War heroes laid to rest 70 years after their plane went down Among those present will be Hunt's half-brother Wes Madge and his son, Ray Madge, who will play Last Post and Reveille on the bugle. David Raikes, whose uncle and namesake, was piloting the bomber when it went down, will also be attending the service. FS Raikes, 20, from Redhill, Surrey, was an Oxford graduate and an aspiring poet. His short collection of works was published posthumously, in 1954, to some acclaim. One particularly poignant poem will be read by his nephew at the service. Let It Be Hushed was written by Raikes shortly before his death and deals with the loss of another crew whose aircraft had crashed in the sea. In it, Raikes describes packing up the belongings of the men who had not returned, and writes: "I never liked that part, you never knew / What privacies your sorting might lay bare. / I always tried to leave my kit / In decent tidiness. You never knew. Mr Raikes, from near Brecon, said: "Some of my uncle's poetry is immensely moving and I think, that given he was 20 when he died and Wilfred Owen was in his later 20s, he could easily have gone on to be another Wilfred Owen. Of course I am biased but I think it is time for a fresh appraisal of his poems. Although Mr Raikes's own father is dead, he will be attending with two other surviving brothers of the pilot, Roger and Tim. Mr Raikes added: "The overwhelming feeling is of relief and satisfaction that we have found him and we are going to have a final ceremony to acknowledge that. There is a feeling of resolution, for David and, equally, for the other men. There is a lot of solidarity with the relatives of the other men. Also travelling to Italy is Glenice Hoffman, niece of FS Alexander Bostock, the aircraft's radio operator, from Kimberley, Nottinghamshire. The family of FS David Perkins, the navigator, from Sydenham, south London, are unable to attend. Although the funeral will include personal aspects, it will also be a military service. The six-strong bearer party will comprise men from the Queen's Colour Squadron. There will also be two representatives from the men's unit, 18 Squadron, which now flies Chinook helicopters and is based at RAF Odiham, in Hampshire: Wg Cdr Lee Turner and FS Liz McConaghy, along with Wg Cdr Wes Perrett from the Royal Australian Air Force. Also present will be Padre Rev (Flt Lt) Paul Collins, and Cdr James Dible, the naval and air attache from the embassy in Rome. The day before the service, the families will visit the Po River WWII Museum, in Felonica, which houses a display dedicated to the crash and which was involved with the excavation of the aircraft. Hunt's family will be presented with the air gunner's watch inscribed with his name and service number, recovered from the wreckage, while officials will be given a ring of Perkins - engraved with the initials DP and the inscription "Chris, with love" - to be passed to his relatives. The aircraft took off on its final flight from Forli airfield near Bologna, late on April 21, 1945. It was meant to attack a river crossing at Taglio di Po before going on an armed reconnaissance mission. It crashed after being hit by German anti-aircraft fire. German forces in Italy surrendered on April 29. Within three weeks, the war in Europe was over. The crash site was found in July 2011, by amateur historians using metal detectors, after elderly locals indicated where the plane had come down. Residents still living in the area remembered the crash with clarity, as the aircraft had continued to burn for days after it was shot down.