Find of Soviet fighter plane lost 70 years ago is music for Welshpool organist

Now, the Soviet aircraft has re-emerged after a drought caused water levels to fall and allowed the Bzura River to reveal its dark secrets.

The discovery of the plane, believed to be a Ilyushin Il-2, might be thousands of miles from rural Shropshire.

But it has had a profound effect on Welshpool church organist Andrey Chulovskiy.

It means he will at last be able to bury the remains of his uncle, who was on board the aircraft when it came down.

Mr Chulovskiy, the Russian-born organist at St Mary's Church, has always known that his uncle Eustace Chulovskiy was lost when his plane was shot down over Poland in 1945, but now his remains have been discovered.

As river levels in Poland fell to record lows in a prolonged drought, the Soviet fighter plane with the remains of its three crew has been found in the riverbank, and Andrey's uncle has at last been identified.

Explorers found the remnants of the Soviet fighter plane in the Bzura River, a Vistula tributary, near the village of Kamion in central Poland. Remains of the three men on board have been removed and other pieces taken to a museum in nearby Wyszogród.

"My Uncle Eustace was just 22 when his fighter plane, which was on a reconnaissance flight, went missing," said 62 year old Andrey, who lives in Newtown. "His parents and my mother, his sister, went to their graves not knowing the whereabouts of his body.

"Now at last, some 70 years since his disappearance we can lay his remains to rest and I am looking forward to being able to travel to Poland for a funeral service, which it is hoped will receive full military honours.

"It was a tremendous shock when the email arrived asking if I was a relative of Eustace Chulovkiy and after I confirmed I was, another message came confirming that he had at last been found.

"It is a huge relief to know that we can have closure and I hope to join my cousins for the burial which will probably take place at the Soviet Military Cemetery in Warsaw.

"My uncle's sister Lydia is alive but not well enough to make the journey from Russia but she is very relieved that at last her brother has been found."

The head of the Wyszogród museum, Zdzis?aw Leszczy?ski, said parts of Soviet uniforms, a parachute, a sheepskin coat collar, parts of boots, a pilot's TT pistol and radio equipment and a lot of heavy ammunition were found. The inscriptions on the control panel and the radio equipment are in Cyrillic.

Mr Leszczy?ski said witnesses saw the plane being hit while flying low in January 1945. It crashed through the thick ice into the river. At the time, the German army was retreating towards Berlin before the Red Army's advance.

"Until now, the water level did not allow for the search and there was no one willing to enter this swamp," he said.

The Vistula, which flows 651 miles from the Beskidy Mountains to the Baltic Sea, was its at its lowest level since measurements started in the late 18th century.

Russian embassy spokeswoman Valeria Perzhinskaya said the discovery was important and said the crew could be identified by the numbers on the wreckage and properly buried.

About 600,000 Soviet troops were killed fighting the German army on Polish territory.

Andrey, a renowned pianist, has been in the UK since 2006 when he arrived as part of the Immigration Programme for Writers, Composers and Artists and has been organist at St Mary's Church since 2009.