Remains of airman from World War II bombing mission identified

RACINE, Wis. — Army scientists have recognized the stays of a Wisconsin airman who died throughout World Battle II when his aircraft was shot down over Germany throughout a bombing mission.

The stays of U.S. Military Air Power Employees Sgt. Ralph H. Bode, 20, of Racine, had been recognized utilizing anthropological evaluation and mitochondrial DNA, the Protection POW/MIA Accounting Company stated Thursday.

Bode was a tail gunner aboard a B-24H Liberator with a crew of 9 when it was shot down over Kassel, Germany, on Sept. 27, 1944, whereas returning to England after finishing a bombing run.

A number of crew members who bailed out of the crippled aircraft stated they didn’t see Bode escape earlier than it crashed, the DPAA stated in a information launch.

German forces captured three crew members after the crash and held them as prisoners of conflict, however Bode wasn’t amongst them and the Battle Division declared him lifeless in September 1945.

Stays from a crash web site close to Richelsdorf, Germany, had been recovered after locals notified navy officers in 1951 that a number of bombers had crashed throughout the conflict in a wooded space. However these stays couldn’t be recognized on the time.

In April 2018, two units of stays had been exhumed from cemeteries in Luxembourg and Tunisia, and one in all them was recognized in late 2023 as these of Bode, the DPAA stated.

Bode’s stays will probably be buried in Racine on Sept. 27, the company stated.