NorwichDad
10-Year Member
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2010
- Messages
- 1,351
I had an interesting experience this week. I belong to a closed group on Facebook revolving around the town where I live. Apparantly the wreck of a B-17 had been found recently in Germany. Human remains were found. The military has teams that try to identify the remains by identifying the aircraft. They go through records saved from long ago in the debriefings after the raid from those who returned. They match those statements to the location where the aircraft was found. They eliminate survivors to narrow down identification. They seek out relatives to match DNA samples from the remains. It is a very detailed and complex search.
Apparently the plane was one that went down on August 17, 1943 in one of the raids on the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt, Germany. There was one member of the plane who was killed before the crew bailed out.
The remains of this Airman apparently was from my hometown. After 72 years the military could not find relatives with the same name in our area. The military reached out to the moderator of this local facebook group. She posted the story on the site. She asked if anyone knew of the family and where his relatives could be. She asked to ask old relatives who lived in the town in the 1940s if they knew the family. Many quickly posted information. Within two hours two of this man's nieces identified themselves. I hope they write a story on it in the next few weeks. I will post it up here if they do.
NO MAN LEFT BEHIND
Apparently the plane was one that went down on August 17, 1943 in one of the raids on the ball bearing plants at Schweinfurt, Germany. There was one member of the plane who was killed before the crew bailed out.
The remains of this Airman apparently was from my hometown. After 72 years the military could not find relatives with the same name in our area. The military reached out to the moderator of this local facebook group. She posted the story on the site. She asked if anyone knew of the family and where his relatives could be. She asked to ask old relatives who lived in the town in the 1940s if they knew the family. Many quickly posted information. Within two hours two of this man's nieces identified themselves. I hope they write a story on it in the next few weeks. I will post it up here if they do.
NO MAN LEFT BEHIND
Last edited: