RAF pilot shot down in WWII is found sitting upright in his Hurricane after 86 years

Squadron Leader George Morley Fidler will now receive a full military burial on May 19

An RAF pilot shot down over France in the Second World War has been found sitting upright in his Hurricane fighter plane after 86 years.

Engineers building a canal in northern France discovered the remains of Squadron Leader George Morley Fidler, missing since 1940.

Workers at Oisy-le-Verger, around 27 miles south of Lille, unearthed Hurricane P3535 with the 27-year-old pilot still seated upright in the cockpit.

DNA testing was not possible as he had no children, and nor did his siblings Harold and Joan.

Ministry of Defence investigators identified him through elimination, testing samples from three other pilots lost that day.

Nicola Nash, who led the war detectives team, said: "We are 100 per cent certain it is Morley. It has brought him to life for us."

Sqn Ldr Fidler will receive a full military burial on May 19 at London Cemetery near Longueval, exactly 86 years after his crash.

The pilot began his career at his father's building firm but always dreamed of taking to the skies.

He enlisted in the RAF in 1934 at age 21, and after two weeks of basic training at Uxbridge, he served in Egypt for three years.

Superiors rated him "a sound and reliable pilot, excellent on ground subjects".

By 1938, assessors deemed him "exceptional" and promoted him to acting flight lieutenant.

When war broke out in September 1939, he deployed to France with the British Expeditionary Force.

He joined 607 Squadron and assumed command after Squadron Leader Lance Smith was killed over Dinant, Belgium.

Sqn Ldr Fidler had been flying Hurricanes for a matter of days when German forces overwhelmed France, Belgium and the Netherlands.

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And he was shot down by a Messerschmitt on May 19, 1940, while protecting British troops retreating to Dunkirk.

His family was already grieving his sister, who had died a month earlier from a disease contracted while working as a military hospital radiographer.

When the telegram arrived, home help Ivy Hynes could not bring herself to open it and asked a local nurse to read it instead.

Great Ayton has never forgotten its pilot, with four memorials honouring him.

Ian Pearce, 83, a local researcher, said: "I started researching this about 20 years ago. It brought to life some of the events of the time and the tragedy of this young man who was shot down. People dreaded the knock on the door."

In 2006, Franco-Belgian amateur historians using metal detectors excavated what was believed to be his crash site.

Their investigation revealed the wreckage actually belonged to Flying Officer James Strickland of 67 Squadron, not Sqn Ldr's Fidler.

Fg Off Strickland had managed to bail out and return home safely.

He resumed flying duties months later but died in August 1941 when his Spitfire crashed at Portreath, Cornwall.

The grave at Bachy had carried a tribute from Sqn Ldr Fidler's mother Gertrude: "So he passed over, and all the trumpets sounded for him on the other side."

Following the discovery, the headstone was changed to read "unknown airman" - and while nobody knows the identity of the man in the grave, it may be one of two flight sergeants shot down that day.