WWII soldier's wedding ring returned to his family 70 years later
Source: CBS News-AP
TIRANA, Albania -- Sgt. John Thompson, a British World War II special operation flight engineer, was considered missing in action for more than 70 years. Not anymore.
On Monday, his 92-year-old sister Dorothy Webster received his ring from a family in Albania together with a box of debris from his Halifax bomber. The plane, with a seven-member crew onboard, had crashed in the eastern European country on Oct. 29, 1944 whilst transporting assistance to local anti-Nazi fighters.
In 1960, late Jaho Cala found Thompson's finger with the ring at the Sinoi Mountain, 25 miles north of the Albanian capital Tirana. He kept the ring and hid it at his home, afraid to show it to the then-communist authorities.
Cala asked his son Xhemil to look for the family of the owner and after he died, Xhemil contacted the embassies of the U.S. and Britain - the two countries that helped liberate Albania from the Nazis a month after Thompson's death.
Albanian Xhemil Cala, right, puts the ring of the deceased 23-year old British pilot Sgt. John Thompson, onto the finger of his sister Dorothy Webster in Tirana Monday, March 9, 2015. AP PHOTO/HEKTOR PUSTINA
FULL story and video at link.
Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/world-war-ii-soldiers-wedding-ring-returned-to-his-family-70-years-later/
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