An American P-47 Thunderbolt class fighter, was unearthed on Saturday in front of the dead serviceman's emotional children and grandchildren, who had travelled to Italy to be present at the dig.
The plane once belonged to U.S Air Force pilot
Loren Hintz but was shot down by a Nazi anti-aircraft gun trying to protect the German Wehrmacht as they fled from towns around the Italian city of Bologna on April 21st, 1945.
Hintz was killed just eight days before the war in Italy ended, leaving behind his five-month-old daughter, Gretchen, and his wife, who was carrying his unborn son, Martin.