History
Remains of soldier, airman killed during WWII identified
Stars and Stripes
May 26, 2024
U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Mose E. Vance, 21, of Bradshaw, W.Va., killed during World War II, was accounted for Jan. 5, 2024. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency last week announced that the remains of two service members from World War II had been identified.
• U.S. Army Pvt. 1st Class Mose E. Vance, 21, of Bradshaw, W.Va., killed during World War II, was accounted for Jan. 5, 2024.
• U.S. Army Air Forces Staff Sgt. George E. Davies, 27, of Portland, Ore,, killed during World War II, was accounted for Sept. 9, 2022.
As of May 2023, more than 80,000 Americans remain missing from WWII, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War and the Gulf Wars/other conflicts. Out of the total, approximately 75% of the losses are located in the Indo-Pacific region, and over 41,000 of the missing are presumed lost at sea (such as ship losses and known aircraft water losses).
Vance
In January 1945, Vance was assigned to Company F, 2nd Battalion, 180th Infantry Regiment, 45th Infantry Division in the European Theater during World War II.
Shortly before midnight on New Year’s Eve 1944, German forces launched a major offensive in the Vosges Mountains in Alsace-Lorraine, France, known as Operation Northwind. The German attack surged through Allied defenses along the France-Germany, and the battle enveloped two U.S. Corps along a 40-mile-wide front.
In the following few weeks, Company F found itself assigned to a 7-mile sector at Reipertswiller and Wildenguth, France. Pfc. Vance was killed on Jan. 11 but because of the intensity of the fighting his body was unable to be recovered. With no record of German forces capturing Vance and no remains recovered, the War Department issued a “Report of Death” in December 1945.
Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC) began looking for missing American personnel in the Reipertswiller area. Among the remains recovered, one was designated X-6904 St. Avold (X-6904) and interred in 1949 at the U.S. Military Cemetery at Saint Avold, France, known today as Lorraine American Cemetery.
Department of Defense and American Battle Monuments Commission workers exhumed X-6904 in August 2022 and transferred the remains to the DPAA Laboratory for analysis. Scientists from DPAA used anthropological and other circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) analysis.
Vance’s name is recorded on the Walls of the Missing at Epinal American Cemetery in Dinozé, France, along with others still missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Vance will be buried in Paynesville, W.Va., on a date to be determined.
In the summer of 1943, Staff Sgt. George E. Davies was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency)
Davies
In the summer of 1943, Davies was assigned to the 345th Bombardment Squadron (Heavy), 98th Bombardment Group (Heavy), 9th Air Force. On Aug. 1, 1943, the B-24 Liberator bomber on which Davies was the assistant engineer was hit by enemy anti-aircraft fire and crashed during Operation Tidal Wave, the largest bombing mission against the oil fields and refineries at Ploiesti, north of Bucharest, Romania. His remains were not identified following the war. The remains that could not be identified were buried as Unknowns in the Civilian and Military Cemetery of Bolovan, Ploiesti, Prahova, Romania.
The AGRC disinterred all American remains from the cemetery for identification. The AGRC was unable to identify more than 80 unknowns from Bolovan Cemetery, and those remains were permanently interred at Ardennes American Cemetery and Henri-Chapelle American Cemetery in Belgium.
In 2017, DPAA began exhuming unknowns believed to be associated with unaccounted-for airmen from Operation Tidal Wave.
Scientists from DPAA used dental and anthropological analysis, as well as chest radiograph comparison and circumstantial evidence. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used Y chromosome DNA (Y-STR) analysis.
Davies’ name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Florence American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Impruneta, Italy. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.
Davies will be buried in Portland, Ore., on June 21, 2024.