconnaissance Squadron. Its crew of four came from different corners of the globe: Sergeant Francis Baum, Flight Sergeant Alec Greaves, Sergeant William Edward Fincham, and Sergeant Robert Tatrell Purslow. Their mission was to find Italian supply ships sailing between Sicily and Tunisia so that bombers and submarines from Malta could be vectored to intercept and destroy them. The mission did not go as planned.

At three o’clock that afternoon, Lieutenant Franz Schess of the 53rd Fighter Wing, based in Sicily, was flying patrol near the island of Linosa when he spotted what he believed to be a Bristol Beaufort. The aircraft came down about 500 meters off the coast of Linosa, a tiny island south of Sicily. It floated for a few minutes before dipping beneath the waves. Local fishermen had time to row out and attempt to save the four crew members.

Australian Flight Sergeant Alec Greaves died on impact when the bomber hit the sea. He was buried in the Medjez-el-Bab War Cemetery in Tunisia. The other three were rescued and eventually shipped off to prisoner-of-war camps. In December 1943, a cholera outbreak led to the death of RAF Gunnery Sergeant Robert Purslow in a POW camp in Wolfsburg, Austria.

Sergeant Francis Baum would also not live to see the end of the war. Only Canadian Gunnery Sergeant William Fincham, held captive in Lithuania, survived the war. After the Axis lost the Second Battle of El Alamein in November 1942, the Allies launched Operation Torch, sending troops into the Vichy French-controlled territories of Morocco and Algeria. The Axis diverted their forces to the Battle of Tunisia, and attacks on Malta were rapidly reduced, effectively ending the siege.

The discovery brings to life a chapter of history that had lain silent at the bottom of the sea. It is a story of valor, sacrifice, and a mystery that took six years of research to solve. As the Mediterranean waves continue to wash over the long-submerged RAF bomber, a sense of closure has finally been granted, eighty years after its ill-fated journey.

The discovery serves as a reminder of the four courageous men from different corners of the world, united under a flag of duty and honor, who made the ultimate sacrifice for their countries.