The wreckage lay in The Wash for almost 60 years

The de Haviland Mosquito was on a training mission with two crew on board on 20 March 1945 when it crashed a mile-and-a-half off north Norfolk.

No attempt was ever made to find the plane but the wreckage was spotted in April during a survey of a rarely-used shipping channel at King's Lynn.

The bodies of the crew are expected to be buried in a military cemetery.

An MoD marine salvage team from Plymouth lifted the wreckage on Thursday after a recce by a Royal Navy diving team from Portsmouth.

The families of the two pilots, Flt Lieut Gabriel Ellis, from Norwich, and Sgt William Reidy, from Boscombe, Dorset, had not heard anything of the flyers in the intervening years.

A salvage team from Plymouth lifted the plane

MoD case work officer, Sue Raftree, said the son and daughter of Flt Lt Ellis, who were one and four when their father died, had visited the site on Thursday morning.

She said it was a traumatic time for both families, who were finding it difficult to come to terms with the discovery.

Capt Paul Bailey, deputy harbour master at King's Lynn, said the speed of the impact in quite shallow water had broken the plane into several pieces.

Two engines, two propellers and two empty cannons have so far been recovered, but Mark Tilbury, officer in charge at the marine salvage unit, believes the plane's undercarriage may still be buried in the sand.

"We will come back during the low tides in September and have another search to see what else is down there," he said.