Remains of WW2 pilot found during canal works

The remains of an RAF pilot who was killed during World War Two have been identified 86 years later, after they were recently discovered in northern France.

Sqn Ldr George Morley Fidler, from Great Ayton in North Yorkshire, was killed at just 27 years old, when his Hurricane was gunned down by a German Messerschmitt on 19 May 1940.

For more than 80 years, his remains were missing, despite the Graves Registration Unit previously burying a body they believed to be the pilot.

In 2022, excavation works were under way in Oisy-le-Verger to expand the canal and Fidler's Hurricane was found by workers, with him still in the pilot seat.

War detective Nicola Nash, who works for the Ministry of Defence, said almost four years of testing and research had confirmed Fidler's identity.

She explained there were more than 500,000 British soldiers still missing from World War One and Two.

"We know quite a lot about him now and it's actually a really unusual story because he's been known to us for a number of years now," Nash said.

"Directly after his plane crashed, the Graves Registration Unit buried a body that they believed to be him and he had a named grave in Bachy in France, so as far as Fidler's parents were concerned, he was found and he was buried.

"It wasn't until around 2005, 2006, some metal detector work was going on, firstly at the sites where his plane was originally recovered, and then at a different site about 35km (22 miles) away, that we started to work out that couldn't have been Sqn Ldr Fidler who was recovered, it must have been someone else."

The North Yorkshire pilot's Bachy grave was then undedicated to him and changed to "unknown airman", with Fidler added to memorials to the missing instead.

"Then lo and behold in 2022, the Hurricane and a set of remains were recovered and we knew that there was a strong possibility that it could be Fidler," the detective added.

"We then started the investigation up in earnest, trying to find Fidler's family and sadly we couldn't find any living family that were able to give us a DNA sample.

"What we had to do instead was get DNA samples from the other potential candidates and do a process of elimination."

In the last couple of weeks, Fidler's identity was confirmed and he is set to have a military burial on the 86th anniversary of his death on 19 May.

"I think it's really amazing that we've got to this stage and that he's finally getting his full military burial," Nash added.

"Recoveries are made often, but recoveries like this hardly ever."

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