RING LEADS TO DISCOVERY OF LOST WWII AIRMEN

Sgt. John Thompson’s ring enabled searchers to locate his remains and those of six other British military personnel from a plane that crashed in Albania during the Second World War.

Seventy-four years after they were killed, the seven airmen were laid to rest in a ceremony Wednesday in Tirana.

The crew took off from Italy to carry out a supply dropping mission in Albania. Their bomber crashed in a mountainside in Biza on Oct. 29, 1944.

In 1960, resident Jaho Cala found Thompson’s finger with the ring and hid it, afraid to show it to Albania’s then-communist officials.

Upon the fall of the communist regime in 1990, his son contacted the U.S. and British embassies, leading to the finding of the remains in 2015.