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[Pursuivant]

Assuming this isn't a hoax, it's a very impressive find.

It's also sad that it's up to Russian amateurs to do this sort of forensic archeology, both because it's dangerous and potentially disrespectful of the dead.

Dangerous because there is the potential of live ordinance around a wreck site, plus the inherent risks of working in rough, sometime very wet terrain and heavy, possibly unstable wreckage. Not something you should walk into blithely.

It's disrespectful because who knows how human remains might be treated. I've heard stories of, sometimes complete, German identity disks being sold as souvenirs (1). Since the Soviets didn't have very reliable identity "tags" (2) even removing insignia, clothing or equipment from a body makes it that much harder to identify a body. That makes it that less likely that the family of a missing soldier will ever get confirmation that their loved one or ancestor really is dead.

1. German identity disks were designed to be broken in two when removed from the body. The Graves Registration people retained one half, the other half was left on the body. A whole identity disk means that the body might never have been logged as being KIA.

2. The Soviets used a metal or glass capsule, with a piece of paper containing the soldier's name, rank, etc. on the inside, as an identity "tag." In addition to the inherent fragility of paper, soldiers were responsible for filling out their own identity slips. Due to illiteracy or superstition, many soldiers never did so, leading to a high percentage of soviet soldiers who were buried in unmarked graves.

[wingstrut]

Apparently this is an old story.  This bomber was found in 1998.  All three crew members were later identified, family notified, and given a proper burial.  The plane struck trees in bad weather on a flight from Archanglesk (spelling?) to raid a fortification in Finland.  It did not get very far if you look at the maps and locate the area where it went down.

Here is another story on it with photos and in English:

http://englishrussia.com/index.php/2010/09/09/a-requiem-to-a-lost-bomber/#more-17852

[Phlegethon]

It's disrespectful because who knows how human remains might be treated. I've heard stories of, sometimes complete, German identity disks being sold as souvenirs (1). Since the Soviets didn't have very reliable identity "tags" (2) even removing insignia, clothing or equipment from a body makes it that much harder to identify a body. That makes it that less likely that the family of a missing soldier will ever get confirmation that their loved one or ancestor really is dead.

1. German identity disks were designed to be broken in two when removed from the body. The Graves Registration people retained one half, the other half was left on the body. A whole identity disk means that the body might never have been logged as being KIA.

I tend to agree with Pursuivant -
however given the nature of the fighting, none living or dead in Russia would care about the remains or identity of any German
whether a solider or not.

[max_thehitman]

Great find!  Cool!
How do these guys find these things??
They must take loooong walking trips into unknown forest areas to find these things.
Last time it was a crashed FW-190 fighter airplane, now its a cool russian airplane.
Those guys are lucky explorers,.