Polish historians found the partial remains of some crew members — including a Toronto-born navigator — inside a recently recovered Halifax bomber that was shot down near Warsaw in 1944.

It is still unclear whether the human remains were some or all of the seven-man crew of Canadians and Britons on the Royal Air Force plane when it went down on Aug. 5, 1944. The men, including Torontonian George Alfred Chapman, had already been reported interred in Poland.

In 1996, the Toronto Star's Alan Barnes reported that the five Canadians in the crew were among 26 airmen from this country who were buried in Polish graves and had been honoured posthumously in 1965.

Poland's government had awarded them the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa, or AK) Cross, but only the relatives of three of them were tracked down. The Canadian War Museum was given the other medals and made contact with relatives of all but five Canadians before asking for the media's help.

Following the Star's story 10 years ago, Catherine Jolly, then 68, who was 16 when her only sibling George, 24, died, contacted the paper. The Star was unable to reach her yesterday.

Chapman was navigator of his plane. The other Canadians — all attached to the RAF's 148 Squadron — were pilot Arnold R. Blynn, Harold L. Brown, Charles B. Wylie and Arthur G.E. Liddell. The two British airmen were Frederick Wenham and Kenneth Ashmore.

Jolly said in 1996 that her brother and his crew had finished their tour of duty and were not scheduled to fly that last night of their lives. Chapman was to return to England for some relaxation and then head home to Toronto.

But another Halifax that was set to go on the mission was "so badly shot up" it couldn't fly, Jolly said. Chapman's crew volunteered to go in their place, the family learned from another member of the squadron after the war ended.