Ouch!

Could have been a whole lot worse, though, couldn’t it?

Adrian

I believe – I’ll cite what I recall in a mo – that hot, dry conditions are very bad for DNA preservation, so it is unfortunately a possibility that any recovered remains may not contain recoverable or analysable DNA. That said, the byzantine shenanigans going on around what may or may not have been recovered is pretty disappointing. Can we not find an American connection for Dennis Copping, and get their MIA teams involved?:(

I canot now find a source, but I recall reading that hot, dry conditions are bad for DNA preservation as a result of an interest in a unit in Oxford set up to study ancient DNA (somewhere I would have loved to have worked). Their director then decamped to Sydney to set up a similar facility there, and the Oxford unit closed. This turned out to be a bad career move, as Australian conditions, as opposed to those of cold damp Europe, do not preserve DNA well.

I’m happy to be proved wrong (indeed, I hope that sooner, rather than later, I am, for the sake of Dennis Copping’s family and those who knew him), but unfortunately DNA analysis is dependent on a great many things, especially having DNA in a condition that allows analysis, and isn’t a magic bullet.

Adrian

A few more…

Obviously Shepherd Neame’s finest would fit well here 🙂
http://tinyurl.com/cb39t6h

Arkells Moonlight has a Lysander on the bottle, brewed in honour of Peter Arkell:
http://tinyurl.com/d7e8mov

Dent Brewery Kamikaze:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ralph-dot/5969564432/

Just wish I could remember what the one making donations to the RAF Benevolent Fund with the silhouette of a Blenheim on the label was…

Adrian

Thank you for posting this, Melvyn. Today – the 22nd – is the 95th anniversary of the 11th Battalion Essex Regiment being ordered to counter-attack into the teeth of the German offensive. They never reached their jumping-off point for enemy fire, and some 10% of the battalion made its way back and out of the line four days later*.

My grandfather was one of the others – wounded and captured, not to return to the UK until December 31st.

We will remember them.

Adrian

* details from memory, so may be slightly wrong, but the idea is right.

As I was passing St John’s today (not difficult – the whole of one length of St Giles is taken up by St Johns!), I grabbed a quick photo. I’m pretty sure that this is the spot – just to the north of the main gate of the college, at the Martyr’s Memorial end – where the Junkers was displayed. Because the space on the raised platform in the foreground is quite limited, I was thinking that it must have been just the fuselage on display but looking at Andy’s photo in fact there is a propeller blade visible behind the great and the good of Oxford, and I reckon the photographer is stood on the other wing. I wonder if the whole thing was reassembled and squeezed in?

What say you?

Adrian

Great news! I think it must have been 1988 when I visited the museum last – about time for a re-visit methinks!

Adrian

Melvin, look due south of Blewbury village – Woodway Farm is marked on the fourth grid line from the bottom of the page, near Oven Bottom*. Lower Chance is also marked – I did know where it was after all 😮

Thanks for posting those – very interesting.

Adrian

* You think Oven Bottom is funny? Churn Knob is not far away either!

Andy, not that I’m aware of – judging by the photo in this link (you’ll need to scroll the photobar – it’s about the fourth), the whole thing was displayed on a Queen Mary, and Oxfam didn’t exist then – the building seems to have been a hotel.

http://tinyurl.com/blux74z

Clint – well spotted, but oh for some distinguishing features! My suspicion – note, just based on that tent, treat with much caution! – is that the Ju88 came down on Woodway Farm land rather than the farm itself (if you see what I mean), as Roden Downs are AFAIK to the south and downhill from there – however I may be getting confused with Roden Farm, which is in a fold of the Downs south of the Ridgeway, very much in Compton parish, and Roden House, which is slap bang in the middle of Compton itself.

If you head west of your marker, look for the OS note of a dismantled railway by Blewbury Downs. Eastish of the words is a tiny square building – that’s the range hut at the foot of the old range.

Any help, or am I muddying the waters?

Adrian