Peter Clement Vellacott Joslin

IDAARDERADEEL (WARTENA) GENERAL CEMETERY Plot B. Row 12. Grave 21.

Pilot
Lancaster R5682 took off 0025 5 Sept 1942 from Syerston. Hit by Flak while nearing the Dutch coast and then finished off by a night-fighter from 1V.

Flight Sergeant P C V Joslin (P), Flight Sergeant E J May (AB), killed; Flight Sergeant J F Cooper (RCAF) (AG): missing believed killed; Sergeant Eric Underwood Booth (FE), Flight Sergeant Bertram Arthur Farmer Farmer (W/Op), Flying Officer Neal Douglas Mullins (RCAF) (AG): prisoners of war; Sergeant Phillip James Bridgeman (RCAF) (N): escaped capture; near Le arden, Holland.

Thanks to David Sneath for sharing his conversations relevant to the loss of this aircraft and its crew. Following a visit to Holland, he noted that R5682 was hit by flak on the return leg and lost two of its four engines but the pilot managed to retain control before it was attacked by a night fighter. At that point the pilot ordered the crew to bail out. Four succeeded and became PoWs; the fifth Flt/Sgt Edward Joseph May died when his parachute failed to open. His body was recovered and a CWCG search shows that he was buried in a civilian graveyard.
TIETJERKSTERADEEL (EERNEWOUDE) PROTESTANT CHURCHYARD
Plot 15. Grave 2. Netherlands

The missing member of the crew, Sneath continued, was the tail gunner Flt/Sgt James Francis Cooper who was Canadian. It is said that his body was never found - there was speculation that he may have succeeded in bailing but was lost in the Frisian Wadden Sea or that he went down with the plane. In 2014 work began on securing a former waste disposal site at Ald Dwinger that led to the discovery of the remains of Lancaster R5682. The crash site was excavated in September and October 2017 and a small amount of human remains were found. They were assumed to come from the pilot.

What strikes me is that, if the remains are those of the pilot, they should be buried with him. That would mean a DNA test which my limited knowledge of these matters suggests would be neither difficult nor expensive, although it would involve an exhumation. If a DNA test was carried out and it was negative for Joslin, that would leave an overwhelming inference that the remains are those of the missing tail gunner. The leaflet suggests the existence of surviving relatives if further DNA test was thought necessary. Those remains could then be buried with full military honours and his name removed from the Runnymede Memorial.’

However, David Sneath was informed that the MOD concluded that fragments of human remains recently discovered with the wrecked aircraft belonged to the pilot Peter Joslin
‘They were recovered within the cockpit area of the plane. As Cooper bailed out and May (rear gunner) would have been some distance away the adjudication concluded these were “additional remains” of PO Peter Joslin – DNA was not required. They were buried (added to his grave) at Idaaederadeel (Warten) General Cemetery. His family were contacted and attended a blessing service held at the graveside on 27 Sept 2022. JCCC were present alongside the RAF (Padre/Trumpeter etc). The Missing Airmen Foundation were of course informed and attended.’

The MOD’s policy is that we would never exhume any casualty. Had it been necessary to conduct DNA JCCC would have done so, however it is not easy or always successful especially following an aircraft crash due to the heat they may have been exposed to and the bones recovered in this case were not those that normally give a good DNA profile. We also have to ensure we have a compatible DNA family donor (and their permission to undertake a comparison which is not always given). As far as costs go it is quite expensive to extract MtDNA from a bone (approx £1750 per bone) and even more to test against a family donor so not insignificant.’

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