Archaeologists search English crash site of World War II bomber for remains of lost American pilot

In recent months, the U.S. Department of Defense has accounted for dozens of missing airmen killed in combat — and for each of them, there's a harrowing story of the troops' final moments. One servicemember from Michigan died on a World War II bombing mission in Southeast Asia when his plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire, causing its wing to catch fire. A 21-year-old from Pittsburgh was killed when his plane crashed during another bombing mission during that war against oil fields in Romania. A pilot from Florida disappeared during a solo spy missions during the Vietnam War. 

While most of those missing troops were identified primarily using DNA and dental records, the U.S. government is turning to British archaeologists to help find a World War II pilot whose plane crashed in a dense English woodland in 1944. The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency has tasked Cotswold Archaeology with recovering the remains of the unnamed pilot, who was listed as missing in action after his B-17 went down, the company revealed this week.

The crash site is in East Anglia, in eastern England, Cotsworld Archaeology told CBS News on Tuesday. That region, with its rural farmland and tiny villages, became the headquarters of the Allies' so-called "Bomber War" during the 1940s, according to the National WWII Museum.