During the Second World War, more than 116,000 men and women from the Air Forces of the British Commonwealth gave their lives in service. More than 17,000 of these were members of the Royal Canadian Air Force, or Canadians serving with the Royal Air Force. Approximately one-third of all who died have no known grave.
Flight Sergeant John Joseph Carey was the front air gunner for the Royal Air Force bomber Halifax BB214, which was on operations against Germany. The flight took off from RAF Station Elsham Wolds in the late evening of August 28, 1942, but no further communications were recorded. The bomber was shot down by enemy fighter aircraft and crashed in Laacher See, a lake south of Bonn, Germany.
Halifax BB214 had a crew of seven airmen: Pilot Officer V.M. Morrison and Flight Sergeant J.J. Carey from the Royal Canadian Air Force; Sergeant H.G. Dryhurst, Sergeant J.W. Platt and Sergeant J.L. MacLachlan from the Royal Air Force; Sergeant A.A. Roberts from the Royal Australian Air Force; and Sergeant B.E. Hughes from the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Of the crew of seven, three airmen, Sergeant Dryhurst, Sergeant Roberts, and Sergeant Hughes, survived the crash, but were taken prisoner of war. Of the four airmen who died in the crash, only the remains of Sergeant MacLachlan and Pilot Officer Morrison could be recovered for burial in 1947. The remains of Sergeant Platt (from the Royal Air Force) and Flight Sergeant Carey were not able to be recovered.
While multiple efforts were made to recover the remains of the two missing airmen (most notably in 1948, 1980, and 1994), the danger of unexploded ordnance at the crash site was, and still is, considerable.
Human remains were recovered by a team of German explosives disposal divers who were conducting an assessment of the stability of the aircraft’s cargo in 2008. Several years later, a scientist from the University of Bonn genetically tested the remains to a genetic descendent for Sergeant Platt. It was a failed match.
In December 2013, a genetic donor for Flight Sergeant Carey was located. The Department of National Defence (DND) conducted genetic testing in coordination with the University of Bonn and the results, received in February 2014, indicated that the remains were those of Flight Sergeant Carey.
Flight Sergeant Carey will be interred on July 9, 2014, at Rheinberg War Cemetery. There are 3226 Commonwealth servicemen of the Second World War commemorated at Rheinberg War Cemetery, including 517 Canadians. Attending will be Flight Sergeant Carey’s nieces Sheila Carey (Ottawa, Ont.), Maureen Pegg (and husband Sidney Pegg) (Perth, Ont.), and nephew David Carey (Calgary, Alta.), as well as representatives from the Government of Canada and the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF).
The Government of Canada, the DND and the CAF are dedicated to honouring those who have made the ultimate sacrifice by ensuring that, whenever possible, they will be identified and buried in a known grave.
Just over 25 000 members of Canada’s Army, Air Force, and Navy who died in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War have no known or maintainable grave. Every year, some of the formerly missing are discovered, and the DND and the CAF are responsible for using historical and scientific methods to determine their identity. The Directorate of History and Heritage identifies unknown soldiers, sailors and airforce personnel whenever remains of Canadian soldiers are found. For those whose remains can be recovered and identified, the DND and the CAF make every effort to provide the fallen members with the dignity and respect they deserve.
Identification is the result of a collection of historical research and biological tests which eventually determine the most likely serviceman.
The first step in identification is to search records, such as military personnel records, burial registrar records, war diaries and maps, and regimental histories to create an historical profile of the unknown person. Purely historical identifications are rare, however, and the DND and the CAF usually seek biological evidence to support other documents.
Biological anthropologists study the remains to determine the number of persons, their ages and heights, their dental health, their overall health and if possible, clues as to how they may have died. The resulting profile can further reduce the final list of candidates, and genetic testing of the remaining candidates can lead to an identification or reduce the candidate pool further.
Genetic testing of war remains requires that DNA be extracted from bone or teeth and then compared with genetic material donated by the descendents of the candidates.
Unfortunately, the use of DNA, while a method which can make identification more likely, can be limited by the availability of donors and the difficulty of extracting viable DNA from older remains. More recently, DND, through a contracted laboratory, has used stable isotope technology to help differentiate the origins of candidates where DNA is not a viable method of identification. By using the regional properties of certain elements to track the mobility of an individual, stable isotope technology can detect the locations in which an individual has been raised (to the age of approximately 21) and the locations in which an individual lived in the final ten to fifteen years of their lives. Such testing allows DND to exclude candidates based on where they were raised or where they lived prior to enlistment.
No doubt new technologies and increased access to historical documents will further enhance the precision and ability to identify Canada’s unknown soldiers, sailors and airmen and airwomen.
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