Dig WW2 Comments Thread

I'm sure most if not all members who read this would want to pass on their good wishes to John Crosson the 7th KOSB veteran who was in last night's programme as he has very recently suffered some health problems and has been in and out of hospital......

Apart from this excellent programme....the story of the ship carrying the Shermans was really interesting especially as it had previously broken in two and I assume welded together. Nice also to see Warrant Officer Jonker....I have got him to speak to my groups about his work to my groups on two occasions and he always is well received......excellent programme excellent series..

 

Fantastic programme. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Well done to all.

Lesley

 

Mr Cummings, the Royal Navy veteran was my Primary 7 teacher in 1973!!

 

Like this.

BBC iPlayer - Dig WW2 with Dan Snow: Episode 2

Thanks Owen.

lofty

 

Excellent, again. Some great stories, again..Good learning again...

Looking forward to the next one.

 

If anyone relatively new to the forum wants to know more about the 7th KOSB at Arnhem there is a good book on them called Off at Last......but I suspect most of the airbornes have a copy already.....hardback copies can be hard to find but the reprinted paperback version is still available.....

 

Another great show!

I was quite surprised to see the guy digging up items from the grounds of the Dreyeroord. I would have thought that area would have been thoroughly searched already

All the best..............

 

Paul,

The area around the White House is a gold mine for Hans....Oosterbeek as you know was evacuated and left to 'wither on the vine' after the fighting and I guess things got covered up, were left for nature to hide or deliberatly buried.....I do know that in 1945 when the area was cleared the main focus was on the landmines, dumps of artillery shells and mortar bombs for understandable reasons.......Also a few years ago the White Hosue was extended and loads of rusting metal etc was dug up....I have some pictures of what was found including water bottles, a jerrican, mess tin, mortar fins, spades and entrenching tools....my friend Hans is a lucky man to have permission to use a metal detector....

 

I know WO Jonker and was speaking with him this morning and he said that the Dutch man mentioned in the programme is still unidentified but they do try and get a DNA sample for future identification.....however the UK policy is not to dig up bodies to try and identify them using DNA provided by relatives..I'm sorry to say that I feel unless some new evidence comes to light you will be left in the dark so to speak.....

 

Was any attempt made to process the film in the gun camera cassette found in the Spitfire remains in France? If the cassette remained light-tight / water-tight still a chance of recovering something from it. Presuming, of course, that the guns were fired during the mission.

 

I know WO Jonker and was speaking with him this morning and he said that the Dutch man mentioned in the programme is still unidentified but they do try and get a DNA sample for future identification.....however the UK policy is not to dig up bodies to try and identify them using DNA provided by relatives..I'm sorry to say that I feel unless some new evidence comes to light you will be left in the dark so to speak.....

Thanks,

Thats pretty much what I expected. I can understand them not wanting to dig up bodies as a general rule, but it does leave the families still wondering!

I wasn't even born when my cousin was killed, but having learned his story and then passed that on to others of my generation and to those that knew Jim we still wonder almost 68 years later. Questions still crop up... the what if's can't be buried.

What if.. for instance they find a body that they know is British, what do they do then?

Thanks again airborne medic,
Parnel.

 

Usually Geert and his team can tell the nationality from the uniform, helmet,boots etc..so then they would use anything that is found to try and identify the unit..cap badges. names on rings or personal effects....after 70 years really lucky to find an identity disc.....then it is known which units were roughly fighting in the area so checks are made with war diaries, missing lists, the CWGC, Regimental histories and Museums and the UK MOD...dental records are also used....I do know that the team do their best to try and work out who it is..but the MOD have to be convinced etc....

 

Usually Geert and his team can tell the nationality from the uniform, helmet,boots etc..so then they would use anything that is found to try and identify the unit..cap badges. names on rings or personal effects....after 70 years really lucky to find an identity disc.....then it is known which units were roughly fighting in the area so checks are made with war diaries, missing lists, the CWGC, Regimental histories and Museums and the UK MOD...dental records are also used....I do know that the team do their best to try and work out who it is..but the MOD have to be convinced etc....

When a couple of us were able to visit their laboratory on our recent trip over to Holland it was explained how they had been able to obtain a positive identification on one of their bodies by using a DNA sample taken from saliva on an envelope from when the person's Father had licked it when he had written to the Netherlands Red Cross in 1945, asking for information about his missing son. It's real detective work that they undertake with no possible line of enquiry left unexplored. The UK has no equivalent unit.

John

 

Another great programme.

 

When a couple of us were able to visit their laboratory on our recent trip over to Holland it was explained how they had been able to obtain a positive identification on one of their bodies by using a DNA sample taken from saliva on an envelope from when the person's Father had licked it when he had written to the Netherlands Red Cross in 1945, asking for information about his missing son. It's real detective work that they undertake with no possible line of enquiry left unexplored. The UK has no equivalent unit.

John

Shame on us.

 

Shame on us.

But understandable if I may add as we 'find' very few fallen soldiers compared to mainland Europe......the MoD do work very closely with for example the Dutch Army unit previously mentioned and have a 'casualty bureau' in Gloucestershire I think and there was a programme on them a few years ago IIRC......

 

Usually Geert and his team can tell the nationality from the uniform, helmet,boots etc..so then they would use anything that is found to try and identify the unit..cap badges. names on rings or personal effects....after 70 years really lucky to find an identity disc.....then it is known which units were roughly fighting in the area so checks are made with war diaries, missing lists, the CWGC, Regimental histories and Museums and the UK MOD...dental records are also used....I do know that the team do their best to try and work out who it is..but the MOD have to be convinced etc....

Just managed to get the time to watch the Arnhem footage.. Phew, very touching and very close to home!

Everything the ladies said about the uncertainty of what happened to their family member, and where that relative is now not going away until you get the answers is very real to me.

Full of admiration for Geert & his team....... Good to know they are trying so hard to give the men back their identities....... Only problem I had (and I realise it was a knee jerk reaction) is the comment that the Dutch government will continue the programme as long as there are still people alive that knew the men. This is something that is passed on down the generations........ but I guess it cannot continue for ever. They have kept it going for 67 years which is pretty amazing.

Great series.

 

Just thinking about Geert and his suggestion that the remains were possibly a Dutchman, executed by the resistance, possibly a collaborator, if that proved to be the case, would they get in touch with the family, who may have no knowledge of these facts, for them very disturbing facts, and then tell the family of their findings, or would they take another option that may possible be available to them as a compassionate get out, quite a dilemma. However I have every confidence they will deal with it correctly once positively identified.
Again a great program leaving you lots to think about, but this point keeps coming to mind.

regards lofty