TITLE: Isotope analysis on human remains from two WW2 casualties

AUTHORS:
Laura Font 1, Geert Jonker 2, Patric A. van Aalderen 2, Els F. Schiltmans 2  and Gareth R. Davies 1

PRESENTING AUTHOR: Gareth R. Davies  

ADDRESS
1Faculty of Earth and Life Science (FALW), Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, 1085 De Boelelaan, 1081 HV Amsterdam The Netherlands. g.r.davies@vu.nl, telf:0031-205987329.
2Recovery & Identification Unit, Royal Netherlands Army, Department of Defense, Camp Soesterberg, Zeisterspoor 10, 3769 ZJ, Soesterberg, The Netherlands.

PREFERED PRESENTATION: ORAL   

KEY WORDS: Stable and radiogenic isotopes, human provenancing, cold case, IRMS, TIMS

ABSTRACT:
In 2010 and 2012 two sets of unidentified human remains of two soldiers were recovered in the area where the 1944-1945 Kapelsche Veer bridgehead battle took place in The Netherlands during WWII. Soldiers of four Allied nations: British Royal Marine Commandos, Free Norwegian Commandos, Free Poles and Canadians, fought against the Germans in this battle. The dentition of the casualties was compared with the dental records. The Allied nations either did not have any Missing in Action (MIA) soldiers or, if they did, the MIA’s dental treatment cards did not match with the casualties. A DNA profile was determined for the casualty found in 2010, but no match was found. Due to the lack of information on the identification of the casualties provided by routine methods, an isotope study was conducted in teeth from the soldiers to constrain their geographical place of origin/childhood.
The isotope study concluded that the tooth enamel isotope composition for both casualties matched with an origin from the United Kingdom. For one of the casualties a probable origin from the United Kingdom was confirmed, after the isotope study was conducted, by the recognition of a characteristic belt buckle derived from a Royal Marine money belt, only issued to British Royal Marines, found with the remains of the soldier.

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