Polish Archeologists Prepare WWII Items

An open pocket knife, two Smith and Wesson revolvers, now rusty, and an airman's gilded badge _ all flew with the Canadian and British crew of a World War II bomber on its final mission carrying aid for Poland's desperate revolt against the Nazis. The personal items are undergoing cleaning and conservation at a Warsaw museum after being recovered from the striking excavation of a Royal Air Force Halifax bomber shot down over southern Poland more than 60 years ago.

Warsaw's Uprising Museum last month completed excavations of the crash site near the town of Dabrowa Tarnowska where the plane was shot down on Aug. 4, 1944 as it brought ammunition, guns and medical supplies to the resistance movement struggling against Nazi occupiers, most dramatically in an insurgency in Warsaw.

Museum officials hope the items can be put on display at the museum by Aug. 1, the 62nd anniversary of the ill-fated struggle, although the bomber cannot be fully reconstructed.