Body of WWII soldier from Covington identified, will be returned home

FOX 5 Atlanta ^ | September 4, 2024 | Digital Team

[SunkenCiv]

The body of U.S. Army Air Force Sergeant Henry Allen Jr., a World War II soldier from Covington, Georgia, has been identified decades after his death.

Allen was killed during the war when his plane was shot down over Germany.

In June, his family was notified of the identification, which was made possible through anthropological and dental analysis.

Sergeant Allen will be laid to rest in Covington at a future date.

[SunkenCiv]

U.S. Army Air Force Sergeant Henry Allen Jr.

• Findagrave entry: SGT Henry Hanes Allen Jr. | b 30 Aug 1924 Jackson, Butts County, Georgia, USA | d 8 Apr 1944 (aged 19) Altmarkkreis Salzwedel, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany | Southview Cemetery, Covington, Newton County, Georgia, USA

  [snip] According to the Department of Defense, Sgt. Allen and the other nine crew members of "Little Joe," a B-24 Liberator, were killed on April 8, 1944, when their flight was shot down on a mission over Germany. Allied Forces searched for the crash site for many years, but it was only recently found near Salzwedel. Crew killed: 1LT Joe A DeJarnette, Pilot; 2LT Robert D McKee, Co-Pilot; 2LT Francis E Callahan, Navigator; 2LT John H Harris, Bombardier; SSGT Ralph L Mourer, Radio Operator; SSGT Hubert Yeary, Ball Turret Gunner; SSGT Sidney A Johnson, Right Waist Gunner; TSGT Sanford G Roy, Left Waist Gunner; SGT Henry H Allen Jr, Top Turret Gunner; SGT Frank J Vincze, Tail Gunner [/snip]

[Larry Lucido]

RIP

[SunkenCiv]

There's also a findagrave entry for his earlier cenotaph in the Netherlands.

[VeniVidiVici]

More info on the mission and crash site:

In spring 1944, De Jarnette (crew member of SGT Allen’s) was assigned to the 732nd Bombardment Squadron, 453rd Bombardment Group, 2nd Combat Bomb Wing, 2nd Air Division, 8th Air Force, in the European Theater. On April 8, De Jarnette, the pilot onboard a B-24H “Liberator,” Little Joe, was killed in action when his plane was shot down by enemy fighter aircraft fire while on a bombing mission to Brunswick, Germany. Airmen aboard other aircraft flying in formation with Little Joe did not report seeing any crewmembers exiting the aircraft before it crashed in the vicinity of Salzwedel. The crash site could not be located by Allied forces during the war, and the remains of all ten crewmembers, including De Jarnette, were unaccounted for following the war.

Beginning in 1946, the American Graves Registration Command (AGRC), the organization that searched for and recovered fallen American personnel in the European Theater, began investigating the numerous bomber losses in the Salzwedel and Wistedt areas of Germany. German forces had maintained accurate documentation (Kampfflugzeug Unterlagen, or KU) of American aircraft shoot-downs, with several reports indicating B-24s crashing in the area. However, AGRC was unable to associate any KU reports with Little Joe and investigators were unable to locate any crash or burial sites associated with the loss.

In 2015, an independent research group, Missing Allied Air Crew Research Team (MAACRT), contacted DPAA historians with new information related to a possible crash site near Wistedt, Germany. Interviews with elderly local residents indicated there were two crash sites, but only one was recovered by American forces following the war. Investigators located the second crash site and were able to recover various pieces of wreckage. Possible osseous remains were also located and transferred to the DPAA laboratory for analysis and identification. At the time, no matches could be made with any Unknowns and further investigations were scheduled.

Between 2021 and 2023, DPAA investigators returned to the crash site and continued investigation, and then excavations and recoveries. By the end of November 2023, all evidence, including possible osseous remains and possible life support equipment, had been recovered and returned to the DPAA laboratory.

To identify De Jarnette’s remains, scientists from DPAA used anthropological and dental analysis. Additionally, scientists from the Armed Forces Medical Examiner System used mitochondrial DNA analysis.

[Bon of Babble]

died 8 Apr 1944 (aged 19)

Truly heartbreaking for such a young man.

Glad the family were able to recover his remains and put him to rest.

My grandmother was able to have my oldest uncle's remains dug up in Portugal (aged 23, shot down piloting a B-26) and reburied in Indiana. We visit his grave to this day. My grandmother never recovered.

[SunkenCiv]

I don’t think it’s possible to get over that one. A nearby (this is rural, so, about ten miles from here) family that’s not quite related to me lost their only son to Vietnam, and to the end of her life she talked about him.

Martin B-26G Marauder https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196275/martin-b-26g-marauder/

“had the lowest loss rate of any Allied bomber — less than one-half of one percent... In 1945, when B-26 production was halted, 5,266 had been built.”

[TokarevM57]

...interesting....but the aircraft got a bad reputation because of its loss rate at the hands of usually inexperienced pilots.....

.....”The Martin B-26 Marauder is an American twin-engined medium bomber that saw extensive service during World War II. The B-26 was built at two locations....... the aircraft quickly received the reputation of a “widowmaker” due to the early models’ high accident rate during takeoffs and landings.”

[SunkenCiv]

That was a common problem. For WWII, the US built circa 295K aircraft of all kinds, all but about 10K from 1941 to 1945. That’s a lot of pilots that had to be trained.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196919/flight-training-on-the-eve-of-wwii/

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/196138/aaf-training-during-wwii/

[wardaddy]

So young
Id hate him to see what he sacrificed his life for today
Many in this nation today are a bigger threat to America than Nazis we’re

[Vision]

Welcome home American hero.

[Bon of Babble]

Thanks for the info - my uncle wasn't talked about much when I was growing up, mid-western values taught to cover up such things and not show emotion.

My father was able to see a Marauder in a museum and completely broke down when he saw it - he was the kid brother and remembered my grandmother screaming and screaming and screaming in her upstairs bedroom, she fainted when the military personnel arrived to give her the news that her MIA son had been killed.

My cousin has done extensive research on the Marauder and its crews - my uncle replaced the pilot that day who'd gotten sick - that pilot survived the war.

Here is his photo with his crew:

I'm trying to get his Purple Heart that my aunt has (not related by blood) - that branch of the family is a dead-end. I'd like to give it to my son or nephew as we try to keep my uncle's memory alive.

We've decided as a family that none of our young will join the military.

[SunkenCiv]

My ancestors' military history ends in the mid-19th century (US Civil War, and my last immigrant male ancestor served in the army of his birth nation). In one or both sides of the family I have ancestors in the War of 1812, The Revolution, and King Philip's War. Prior the Great Migration, both my British Isles and German lines may have (likely did) serve in various tete-a-tete's like the Wars of the Roses, Hundred Years' War, 30 Years War, and the like.

My dad tried to enlist in WWII, but was flunked by his health history (and chest X-ray at the induction center). My wild and reasonable but quite unverifiable guess is, that rejection is one of those forks in the road that made my birth possible.

When Nixon ended draft registration I was too young, and when the peanut shell of a POTUS Dhimmi Carter resumed it, the earliest year was after I was born, so I got grandfathered right out of the process.